The study of the reduplication process in the Southern Taleshi dialect (Shandermani) based on optimality theory

Reduplication is one of the most productive processes and a sub-branch of word formation. This process has been analyzed and explained from different perspectives and theories. One of these theories is the theory of optimality, which seeks to discover the commonalities of various languages ​​and dialects. This study also analyzes and describes the process of reduplication in the Southern Taleshi dialect (Shandermani) within the framework of the theory of optimality. The research method is descriptive-analytical. The results of this research show how specific constraints of faithfulness and markedness, with specific hierarchies, are used in explaining the construction of different types of reduplication processes in southern Taleshi.
 
Research Background
Shaghaghi and Heydarpour Bidgoli (2011) have described repetition in Persian within the framework of optimality theory. In their opinion, repetition should not be considered a simple process of copying or adding words. Rather, it is necessary to be certain which part of the base is copied and why, and what features in the morphological, phonological, and phonetic structure of languages cause these repeated features. Al-Hayaari and Razinejad (2016) analyze the reduplication process in Kurdish based on optimality theory. Tafaroji Yeganeh and Jahanfar (2017) study the reduplication process in Kalhori Kurdish dialect based on optimality theory. Their findings reveal both complete and incomplete reduplication processes in Kalhori Kurdish dialect. Sheikh Tajan (2017) has described the subject of reduplication in the Taleshi dialect and has shown that various types of reduplication are used in Taleshi. Rahmati Nejad et al. (2019) have studied the incomplete reduplication of prefixes in Persian within the framework of correspondence theory. Sayyad, Imaneh, Zafaranlou, and Kambozia (1400) have investigated the reduplication process in the Shushtari dialect based on the theory of optimality. Based on data analysis, the process of complete addition and non-addition reduplication is visible in the Shushtari dialect.
 
Research Method
The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical. Therefore, information and data were recorded and collected in the form of interviews and conversations with natives and elderly people living in the city of Shanderman, and since one of the researchers is a native speaker of the Taleshi language and a resident of the city of Shanderman, the data were appropriately classified and phonetically based on the International Phonetic Alphabet.
 
Results and Discussion
In the vocabulary of the Southern Taleshi dialect, complete and incomplete reduplication types are abundant.. In this dialect, there is also evidence of the process of complete additive, non-additive, and also incomplete prefix and suffix reduplication. This process involves exact repetition of the entire word and is divided into additive and non-additive reduplication types. Non-additive reduplication is constructed by repeating the bases. In this process, each of the structures is repeated completely. Data in the Shandarmani dialect show that in such reduplications, the two repeated components and the base part are repeated in the same way. Two faithfuylness constraints, deletion and insertion, as well as the markedness constraint (NOCODA), can be proposed.The deletion constraint states that no element should be deleted between the input and output (MAX I-O) and also between the base and the recurrent component (MAX B-R) to achieve the optimal option. These two constraints are the same in ranking. The DEP insertion constraint is another faithfulness constraint that states that no element should be inserted in the correspondence of the input to the output DEP I-O and the base to the recurrent component DEP B-R.
In full-additive repetition, in addition to the full reduplication of the base, a morpheme or grammatical element is attached to this combination in a free or dependent position in the middle or final position. In full-additive middle reduplication, the morpheme or adverb is placed between the base and the repeated component. In these constructions, the right-matching constraint (base-syllable) is violated, which indicates the necessity of matching the right-side margin of the base with the right-side margin of the syllable.
In the complete reduplication of the final affix in Southern Talashi, it is placed after the base and the repeated part at the end of the suffixed word. In incomplete reduplication, a part of the base word is repeated in the process of reduplication (Shaghaghi, 2007: 100). The connection of the repeated part to the base can occur in the initial or final positions of the word and can be divided into types of incomplete reduplication of prefix and suffix. In the process of incomplete reduplication of suffix, the repeated part is placed incompletely after the base. Usually, the repeated part is meaningless. The repeated part is placed after the base and the repeated part undergoes a change in the initial consonant, becoming another phoneme, and most often a labial consonant. And sometimes between the base and the repeated component a vowel is placed as a middle, which is used due to the insertion of a middle vowel and the inadmissibility of an initial syllable in this dialect, and in these cases it is inviolable and is placed at the highest level. Incomplete reduplication of the prefix of the repeated component comes incompletely before the base.
 
Conclusion
By studying the structure of the word formation of the southern dialect of the Taleshi language, it is clear that in this dialect the process of reduplication exhibits a rich variety of types, which include non-additive complete reduplication and additive complete reduplication, and additive complete reduplication itself includes middle and final complete reduplication. Incomplete reduplication in the southern Taleshi dialect is also divided into types of prefixed and suffixed incomplete reduplication. By analyzing the types of reduplication process in the southern dialect based on the theory of optimality, it was found that in this dialect each type of reduplication applies its own constraints in the construction of words in order to achieve the optimal output, which is the construction accepted by the language.