Directionization in Persian: A Case Study of Body-Part Terms Based on Grammaticalization

Language structure is the product of our interaction with the world around us. The way we build discourses and develop linguistic categories can be derived from the way we experience our environment. Language encodes some points of spatial orientations which are abstract concepts such as “up”, “down”, “front”, “back” and the like by means of concrete domains e.g. “body-parts”, “landmarks”, and “verbs”. In this research, the process of changing these objective sources into spatial orientation is called “directionization”. The present study investigates directionization in Persian based on Heine's (1997) approach, and Davari and Naghzguy- Kohan's (2017a, b) model which is used to determine the dimensions of directionization, or the extent of  semantic, morpho-syntactic and phonetic changes of the sources. The data were gathered from poetry and prose books, proverbs, novels, dictionaries, elementary and high school Persian textbooks, websites, and daily and television conversations. Time span includes Early New Persian (4^th-13^th century) and New Persian (13^th  century- today). Data analysis indicates that Persian uses body-parts such as head, foot, eye, heart and the like for expressing relative and metaphorical directions. Through this process, mentioned lexical sources have undergone the second degree of grammaticalization.
 
1. Introduction
Language is the main shaper of our mental activities. Language structure reflects patterns of human conceptualization because it is shaped by them. According to Heine (1997) language structure is the product of our interaction with the world around us. The way we build discourses and develop linguistic categories can be derived from the way we experience our environment. A common human strategy of communication is describing one in terms of another. Heine (1997) believes that speakers conceptualize the abstract concepts of spatial orientation based on concrete sources such as landmarks, body- parts and certain verbs for creating language forms which deal with all kinds of directions. Therefore, these objective sources are grammaticalized in order to express orientation concepts and they do not imply their main concepts anymore. Since the target of this process is expressing the concept of  “orientation”, in this research, we call this process “directionization”
 

2. Theoretical Framework

Grammaticalization is regarded as a process in which a lexical item changes into a grammatical one. According to Hine (1997), there are three main source domains for the expression of the reference points of spatial orientation. Body-parts are the most important source domain and in addition to the human body, bodies of animals may also serve as a reference domain. Next to body-parts, there are environmental landmarks or, in short, simply landmarks. Much less commonly, another source for spatial points of orientation may include dynamic concepts, concepts typically expressed by motion verbs. Such items turn from open-class categories into closed-class categories for expressing concepts of spatial orientation. They lose in lexical meaning and acquire grammatical meaning. Hine (1997) has also explained the two following basic systems of spatial orientation or reference: (a) Deictic orientation which is speaker-deictic, that is, the spatial orientation is described with reference to the location and perspective assumed by the speaker. (b) Cardinal orientation, which includes items independent of the position assumed by the speaker, the hearer, or a particular object. The concepts figuring in this domain are “north”, “south”, “east”, and “west”. The present contribution has also used Davari and Naghzgouy- Kohan's (2017a, b) model to determine the dimensions of directionization, or the extent of semantic, morpho-syntactic and phonetic changes of the sources.
 

3. Methodology

The present contribution is mainly a descriptive research. Following Heine (1997), this research employs the framework of grammaticalization to explain the process of creating orientation terms through objective sources like body-parts, landmarks and dynamic concepts. Furthermore, in order to determine the degree of grammaticalization of body-part terms, this research adopts Davari and Naghzguy-Kohan`s (2017) model of Grammaticalization Dimensions. The research data were gathered from poetry and prose books, proverbs, novels, newspapers, dictionaries, elementary and high school Persian textbooks, websites, and daily and television conversations. Time span includes Early New Persian (4^th -13^th century) and New Persian (13^th century-today). Studying 3500 pages, 112 sentences consisting body-part terms were extracted, and consequently 30 orientation terms were derived. Finally, the degree of grammaticalization of all body part terms was tabulated and final results were presented.
 

4. Result & Discussion

The human body provides the most important model for expressing concepts of spatial orientation. There are other models—notably the zoomorphic model, which takes the bodies of animals as a structural template for spatial orientation. In this research, the process of changing these objective sources into spatial orientation is called “directionization”. The present study investigates directionization in Persian based on Heine's (1997) approach. Data analysis showed that Persian language uses 30 body- parts such as head, foot, eye, heart and the like to conceptualize directional concepts. While Heine (1997) had not mentioned the metaphorical direction, the results of the present study portrayed that in addition to 25 body- parts which refer to the relative directions, 5 body- parts encode metaphorical directions. This indicates that directionization process is highly productive in Persian in contrast to other languages. 
 

5. Conclusion and Suggestions

According to Heine (1997), languages encode certain points of spatial orientations which are considered as abstract concepts through particular concrete source domains e.g. environmental landmarks, body-parts and certain verbs. In this research, we showed the most common body- parts in Persian which are grammaticahized to express orientation concepts. The results indicated that Persian uses body-parts such as head, foot, eye, heart and the like for expressing relative, and metaphorical directions. To determine the dimensions of directionization, or the extent of semantic, morpho-syntactic and phonetic changes of the sources, Davari and Naghzgouy- Kohan's (2017a, b) model was applied. Through the process of directionization, the aforesaid objective sources bear the first and second degrees of grammaticalization due to the lexical and morphosyntactic changes. Moreover, it was argued that encoding abstract directions, Persian body-parts do not portray the third degree of grammaticalization since they do not bear phonological changes. 
 
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