This is a textbook of the modern Persian language (Farsi) spoken in Iran. It is intended for university- level learners and features material for two consecutive courses or semesters of the Elementary level. The textbook is designed to facilitate the implementation of the two most recent trends in second language instruction: communicative approach and flipped learning. This textbook is an integrated and self-contained way of acquiring functional proficiency in spoken and written Persian. The textbook's theoretical framework and underlying linguistic philosophy and its practical approach to language instruction and learning objectives are based on the latest trends in foreign language instruction as defined by the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The material of the textbook also reflects the 5 Cs of National Standards in Foreign Language Education. The textbook is inspired by the author's 17 years of experience of designing and teaching university-level courses in less commonly taught languages and is informed by the experiences, research and data gathered across various modern languages. The textbook features all the attributes necessary for the implementation of modern practices in foreign language instruction such as content-based activities for real-world objectives in a student-centered classroom, an integrated approach toward teaching all language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) from the outset, differentiating between proficiency (being able to use a skill) and competence (knowing a skill), teaching of language through culture and teaching culture through language, thematic presentation of the material, and use of authentic material produced by native speakers for native speakers. The textbook's learning objectives and curriculum are designed with the ACTFL proficiency guidelines in mind, and students who complete the textbook should be able to score on Elementary High to Intermediate Low levels, depending on individual progress in class and language skill.

KEY FEATURES OF THE TEXTBOOK

The textbook is designed to facilitate the implementation of the communicative approach and flipped learning in a student-centered classroom with the integration of all skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing and cultural competence) from the outset. Besides speaking exercises and listening sections, each chapter contains separate sections for reading and writing practice.

The final letter of the verb that appears in red is the conjugational ending. You can use the verb forms below for conjugation in any grammatical person by replacing the conjugational ending with the one that corresponds to the subject that you need.

Persian Social Etiquette, the Taãrof

In Iranian culture, the interaction and communication between individuals (other than wellacquainted persons) follow a behavioral convention called the taãrof. The taãrof is rooted in Iran's social tradition and Iranians’ affinity for courtesy and social grace. It is variously translated into English as Persian social etiquette, ritual courtesy and ritual politeness. The taãrof includes both behavioral and verbal aspects. The essential basis of the taãrof is a display of politeness and respect for the conversation partner. In practice, the taãrof calls for a demonstration of one's humility, humbleness and even deference, while at the same time affirming and preserving the conversation partner's dignity and high status (actual or perceived) throughout the conversation. Usually, both speakers follow this behavioral game, unless superiority (in age, or social, professional or hierarchical status) of one of the speakers is overwhelmingly obvious or is intended to be expressed, in which case the party with superior status is free to resort to a less elaborate form of the taãrof. Thus, a younger speaker addressing an older speaker (e.g., a student addressing a professor) would resort to the taãrof and use the polite you and conjugate the verbs in plural, while the older speaker (especially if the age difference is significant) would have the liberty of choosing to use the casual you and conjugate the verbs in the singular. If the conversation partners are of equal status, the extent of the taãrof depends on how well they know each other, that is, two university professors who meet for the first time will resort to the complete taãrof register.

It is important to keep in mind that the concept of the taãrof is different from the difference between the formal and colloquial registers. The taãrof can be performed in colloquial as well as formal registers.

The taãrof is expressed through behavior, body language, gestures and words. The Persian language provides two sets of lexical units for most common verbs and pronouns— one for the taãrof and the other for regular speech. Given below are some common examples and cases.

Listen and repeat each word and phrase several times until you can easily pronounce it. The verbs are given in first-person singular (e.g., I do). To conjugate the verbs in the present tense, simply change the verb's ending to reflect the subject.

Read the description of the daily routine of a young office worker. Complete the English translation based on the Persian original.

Complete the sentences using the given verbs. Make sure to choose the correct verb for compound verbs that are missing their second component. You can use some of the verbs repeatedly.

Listen and read along as a student describes his daily routine. Complete the English translation based on what you hear and read. This audio presentation was not scripted so that you could be exposed to the completely natural speech of the native speaker. You will encounter a couple of unfamiliar structures, but you do not need to know them at this point in order to understand the narrative and complete the assignment.

Listen to the daily routine of another student. Complete the translation based on what you hear. Note how the speaker, who is speaking in colloquial Persian, uses the word تو /too/in, inside instead of the word دَر in. Don't confuse the word تو /too/in, inside with the word تو /toh/you. The two words are spelled the same way, but are pronounced differently.

Think of your daily activities. For each of the following statements mark either always, sometimes or never according to your routine. Prepare to say the statements aloud in Persian.

Prepare to describe for your class in Persian your daily routine on Mondays. You can model your description after the homework exercises above. Prepare to say your sentences fluently.

Think of three different time periods during the day and ask your classmates what they do at those times. Use the words today, tonight and usually to give your questions temporal context. Find out who is doing the same thing as you at those times. For example,

What are you doing today at 1 o’clock?

Listen and repeat. Say each word and phrase several times aloud until you can easily pronounce them.

Complete the table by putting what you think are positive and negative qualities in the respective columns. Prepare to read them aloud in class.

Listen and read along. Complete the translation based on what you hear and see.

• (a) Listen and fill in the blanks. The missing words are from this chapter's glossary. Complete the English translation.

• (b) Prepare to describe personal qualities of the members of your family using three or four adjectives from this chapter's glossary. Prepare to say in Persian with which family member, you think, you share personality traits. Your classmates will ask you about the personality of some of your family members (parents, siblings, uncles and aunts).

Complete the following statements.

Translate the following sentences into Persian.

(1) I’m very happy today. (2). It is very warm today, and I am in a good mood. (3) Why are you sad? (4) Why are you nervous? (5) I am worried about the exam. (6) Are you feeling under the weather? (7) No, I am not feeling under the weather, but I am very tired. (8) Are you hungry? (9) No, I’m not hungry, but I am thirsty.

Describe your best friend. Start by saying what s/he does and where s/he is, and then describe her/his personal qualities that you like. Now compare your best friend's qualities to yours, that is, name the qualities that you both share and then say what qualities you have but s/he does not have.

Talk to your classmates and ask about the personality traits of their family members. Find out if your classmates share any qualities with any of their family members. Tell the class in Persian what you have found out. Also, tell the class if you share personality traits with any of your respondents. Useful question:

Describe what is your idea of an ideal boyfriend/girlfriend or best friend, as far as his/her personality is concerned.

There are two major reasons why Persian verbs might look all so similar: (1) composite verb formation and (2) verb tense and category markers.

1. Composite verb formation. In the Persian language there are composite (compound) verbs and then there are base (single- word) verbs. The vast majority of Persian verbs are the derivative composite verbs, and a small minority of verbs are base verbs. Composite verbs consist of a noun, adjective or adverb that is combined with one of the few base verbs. Base verbs appear at the end of such composite verbs. Because the pool of base verbs is relatively small, large numbers of composite verbs use the same base verb as their second component, which makes the end of these composite verbs look the same. In addition, a majority of composite verbs use one of the two or as their base verb, which adds to the structural similarity among large numbers of Persian verbs. It might make things easier if we draw parallels between English and Persian. For example, in English, the composite verb to get ready is different in meaning from the composite verb to get over, and from the composite verb to get by, although all three have the verb “to get” in them. This is still different from the meaning of the base verb to get when it is used on its own and not as a part of a composite verb, for example, I got a letter from my friend. A similar phenomenon occurs in Persian. Let's take one of the most common verbs, the base verb which, on its own, means to become. When it is used in a composite verb, the meaning of that verb might not be the same. For example,

We see the verb شدن appearing at the end of all these composite verbs, but the meanings of these composite verbs are very different. The verb شدن is a high frequency verb that appears in numerous composite verbs as well as on its own.

Listen and repeat. Try to imitate the native speaker's pronunciation. Repeat each word and phrase a few times aloud until you can easily pronounce them.

Listen and read along. Complete the translation based on what you hear and see in the Persian original.

Look at the image of the house and complete the description.

Listen and read along. Complete the translation based on the Persian text. Answer the questions in Persian. Prepare to say your answers aloud and fluently.

Look at the image of the house and complete the description. Useful words: درَ سَمت راست on the right side: ⇔ on the left side.

Listen to the description of the apartment and draw its outline . Write in Persian the names of the rooms in your drawing.

Prepare to describe in Persian your parents’ house. Say how many floors it has and what rooms are on each floor. Say if it has an attic and basement and whether or not it has a yard. You can use the text from Exercise 3 above as an example.

Prepare to say these questions fluently in class. Be ready to answer the questions.

Complete the sentences with appropriate words from the glossary of this chapter.

Listen and complete the sentences with the words you hear. Translate the sentences into English.

Listen to Parisa and Neema, who are talking about the furniture they need for their rooms. Complete the transcript according to what they say. Now, based on the items they mention, identify the three rooms that they have to furnish.

Take a photo of your room, classroom or office. Prepare to describe the room and its furniture in Persian. In class, you will be working with a classmate who will listen to your description and draw on paper your room with the furniture in it. See how accurately you can help your classmate to draw the image that you describe. Make sure your description is not too complicated.

Look at the image below and ask your classmates about the position of various items in the room in relation to each other and to the walls and window.

Similar to English, some words in Persian feature spelling that is different from their pronunciation. Not all words in Persian have a discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation. The majority of words in Persian are pronounced according to their spelling. The following represents a summary of the main cases of divergence between spelling and pronunciation in the modern Persian of Iran.

Phonology: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs

Written combinations (ãn) and (ãm) are pronounced oon and oom, respectively:

2. Letters and (h) are not pronounced in the middle of the word; at the end of the word, especially after a consonant; in the plural ending ; in the word also.

3. The diacritic vowel e is pronounced as the letter vowel eeas long as that does not change the meaning.

Note that in cases like the word(ke) that, the pronunciation does not change to (kee) who because the word already exists as a different word with its own specific meaning.

4. When the vowel o represented by the diacritic is followed in the next syllable by the vowel oo represented by the letter in the root of the same word, both vowels are pronounced uniformly as oo

5. The specific direct object marker is usually pronounced ro after vowels and o after consonants and the vowel

6. Combination of consonants nb is pronounced mb:

7. Miscellaneous:

Phonology: Verbs

1. The verb است is pronounced eh and, sometimes, s depending on the last letter in the word that follows.

Conjugational endings in verbs.

3. The andof the verb roots vanish during conjugation in the present tense and subjunctive.

4. The letter vanishes from the verb's root when conjugated in the present tense and subjunctive.

5. Altered verb root. The letters either vanish or become replaced with other letters.

7. Subjunctive/imperative marker prefix behis pronounced bo in the verbs whose root vowel is o. For example,

The background and key concepts are presented, including the notion of salience of information and an overview of RRG as a parallel architecture theory, in particular the RRG representations of discourse-pragmatics as a separate and independent component. The important feature of RRG is the bidirectional interactions between the separate components of grammar, semantics, syntax, and discourse, and these interactions are discussed with examples. The study applies the notion of salience to the RRG theory of the syntax–semantics–discourse interface, and, for this, utilizes the bidimensional model of salience, consisting of both backward-looking and forward-looking salience. This bidimensional characterization is important because it captures both the hearer-based and the speaker-based discourse models. Furthermore, the study introduces the notion of forward-looking non-salience, the speaker’s active backgrounding of information, which is essential to the account of zero-marking and postposing of arguments in Japanese.

While summarizing the main points, the concluding chapter revisits the bidimensional model of salience based on the study of Japanese discourse and its implications for RRG, which is followed by remarks on the findings in the study of L2 Japanese discourse. Overall, zero and topic coding of arguments and zero coding of predicates mostly pertain to backward-looking salience, while predicate-less repetitions in L1 discourse relate to the forward-looking dimension of salience. On the other hand, zero marking and post-predicate coding of arguments pertain to forward-looking salience, specifically to imposing non-salience. With these, the study provides abundant evidence for the RRG claim that discourse-pragmatics plays a role in virtually every part of grammatical systems. Furthermore, the analysis of both backward-looking and forward-looking salience demonstrates the bidirectional discourse–syntax interfaces, an important property of the parallel architecture theory, because the backward-looking and forward-looking dimensions are relevant to the discourse-to-syntax and syntax-to-discourse linking respectively.

This chapter extends the analysis of zero coding to predicates, another basic element of language, i.e. predication. There are two major sections. The first analysis deals with a numeral classifier construction which contains a copula in the nucleus of a sentence instead of an intended verb. For this construction, usage in online texts is discussed and applied to RRG. This is followed by the analysis of zero predicates observed in spoken Japanese. This analysis is based on the Japanese-language interviews for proficiency testing and the findings are applied to RRG. The interview data consist of interactions of L1 and L2 speakers, and observations specific to L2 utterances are also addressed. Chapter 4 showed that the proper treatment of zero-coded arguments requires the representation of discourse salience at the interface between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and this chapter demonstrates that the same requirement applies to the zero-coding of predicates, which is relevant to the salience of propositions.

With the observations of the usage of zero and topicalized arguments discussed in chapter 3, this chapter applies the findings to RRG and shows how the observed regularities are captured in the theory. This chapter pays special attention to interfaces with discourse-pragmatics in the theory, particularly bidirectional interactions between syntax and pragmatics. The discussion begins with the focus structure of sentences, which is then integrated with the salience hierarchies proposed in chapter 3. This is followed by the discussion of linking between semantic and syntactic representations, which also involves discourse representation structures. The bidirectional interactions with discourse representation structures capture not only the discourse influence on syntax but also the other direction of the interface, i.e. how the speakers’ forward-looking intentions, manifested by the morphosyntactic realization of information, influence discourse representation structures.