مراحل اولیه شکل گیری نشانه نمود کامل در مقطعی از فارسی نو: رهیافتی از اطلس زبانی کنونی به اطلس تاریخی

The article tries to make a link between grammatical function of the prefix be- with past verbs in the current atlas of New West Iranian and the historical atlas of New Persian, and to interpret this marker’s historical statistics with respect to its behavior in today’s Iranian varieties. In the historical sampling of this research, ۲۲% of past verbs of simple morphological structure (non-prefixed and non-complex) in ۴th to ۷th centuries had the prefix be-, but in the following centuries, its frequency decreased gradually, and eventually it disappeared. On the other hand, in the contemporary century, a very high level of grammaticalization of be- in the same position is observed in a wide variety of Iranian languages and dialects. The author looks at these two phenomena (the historical behavior of be- and its today’s behavior) in the same line, and believes that there has been a single path of grammaticalization of be- in progress in New West Iranian languages, but the written/standard variety of New Persian stopped this process for some external or internal reasons (contact with varieties without be-, and development of mi- as imperfective marker, respectively), while the process continued in some Iranian varieties to the current level.   ۱. Introduction This paper attempts to make a link between the grammatical function of the prefix be- with past tense verbs in the current atlas of New West Iranian and the historical atlas of New Persian, and to interpret the marker’s statistical behavior in old texts with respect to its behavior in today’s Iranian varieties. The issue of the grammatical function of be- in this position has always been controversial, and grammarians and linguists have proposed functions such as decorative, redundant, emphatic, and perfective aspect for it. With a statistical approach, this research is concerned with this controversial issue, considering the status of perfective aspect marker in the current linguistic atlas (of West Iranian varieties), suggesting the hypothesis that the grammaticalization of be- as the perfective aspect marker had begun in some regions in the historical linguistic atlas.   ۲. Theoretical Framework A common phenomenon in grammars is the grammaticalization of the speaker’s viewpoint towards the event: seeing it as a whole completed event, or looking from inside as an uncompleted one. This opposition, called perfective and imperfective aspect, respectively, is the main distinction in the grammatical aspect domain. In simpler words, the grammatical category of aspect is the result of grammaticalization of the speaker’s viewpoint. In this domain, there may be a grammaticalized morpheme for each opposition (perfective and imperfective); or just marking one the oppositions overtly, with no marker for the other one.   ۳. Methodology The historical corpus of this research includes ۷۷ thousand verbs, extracted from ۵۵ texts from ۱۰th to ۲۰th centuries. To this aim, five texts from each century were selected, and then, two pieces of each text were taken randomly as the sampled data, each one including ۷۰۰ verbs (۱۴۰۰ verbs from each text, altogether).   ۴. Results & Discussion According to the statistics, be- in the grammatical function under discussion generally appears with positive verbs of simple structure (non-prefixed and non-complex), and its highest rate of usage is in ۱۰th and ۱۱th centuries. In these two centuries, on average, out of every four simple verbs in perfective aspect, one verb (and a bit more) takes be- (۲۶.۷%). In ۱۲th and ۱۳th centuries, the frequency of be- shows decrease (۱۹%), and then, in the ۱۴th, the statistics is reduced to less than half (۸.۱%), gradually disappearing in the following centuries. Furthermore, in ۱۰th to ۱۳th centuries, there are ۱۷ texts from various geographical regions, having a rate higher than ۱۰%, which shows that be- was being used in all centers of text production in the cultural territory of Persian. Also, the number of verbs with be- in the whole period (۱۴۲ verbs, non-repeatedly) shows its high productivity, hence its inflectional nature, rejecting the derivational function hypothesis. On the other side, according to several researches in dialectology, a very high level of grammaticalization of be- in the same position has been reported in a wide range of Iranian varieties. At least in Mazandarani, Gilaki, Tati, Khorasani, Central Iranian, and Talishi, there are several language varieties with this marker in the same position, and in many of them, be- is nearly fully-productive with simple verbs. Furthermore, complex predicates and some past forms (present perfect, past perfect, and past subjunctive) are used with be- in some Iranian varieties. If we suppose that in early centuries the grammaticalization process of be- was in progress in some regions of the geography of Iranian languages, then, it may be hypothesized that since ۱۴th century the production of Persian texts and the standardization of written language was affected by the varieties which lacked this function of be-, and this function was stopped gradually, but the varieties which had the marker (previously having more influence on the production of Persian texts) continued grammaticalizing itto the current level. By contrast, if we suppose that the grammaticalization of be- was only going on in New Persian, and after being stopped, it started again in some regions of the geography of Iranian languages, then, firstly, it would be difficult to account for the relatively short time spent for such a high level of grammaticalization of be- in today’s varieties, and secondly, on this assumption, the connection between perfective function and subjunctive-imperative function would be broken off, and restarting grammaticalization for perfective aspect would require theoretical justification. The author believes that it is more plausible to consider the grammaticalization of be- in the grammars of West Iranian languages as a single phenomenon. In other words, there has been a single path of grammaticalization of be- (for perfective aspect) in progress in New West Iranian languages which was gradually stopped in New Persian since ۱۴th century, and was continued in some Iranian varieties. The consequence of such an integrated approach to the phenomenon will be that we can also consider be- in Classical Persian as a perfective marker.   ۵. Conclusions & Suggestions The statistics of this research show that ۲۲% of simple perfective verbs in ۱۰th to ۱۳th centuries had be-. On the other hand, now, a very high level of grammaticalization of be- in the same position is observed in a wide range of Iranian varieties. The author believes that the most plausible explanation for these two linguistic phenomena (historical behavior of be- and its today’s behavior) is that the grammaticalization of be- for perfective aspect marking began since Early New Persian period (or possibly even Middle period), but Persian stopped this process gradually for some external reasons (contact with varieties without be-) or internal reasons (establishment of mi- as imperfective marker), while the process continued in some Iranian varieties to the current level.    Select Bibliography Brunner, C. J. ۱۹۷۷. A syntax of Western Middle Iranian. Delmar, New York: Caravan Books. Bybee, J. et al. ۱۹۹۴. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press. Dahl, Ö. & Velupillai, V. ۲۰۱۳. Perfective/imperfective aspect, in Dryer, M. S. & Haspelmath, M. (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://wals.info/chapter/۶۵. Dahl, Ö. ۱۹۸۵. Tense and aspect systems. New York: Basil Blackwell. Kalbasi, I. ۲۰۰۹. A descriptive dictionary of linguistic varieties in Iran. Tehran: Institute for Humanities. [In Persian]. MacKinnon, C. ۱۹۷۷. The New Persian preverb bi-. Journal of the American Oriental Society, ۹۷(۱), ۸-۲۶. Mofidi, R. ۲۰۱۷. The development of aspect and mood morphology in New Persian. Grammar (Journal of the Academy of Persian Language & Literature), ۱۲, ۳-۶۸. [In Persian]. Traugott, E. C. & Dasher, R. B. ۲۰۰۱. Regularity in semantic change. Cambridge: University Press Cambridge. Windfuhr, G. (ed). ۲۰۰۹. The Iranian languages. London/New York: Routledge. Windfuhr, G. ۱۹۷۹. Persian grammar: History and state of its study. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.

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