This monograph presents a morpho-syntactic investigation on modality, aspect, and negation by concentrating on Persian, and is designed to contribute to theoretical linguistics and the study of Iranian languages. The analysis is based on the Minimalist program. This research challenges the idea that the syntactic structure maps on the semantic interpretation or vice versa. The discussion presented in this monograph shows that the syntactic structure of Persian modals is uniform no matter if the modals are interpreted as having root or epistemic readings. Although it is claimed that modals are raising constructions in different languages, modals in Persian, which does not have subject-raising constructions, show a different syntactic behavior. Furthermore, the structural analysis of the interaction of Persian modals and negation shows that because of the scope interaction of negation and modals, the syntactic structure of modals with respect to negation mostly corresponds to the semantic interpretation of modals.

We examine the syntactic behavior of wh-arguments and wh-adjuncts in Persian, a wh-in-situ language that exhibits (seemingly) optional wh-movement. We show that the two types of wh-phrases have distinct internal structures that are responsible for their different syntactic behavior. The analysis indicates that wh-movement has an effect on the semantic output of the derivation, and thus wh-scrambling is not a semantically vacuous operation. We finally show that the wh-feature must be in a local Agree relation with a wh-operator in Spec/CP to allow scope marking and sentence typing. This last claim predicts that an intervening polarity item would block the Agree relation, a prediction that is borne out empirically.

The present and past progressive tenses in Persian are the only tenses in which both the main verb and the minor verb dâštan “to have” receive agreement marking. Morpho-syntactically, Persian progressives show the similar properties of both Aspectual Complex Predicates and Serial Verb Constructions. The question that this paper addresses is: are Persian progressive tenses Aspectual Complex Predicates or Serial Verb Constructions? By presenting the morpho-syntactic and semantic analysis of Persian progressives, and highlighting the main properties of Aspectual Complex Predicates and Serial Verb Constructions, the paper shows that, despite the similarities between these verbal constructions and Aspectual Complex Predicates, Persian progressives are instances of Serial Verb Constructions where neither a complementizer nor a conjunction separates the two verbs and the complex describes a single conceptual event.

The role of spaces between words in text was studied in many experiments by filling the spaces with irrelevant symbols. This practice is based on the assumption that these fillers occlude spaces without disturbing word recognition appreciably. There is no empirical evidence to support this assumption. We performed a series of experiments to study the role of fillers and spaces in text. We found that texts in all conditions in which words were surrounded by fillers were read more slowly than normal texts, as long as the fillers shared common features with the letters of the text (digits, irrelevant Latin letters, and Greek letters). Reading was as slow when words were surrounded by fillers (1like2 8this6), as when fillers replaced spaces (1like2this6), showing that reading was disrupted by the presence of fillers, not by the absence of spaces. Reading eye movements were recorded with some of the subjects and text conditions. The placement of fillers and the presence or absence of spaces in the text had no effect on percentage regressions, or on where reading saccades landed within words. However, more saccades per line were made in conditions that contained fillers than either with normal or with unspaced text. Observed differences in eye movement patterns and reading speed can be accounted for by a global adjustment to only one eye movement parameter, viz saccade size, made on the basis of the global appearance of the text. No evidence was found that the presence of fillers or the absence of spaces required new strategies for programming individual saccades. This suggests that word recognition and global strategies are more significant in programming reading saccades than the local physical features of the text.

This article focuses on Persian linguistics with the emphasis on grammar and word formation in the twentieth century. After presenting a brief overview of the history of the study of grammar in Iran, I discuss the recent trends in linguistics from diachronic to synchronic aspects. In Persian diachronic linguistics, we will see that most works focus on the reading, and deciphering of the old texts. In synchronic studies, there are three main stages: 1) traditional linguistics, 2) structural linguistics, and 3) generative or formal linguistics. I show how each one of these stages affects Persian linguistics in the twentieth century. Finally, I conclude the article by looking at the current state of Persian linguistics and the future prospects for the field.