Adpositions in Shahmirzadi Language: Tools for Case Marking in Noun Phrases

Sanaati, Marziye; Mostafavi, Pooneh

doi:10.22124/plid.2025.29170.1701

Adpositions in Shahmirzadi Language: Tools for Case Marking in Noun Phrases

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Marziye Sanaati ¹
Pooneh Mostafavi ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Linguistics Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran, Iran.

² Associate Professor of Linguistics, Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran, Iran

10.22124/plid.2025.29170.1701

Abstract

The relationships between the head and its dependent nouns are determined through case-marking systems. This study examines the method and role of adpositions in case marking in the Shahmirzadi language which is spoken in the Semnan province of Iran. To analyze the linguistic data based on the theoretical framework of the research, data were collected through a questionnaire prepared for this purpose and Shahmirzadi data available in the Iran Linguistic Atlas (ILA) database have been utilized. Written sources containing lexical and syntactic information were also used to refine and validate the data. The data analysis indicates that in both grammatical and semantic cases in Shahmirzadi, case marking is achieved through postpositions. According to the theoretical framework, the case-marking system in this language is analytical, and inflectional affixes are not used for this purpose. In other words, in this linguistic variety, the locative, comitative, instrumental, and ablative cases are marked using independent or dependent adpositions. But genitive, benefactive, accusative and ablative (where the older Shahmirzadi form /-ǰǝn/ involves) cases are marked through dependent adpositions (enclitics).

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