A Cognitive Study on (Un)Boundedness of Prepositions in Persian

The present research deals with (un)boundedness of Persian prepositions on the basis of cognitive approach in Jackendoff (1983) and Zwarts (2005). Our objective in this paper is to determine the types of Persian prepositions regarding (un)boundedness; in addition to show that whether they can basically be classified on the basis of (un)boundedness or not. The data analysis demonstrates that prepositions in Persian are divided into three main classes: a) The bounded-path b) Directions and c)Routes. In the first group, specific points are set as the source and the goal of the path, known as "source-paths" e.g. az, az bālāye, az bīrūne; and "goal-paths" e.g be or tā. The second group known as “directions,” e.g. be sūye or be tarafe, show the general path along which someone or something moves. The third group, namely “routes”, e.g. az bālāye is applied in the expression “az bālāye čīzī gozaštan”,or “az rūye čīzī rad šodan”. Persian data show that a similar preposition can function as a source-path or as a route preposition depending on the context. Therefore, each type of prepositions can represent different motion spaces. The study of (un)boundedness in Persian data illustrates that prepositions can be classified into bounded (telic), unbounded(atelic), and those found with common characters between bounded and unbounded. However, it is argued that they cannot be classified into bounded and unbounded discounting their context (particularly, the verbs). It can be concluded that in comparison with the prepositions of other languages such as English, there is no definite border line between boundedness and unboundedness in Persian prepositions disregarding their usage in the sentence.
 
 
 
Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
Cognitive linguistics is based on studying the mind and cognition. The interaction between linguistic modules and encyclopedic meaning is of highly importance. The viewpoints in cognitive linguistics contrast with Chomsky's idea, who believes in autonomous syntax. Jackendoff (1983) studied English language regarding cognitive linguistics. Prepositions have been investigated in several languages including Persian. One of the subjects discussed was to study prepositions on the basis of time and place properties. Another topic is the problem of (un)boundedness. Prepositions are vital to understand the meaning of a sentence. In consequence of their importance in cognitive linguistics, the authors intended to investigate Persian prepositions based on "(un)boundedness". This type of research has not been observed in the previous studies. The main question is to know whether it is possible to draw a vivid borderline between the bounded and unbounded situations among Persian Prepositions.
 
2. Theoretical framework
The most important distinction within the class of spatial prepositional phrases is the differentiation between [PLACE] and [PATH] (Jackendoff,1983). Jackendoff (1983) believes that a place projects into a point or region. Within the structure of an event or state, a place is occupied by a thing. Paths have more varied structures than places and play a wider variety of roles in events and states. Zwarts (2005) also believes that spatial prepositions can be divided into locative (or static) and directional (or dynamic) prepositions. 
Locative (static) prepositions: above, at
Directional (dynamic) prepositions: across, along, 
Zwarts (2005), like Jackendoff (1983) believed that prepositions are semantically similar to nouns and verbs and can be divided into bounded and unbounded. Analogous to telic and atelic verbs, they distinguish telic or bounded prepositions from atelic or unbounded prepositions. Based on the durative adverbial test (in, for) the following classifications are:
Bounded: to, into, onto, from,
Unbounded: towards, along,
(Un)bounded: across, around, down,
 
3. Methodology
In this paper, a descriptive–analytic method has been used. The examples given here are mostly cited from books and native speakers’ intuition. The descriptive method of research uses qualitative data analysis method, i.e. non- statistical analysis.
 
4. Results & Discussion
In bounded paths, the source or goal of the path is clear. So they are classified as source-paths and goal-paths. In Persian, the preposition az ‘from’ is used in the source-paths (1) and be  ‘to’ in goal-paths (2).
1.  man az    xāne   pīyāde  āmadam.
      I    from  home   on foot   came.
      'I came  from home on foot'.
2. Maryam be xāne raft.
    Maryam to home went
    'Maryam went home'.
The prepositions az ‘from’ and be ‘to’in Persian are sometimes used in compound forms such as:  az bālāye ‘from the top of’ az bīrūn-e ‘from outside of’.  Most of them are unbounded when they are accompanied by one of the following verbs: gozaštan ‘pass’, obur kardan ‘pass’.The compound prepositions like be sū-ye ‘toward’ be taraf-e ‘toward’ denote to directions and are also unbounded which is explained in the following. Unbounded paths consist of two groups; directions and routes. In directions, the reference object or place does not fall on the path, but if the path was extended over some unspecified distance, it would fall on the path. In this group, the most common prepositions used in Persian are: sū-ye ‘toward’, be sū-ye ‘toward’, be taraf-e ‘toward’ and dūr-az ‘away from.
3. Maryam be taraf-e xāne raft.
    Maryam toward home went
    'Maryam went toward home'.
In routes, the reference object or place is related to a certain point in the interior of the path. In Persian, the preposition az ‘from’ and its compound forms (i.e. az bālā-ye ‘from the top of’, az bīrūn-e ‘from the outside of’, az beyn-e ‘from between’, az pāyīn-e ‘from the down part of’, az pošt-e ‘from the back of’, can be considered route prepositions when they must be accompanied with one of the verbs like gozaštan ‘pass’, obūr kardan ‘pass’, and so on.
4. havāpeyma       az     bālā-ye    xāne-ye  mā   gozašt.
         airplane      from   over         house   our   passed
          'The airplane passed over our house'.
 The path prepositions beyn-e ‘between’, dowr-e ‘around’, gerd-e ‘around’ belong to both groups; they are in common with bounded and unbounded.
In general, the boundness or unboundedness of Persian prepositions depends on the use in the sentence ; it may differ in various contexts. For example:
5. golhāye   zībayī     bālā-ye   kūh      ruyīde būd.
    Flowers   beautiful  over  mountain  had grown
   'Beautiful flowers had grown over the mountain'.
The preposition bālā-ye is considered unbounded in (5) , because it is used as a place preposition. However in the following example:
6.  Ali  bālā-ye    kūh         raft.
     Ali   over    mountain   went
     'Ali climbed over the mountain'
it is used as a goal path preposition in (6). Therefore, it is a bounded preposition.
 
5. Conclusions & Suggestions
It was made clear that Persian prepositions play an important role in the event structure of a sentence. Semantically, prepositions turn out to be quite similar to nouns and verbs in this respect. In addition, they show telic and atelic aspects. A prepositional phrase may shift the aspect of a sentence from atelic to telic.
While place prepositions are unbounded, path prepositions can be divided into bounded, unbounded and a group being held in common between bounded and unbounded. Some prepositions like tā ‘until’, be ‘to’, or az ‘from’ and its compounds such as az bālā-ye ‘from the top of’, az bīrūn-e ‘from the outside of’, az pošt-e ‘from the back of’, az pahlū-ye ‘from the side of’, az pīš-e ‘from near’ are bounded prepositions. Being used with verbs like gozaštan ‘pass’, obūr kardan ‘pass’, rad šodan ‘pass’, they are unbounded prepositions. Moreover, the prepositions be bālā ‘upward’, be bīrūn ‘outward’, be pāyīn ‘downward’, be post ‘backward’, be pahlū ‘aside’, are directions and belong to unbounded group. The path prepositions beyn-e ‘between’, dowr-e ‘around’, gerd-e ‘around’ are held in­ common between bounded and unbounded groups. The Persian prepositions cannot be classified into bounded and unbounded discounting their context. In Persian, there is no definite borderline between (un)boundedness of prepositions disregarding their use in sentence. We suggest that the spatial and place prepositions in comparison with other type of prepositions should be investigated for the future researches.