غلامحسین کریمی دوستان

Kurmanji uses two morphological forms of pronouns and R-expressions: direct and oblique. The direct form of first and second pronouns (local pronouns) is fully specified for person and number. In contrast, direct third-person pronouns and R-expressions are unmarked; however, these arguments still exhibit person and number agreement with verbs and number and gender agreement with Ezafe heads. There are two approaches to deal with direct unmarked arguments. In the asymmetric approach, these arguments are assumed to be fully specified for relevant φ-features, which are deleted at PF (Phonological Form) after agreement, whereas in the symmetric approach, they are merged as underspecified for relevant features and acquire their interpretation via agreement. Given the prevalence of unmarked arguments in Kurmanji, the symmetric approach is more economical and minimalistic, requiring fewer theoretical tools and computations. The present study shows that the key distinction between local pronouns and unmarked arguments lies in the specification of relevant φ-features. Direct unmarked arguments enter the derivation underspecified for these features, establishing a relation of ‘subset control’ in agreement and acquiring their interpretation by spreading features from the agreeing head at the LF (Logical Form) interface. This study also reveals that agreement in Ezafe constructions and pro-drop sentences also involve subset control and agreement is the only possible way to license φ-features, such as gender in inanimate arguments and person in R-expressions.

Because of their objective measurement and unambiguous correspondences, syntactic parameters are used as comparanda for deep comparison and relatedness of language varieties. The Parametric Comparison Method (Longobardi & Guardiano, 2009) is based on the hypothesis that syntactic parameters are appropriate traits to use as comparanda for contrastive analysis and distance measurement of language pairs and then to provide language taxonomy. This article addresses the syntactic distance and genealogical taxonomy of language varieties that are closely related genealogically, geographically, and culturally. To analyze relatedness and genealogical issues of Kurdish language varieties and the Persian language, abstract grammatical rules, modeled as syntactic parameters which are applied in the domain of determiner phrase (DP), are used as comparanda. The results show that Laki and Lori are at a close distance from Sorani, and on the other hand, Kurmanji and Kɪrdki are also close syntactically. According to the tree achieved from the syntactic distances, Kurmanji is at one end of the spectrum and Persian is at the other end. Thus, it can be concluded that some preliminary deductions regarding the phylogenetic taxonomy of the Iranian languages and dialects, with a focus on Kurdish language varieties and other related dialects, can be proposed.