Cross-referencing in Persian Language

• Published in: ʻIlm-i zabān (Online) Vol. 8; no. 13; pp. 7 - 36
• Main Author: Laleh Molaei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Persian
• Published: Allameh Tabataba'i University Press 01-03-2021
• Subjects: agreement; cross-referencing; discourse; head-marking; pro-drop parameter
• ISSN: 2423-7728; 2538-2551
• DOI: 10.22054/ls.2017.21743.1077

Agreement can be known as the phenomenon by which a word takes morphological features that originate somewhere else, i.e., a situation in which a target form has grammatical marking that is controlled by a controller. On the other hand, cross-referencing (when a verb is marked) is often used in the pro-drop languages as a mechanism through which a verb is marked by bound elements in order to express its arguments. This kind of verb on its own suffices to represent its arguments, as it is inflectionally rich. Since Persian, as a pro-drop language, has the above-mentioned features, we can logically apply the term cross-referencing to Persian. But, it seems this term has not technically and comprehensively been investigated in this usage in Persian, and instead, agreement is usually used in this case. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate: Can cross-referencing be used for the typological situation of the Persian verbal agreement system? What are the components of the Persian cross-referencing framework? Can a technical field be proposed for cross-referencing in Persian? To do this, analyzing 43 standard colloquial Persian scenarios, this research characterized the components of the Persian cross-referencing framework, and introduced a technical field for the mentioned term based on typological approach according to Siewierska & Bakker (2005), and Corbett (2006). Besides, to select between agreement and cross-referencing, the study offered a two-way continuum.