An Investigation of Semantic Network of Spatial Postposition dʒǝ in Gilaki Dialect of Rasht

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate Professor of Linguistics, Asian Cultural Documentation Center, Department of East Asian Studies, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

10.22075/jlrs.2025.35997.2559

Abstract

The current article intends to systematically analyze the spatial postposition dʒǝ in Gilaki, one of the north-western groups of Iranian languages. The study is conducted within the framework of cognitive linguistics in which lexical items are typically polysemous. A lexeme’s meaning comprises a network of related senses, some being schematic relative to others, and some constituting metaphorical extensions vis-à-vis more prototypical values. Therefore, the article not only proposes to present prototypical and peripheral senses of Gilaki adposition dʒǝ but also draw various schematic images for it. The data of the research are gathered synchronically from contemporary Gilaki utterances, specifically the Guil-ə Ghessə (2023) podcasts and short stories published in Gileəvā (1992-1993), and are analyzed qualitatively through sufficient linguistic evidence in the form of oral and written Gilaki examples. The scope of the study is limited to Gilaki dialect of Rasht. The systematic polysemous network of the postposition refers to the meanings such as source, category, movement, containment, possession, state, decrease, comparison, causation, and source of information, all of which exhibit traces of the source concept. Therefore, source is introduced as the prototypical meaning of the postposition dӡǝ. The findings also indicate that the structuring of these meaning is governed by metaphor and spatial image schemas. This semantic configuration forms a radial network for this adposition.

Keywords

References

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Journal Of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies
Volume 16, Issue 41
In Progress
September 2025
Pages 61-106

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