Language, Status, and Power in Iran

by William O. Beeman

Overview

" . . . excellent example . . . significant contribution . . . an important interdisciplinary work . . . " —Middle East Journal

" . . . an important contribution to aspects of Iranian social communication and interpersonal verbal behavior." —Language

By showing the reader the intricacies of face-to-face sociolinguistic interaction, William Beeman provides a key to understanding Iranian social and political life. Beeman's study in cross-cultural linguistics will clearly be a model for the study of different languages and cultures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253331397
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	10/22/1986
Series:	Advances in Semiotics
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSPCRIPTION

I. INTRODUCTION: THE ARCHITECTURE OF IRANIAN
VERBAL INTERACTION
Meaning in Linguistics and Anthropology
Deixis and the Interpretaition of Meaning
Appropriateness and Effectiveness
Iranian Basic Schemas
Style in Cultural Communication
Iranian Interaction Semantics
Language and Magic

II. The Management of Messages
Components of Speech
Uncertainty and Insecurity in Iranian Life
The Clever Dissimulator
Whom Do You Trust?
The Changing Ethic of Message Management

III. The Mangagement of Interactional
Parameters: People
Perception, Attention, and Status in Interpersonal Interaction
Dimensions of Exchange in Iranian Interaction
Relations of Equality: Dowreh and Partibazi
Relations of Inequality-Hierarchy and Ta'arof
The Strategic Huse of Ta'arof-Getting the Lower Hand
Partibazi and Ta'arof: Some Final Comparisons

IV. The Marking of Parameters: Events
The Problem of Context
Dimensions of Iranian Contextualization
The Iranian Basic Schema
Transformations of the Basic Schema

V. Persian Socio-Phonology
The Persian Phonemic System: Standard Style
Stylistic Differences in Standard Persian
Stylistic Variation-The Consonantal System
Implicational Scaling in Stylistic Variation
Sound Variation in Social Context
Redundancy and Sound Reduction in Persian
Reducdancy in Interaction in Sound Reduction
Sylistic Variation The Vowel System
Arabic versus Persian
Systemic Proceses and Stylistic
Variation-A Summary

VI. Persian Socio-Morphology
Morphological Variation
The Elements of the Persian Ver: A conventional description
The Pronoun System
Sylistic Requirements within the Morphological Systems
The Language of Ta'arof
The Singular/Plural Distinction as an Indicator of Status
Meaning and the Language of Ta'arof
A Note on Superior-Inferior Address
The Language of Samimiat
The Language of Zerangi
Conclusion

VII. The SOcio-Syntax of Iranian Interaction
Purposive Use of Stylistic Variation
A Problem in Operational Function: The Use of the Imparative of Farmudan
Other Commmunicational Operators
Pattern Configuration

VIII. Conclusion: The Aesthetics of Iranian
Verbal Interaction
Speaker Skills-A Review
The Bases of Aesthetics in Interaction
Notes on the Aesthetics of Irania Humor
The Aesthetics of Revolutionary Rhetoric
Language and Magic-A Final Note

Bibliography
Notes
Index