Contemporary Persian Language and Culture Notes

SELF-SIMILARITY OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURESAny grammatical function in the resulting larger-scale structure can be iterated (projected), and the new output from one iteration serves as the input to the next. Iterating a grammatical function means applying that function repeatedly. Each output of a new larger-scale unit is similar to the point of departure (lower-scale unit) that preceded it. The resulting structures are self-similar. These structures are self-similar because, in terms of...
More Description

SELF-SIMILARITY OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURESAny grammatical function in the resulting larger-scale structure can be iterated (projected), and the new output from one iteration serves as the input to the next. Iterating a grammatical function means applying that function repeatedly. Each output of a new larger-scale unit is similar to the point of departure (lower-scale unit) that preceded it. The resulting structures are self-similar. These structures are self-similar because, in terms of the function, they are the same on any scale.FABRIC OF PHONOLOGICAL SPACE-TIME CONTINUUMIf we consider the phonemes to be mental representations of the space-time continuum, we will notice that some of them cannot be easily classified either as consonants or as vowels. That is because they do not belong to either group, but rather reflect the fact that space and its elements are permeated by time. Just as this space-time interpenetration can easily be seen in the units of the second articulation, where spatial elements (consonants), obligatorily in conjunction with temporal elements (vowels), build meaningful units, it also can be seen in the larger and more complex first-articulation structures, where this space-time continuum is reflected in forms that synthesize spatial and temporal characteristics of the extra-linguistic universe.LANGUAGE AS A "FINITE, YET UNBOUNDED SYSTEM"Again, we would also argue against the statement about communication being ''the primeval function of language'', asserting instead, however important the role of communication may be within society, that even this role should be viewed primarily as the most natural, and, therefore, the most inconspicuous way to further strengthen the internal scaffolding of the finite extent of the human mind (or - the inner language scaffolding of the unbounded finiteness of the human mind).ON THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVOThat world, that used to exist in the pre-Enlightenment era in Western Europe, is still very much alive in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Sarajevo. Today, it is a sort of an amusement park, where visitors from the developed world can see what sort of "science" was thought and taught in Europe some five hundred years ago.