Compound Verbs and Verbal Phrases in Some Middle Persian Texts

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MA in Ancient Iranian Languages, Velayat University, Iranshahr

2 Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Velayat University, Iranshahr, Sistan and Baluchistan, Iran

Abstract

Middle Persian is one of the Middle Iranian Languages. Historically Old Persian has changed to Middle Persian and Middle Persian has become New Persian. After the transformation of Middle Persian and the spread of New Persian, some linguistic structures, including the structure of compound verbs and verbal phrases also changed. In this research, compound verbs and verbal phrase in Middle Persian will be studied. Samples of compound verbs and verbal phrases were collected from three Middle Persian texts including Andarz ī Mehrspandan, Kārnāmag ī Ardashīr ī Bābakān and Pahlavi Ravāyat. These compound verbs and verbal phrases were classified according to their structures and components. The result showed that in the three mentioned texts, the structure of a compound verb include noun + light verbs; Adjective + light verbs; preposition or adverb + light verbs and the preposition group + light verbs. The verbal phrases are constructed as follows: preposition + noun + verb; preposition + abstract nouns + verb; prepositions + adverb + verb. Recognizing and categorizing the structures of compound verbs and verbal phrases will be useful for preparing any Middle Persian dictionary. It will also help us to better understand these structures in New Persian.

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Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Iranian Dialects & Linguistics
Volume 8, Issue 1
September 2023
Pages 63-77

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 October 2022
  • Revise Date: 28 November 2022
  • Accept Date: 29 November 2022

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