A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Typology of nominal and adjectival suppletion

  2013. Ghazaleh Vafaeian. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 66 (2), 112-140

  Article

  This article presents a sample-based typological account of suppletion in nouns and adjectives. The distribution of the grammatical categories involved in the suppletive forms is presented along with the lexical meanings most commonly found to be suppletive. It is demonstrated that nominal suppletion is not a rare phenomenon and most commonly involves the feature number followed by possession. The noun ‘child’ is the most common suppletive noun. In general, nouns referring to humans are more likely to be suppletive than others. The investigation shows that adjectival suppletion is less common than nominal suppletion and affects frequent adjectives with general meanings of the types value and size.

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• Progressives in use and contact

  2018. Ghazaleh Vafaeian (et al.).

  Thesis (Doc)

  Progressives are grammatical patterns primarily used to refer to events that are ongoing at a specific time. This thesis investigates uses of such patterns in a number of languages as well as the interaction of a number of progressives in contact. The dissertation includes a typological study of the uses of 89 progressive patterns in two parallel corpora, an investigation of the uses and origin of the Persian dāštan progressive and an areal linguistic investigation of 50 Iranian varieties spoken around the Caspian Sea.

  The dissertation presents features that increase the likelihood that a progressive is used. Such features are 1) a focalized (punctual) reference point, 2) the engagement or ‘busyness’ of the agentive subject on the event, 3) an emotive component and 4) the desire to turn the attention of the addressee towards an ongoing event. The significance of these features is expected to weaken as progressives grammaticalize.

  There is a cross-linguistic tendency for progressives to occur more often with present time reference than with past time reference. In some cases, they are even restricted to the former. Among the varieties of the Iranian language Taleshi, on the other hand, we find asymmetric temporal paradigms as a consequence of former progressive patterns having expanded and lost their progressive character in the present but not in the past.

  The study also shows that progressives are used differently in the present and the past: while events with present time reference often have the features mentioned above in 1-4, events with past time reference are often, although not exclusively, background contexts to other events pushing the narration forward.

  The thesis also discusses various peripheral uses of progressives, such as uses in habitual and performative-like contexts, proximative, iterative and futurate uses, uses with stative verbs and temporary and subjective uses. Some of these tend to be found in patterns with higher frequencies and can be regarded as expansions towards the imperfective. Other uses are linked to the type of event to which the progressive applies: the proximative reading is shown to arise with achievements and the iterative use with repeated punctual events.  

  The data from the varieties of the Iranian languages Mazandarani, Gilaki, Taleshi and Tati, as well as from varieties under the influence of Persian, suggests that the progressive in these varieties is highly borrowable. Among the varieties discussed in Chapter 5, an areal cline is noted where constructional schemas used for ongoing events shift towards the imperfective. In the borrowing process, on occasion, a shift from progressive to proximative is also noted. As expected, the data from Caspian varieties shows that there are more progressive patterns than imperfective patterns.

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• Progressives in present and past

  2022. Ghazaleh Vafaeian. Studies in Language

  Article

  This study investigates the relationship between progressive patterns and present and past time reference. First, it looks at the shared distribution of more than 90 progressives in two parallel corpora and discusses the characteristics of these contexts. It is shown that while progressives are used for dramatic and topical events in the present, they are typically used as backgrounding, supportive material in the past. Second, it is shown that progressives generally have more occurrences in contexts with present time reference than past, this is especially true for progressives with many uses, i.e. more grammaticalized progressives. And third, a number of progressives temporally restricted are presented. Two historical explanations for these restrictions are provided, both of which result from the higher frequency of present uses over past.

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• Grammatisk kunskap i sva-lärares undervisningspraktik för nyanlända

  2020. Maria Lim Falk, Johanna Prytz, Ghazaleh Vafaeian. Svenskans beskrivning 37, 160-173

  Conference

  Den här artikeln handlar om en del av den undervisning som elevgruppen nyanlända elever i gymnasieåldern möter inom ramen för ämnet svenska som andraspråk.

  En fråga som återkommer i båda svenskämnesdiskurserna rör grammatikundervisningens vara eller icke vara. Frågan grundar sig till stor del på den ambivalenta inställning många har haft till traditionell grammatikundervisning, vilken ofta uppges vara normativt inriktad, nära anknuten till språkriktighet, och som innebär att eleverna konfronteras med grammatisk terminologi utan tydligt sammanhang. 

  När det gäller grammatik i sva-ämnet aktualiseras frågan om grammatikundervisning utifrån ett delvis annat perspektiv – inlärarperspektivet. Gynnar explicit grammatikundervisning elevernas inlärning och utveckling i svenska? Vad ska i så fall en sådan undervisning innehålla och hur ska den bedrivas? Ska sva-lärare över huvud taget ägna sig åt explicit grammatikundervisning när styrdokumentens mål, centrala innehåll och kunskapskrav har kommunikation som både utgångspunkt och mål? Detta är frågor som under decennier har väckt starka känslor och periodvis hård debatt bland forskare, lärarutbildare och i media. Tongivande kritiska röster har under lång tid haft stort inflytande på både lärarutbildningar och den pedagogiska praktiken – detta trots att forskningen ger nyanserade och diversifierade svar på frågorna.

  Det övergripande syftet med denna undersökning är att öka kunskapen om grammatikens plats i klassrumspraktiken i ämnet svenska som andraspråk. Mer specifikt är syftet dels att identifiera grammatiskt innehåll som tas upp under sva-lektioner för nyanlända i gymnasieåldern, dels att urskilja och beskriva olika typer av grammatikundervisning.

  Studien bygger på totalt 146 dokumenterade klassrumsobservationer i fyra klasser på två gymnasieskolor. Studien visar att nyanlända elever i gymnasieåldern möter en hel del grammatik i sva-undervisningen. De grammatiska momenten måste dock ses i sitt specifika undervisningssammanhang för att över huvud taget kunna urskiljas. I de klassrumspraktiker som vi har studerat ingår grammatiska moment i princip uteslutande i kontexter som har skriv- eller läsutveckling som mål och utgår från elevernas eget skrivande eller från texter som används i undervisningen i sva eller andra ämnen. För konkreta exempel, läs artikeln i sin helhet.

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Show all publications by Ghazaleh Vafaeian at Stockholm University