Anthropology
Leila Ardebili
Abstract
Linguistic anthropology, as one of the most important subfields of anthropology, seeks to examine how language, as a social entity, plays an active role in the life of a society and encodes various aspects of social relations in a society. This branch of science, which is interdisciplinary in essence, ...
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Linguistic anthropology, as one of the most important subfields of anthropology, seeks to examine how language, as a social entity, plays an active role in the life of a society and encodes various aspects of social relations in a society. This branch of science, which is interdisciplinary in essence, tries to study the linguistic phenomena in a social context instead of in a vacuum, and thus decipher the hidden social components behind the use of different linguistic levels, from phonology and lexicography to syntax and semantics. The present article critically examines “Living Language: An Introduction to the Anthropological Linguistics” written by Laura M. Ahearn aims to show how the hidden social spheres of language, such as culture, thought, socialization, gender, race, ethnicity, power, etc. can be studied in terms of linguistic use in different contexts. By considering language as a map, we can find a way to understand the society in question.
Linguistics and Ancient Languages
Saleh Tabatabai; Arsalan Golfam
Abstract
Because of its clear presentation of topics, comprehensive scope and its illustrative application of theories, Language, Mind and Culture: A Practical Introduction by Zoltán Kövecses has secured its place as a textbook of Cognitive Linguistics. That is why the book has been translated into ...
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Because of its clear presentation of topics, comprehensive scope and its illustrative application of theories, Language, Mind and Culture: A Practical Introduction by Zoltán Kövecses has secured its place as a textbook of Cognitive Linguistics. That is why the book has been translated into Persian. However, its erroneous Persian translation has not managed to preserve the original book’s merits and has sometimes misinformed or even misled the reader. Most of the problems with the Persian translation constitute formal defects, including conspicuous misspellings and wrong equivalents for proper nouns, and content mistakes, including wrong renderings of general and technical terms and incorrect translations that produced vague or even unintelligible sentences. After giving a broad outline of the original and its contents, the present review has enumerated the various types of the defects in its Persian translation with numerous examples in order to illustrate and correct some of its critical flaws and also to put forward a proposal for the total revision of the translation.
Linguistics and Ancient Languages
Shahriar Hormozi
Abstract
This article aims to review the book Noam Chomsky: nature and language, edited by Adriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi. Despite all the ups and downs during the past seven decades, generative grammar is still recognized as the dominant language studies approach, particularly in North America. In the course ...
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This article aims to review the book Noam Chomsky: nature and language, edited by Adriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi. Despite all the ups and downs during the past seven decades, generative grammar is still recognized as the dominant language studies approach, particularly in North America. In the course of this book, first, a general outline of generative grammar is introduced. It follows by roots of the generative theory language, its prospects, and the challenges ahead. It then continues with an interview with Noam Chomsky done by the editors of the volume, raising critical issues about generative linguistics and the future of the theory. This article includes an overview of theoretical linguistics, emphasizing the evolution of generative grammar. Next, the structure and content of the book are examined, followed by an evaluation of the appearance and content. At the end of the article, the overall view on this book is concluded.
Persian Language and Literature
Ghodsieh Rezvanian
Abstract
The book Sociological Research in Modern Persian Fiction is the translation of the book A Study of Recent Persian Prose Fiction with Special Reference to the Social Background written by Reza Navabpour, which is one of the most accurate books on the analysis of contemporary Iranian fiction. By the dialectic ...
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The book Sociological Research in Modern Persian Fiction is the translation of the book A Study of Recent Persian Prose Fiction with Special Reference to the Social Background written by Reza Navabpour, which is one of the most accurate books on the analysis of contemporary Iranian fiction. By the dialectic examination of literature and history, from the Constitution revolution to the 1979 revolution, the author has studied not only major historical events, but also micro-political events with a deep critical looking, and how they have Influenced fiction. Despite the socio-historical approach to contemporary fiction, relying on no sociological theory, but in the method of new historicism critics, it examines contemporary fiction in relation to heterogeneous and conflicting discourses and shows the implicit positions of the text in relation to those discourses. But the characteristics of the translation of the book by Abolghasem Serri; Including the inconsistency of the type of translation with the text and subject of the book, linguistic, structural and content nonchalance, misleading and unpleasant purism, which may inadvertently involve the reader in the language of the text, has led to an inaccurate translation.
Linguistics and Ancient Languages
Mozafar Amini; Hossein Mohammadi
Abstract
Many linguistic studies are the result of individual field research or a group of researchers in different language communities. The book entitled, Language, Status and Power in Iran, written by William O. Beeman, is also amongst those field studies which is based on language and especially Persian ...
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Many linguistic studies are the result of individual field research or a group of researchers in different language communities. The book entitled, Language, Status and Power in Iran, written by William O. Beeman, is also amongst those field studies which is based on language and especially Persian language. The scope of the writer’s study is broaden to cultural, social, anthropological issues and different parts of Iranian life. Beeman’s book has some interpretations, and ideas of the Iranian society on scientific principles and in a specific framework; however, it is based on a small language community and it may have some problems. A number of issues and analyses of Iranian customs, culture, and language are examined. An important critique of this book is the generalization of Beeman’s book to the whole of Iran. Regarding the translation of the book, it should be mentioned that it was vital to be done.
Philosophy
Abdurrazzaq Hesamifar
Abstract
A History of Philosophy: From Bolzano to Wittgenstein includes an analytic debate on the most important elements of the ideas of analytic philosophers of the first half of 20th century. The book tries to evaluate and analyze the ideas of analytic philosophers as a philosophical school in philosophy in ...
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A History of Philosophy: From Bolzano to Wittgenstein includes an analytic debate on the most important elements of the ideas of analytic philosophers of the first half of 20th century. The book tries to evaluate and analyze the ideas of analytic philosophers as a philosophical school in philosophy in a way that their ideas can be reduced to each other. After debating on the backgrounds of analytic philosophy, it refers to the ideas of Bolzano, Frege, Russell, early Wittgenstein, Carnap and the movement of formalization and at the end, it shows the ideas of Moore and later Wittgenstein who pursued another way in analytic philosophy which was later known as linguistic philosophy. So, the structure of debate in the book has been directed in two parallel movements, that is, logical analysis and linguistic analysis, though more attention is directed to the first movement. This article goes to assess and criticize the form and the content of the Persian translation of the book.
Foreign Languages
Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel; Fatemeh Talebian
Volume 15, Issue 36 , November 2015, , Pages 133-158
Abstract
“Prospect 1” is a newly designed and published book for English learners at high schools in Iran. The authors’ aimhas been to localize the content, form, and pictures of the book based on the Iranian culture. In particular, the purpose of this study was to analyze the pictures of the ...
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“Prospect 1” is a newly designed and published book for English learners at high schools in Iran. The authors’ aimhas been to localize the content, form, and pictures of the book based on the Iranian culture. In particular, the purpose of this study was to analyze the pictures of the book from the point of views of Turkish, Persian, and Kurdish (Kormanj) students. The instruments used in the study were a questioner designed and validated by the researchers and a semi-structured interview. One hundred eighty two subjects (48 Kurdish, 77 Turkish, and 57 Persianstudents) were chosen as the participants of the study. Using Chi square, the analysis of the results showed that some pictures were not appropriately selected and the learners showed differences in understanding and interpreting the meaning and purposes of these pictures. It was concluded that when selecting pictures, it is better to consider sub cultures in Iran, too.
