The Process of Shortening Proper Nouns in Farsi
Subject Areas : Research in Iranian classical literatureبهروز محمودی بختیاری 1 * , Faeghe Shahhoseini 2
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Keywords: The Process of Shortening Inflection Phonemics Optimality Theory Gender,
Abstract :
Shortening Proper Nouns is so current and common among Iranian and different kinds of processes are involved in this process. The article describes this process and reviews the role of gender in this process and phonological limitations in shortened nouns. Our approach toward shortening nouns can be an example of interaction of two sciences of Inflection and Sociolinguistics. The samples of study were chosen from 790 Farsi Proper nouns among which 330 are boy names and 460 are girl names. The selected samples were extracted from the official website of National Organization for Civil Registration. The standard for selecting samples includes high frequency and being one-part nouns; so we did not use rare and low-used names and those with more than two parts which involves two or more separate nouns. The applied theoretical framework is the Optimality Theory. Shortened nouns were reviewed and analyzed based on this theory. The results show that shortening Proper Nouns in Farsi is rarely predictable against the common belief Iranian may have. The other considerable result worth noting is that although shortening is an inflectional process, it involves phonological units more than inflectional units. Removed parts in this process are so varied in size and status and words that are created in shortening processes of Farsi inflection are usually phonologically ungrammatical. Moreover, the analysis of data shows that gender is also an effective variable on shortening Proper Nouns in Farsi.