Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 17، number In Volume 11، February 2025 ، issue Number 105

The analysis of the information structure of Subject Noun phrases (SNP) in Khayyam's quatrains

Ayoub Ansari (Author in Charge), Seyed Ali Seraj

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Discoursal and textual analysis is a field of study in linguistics which deals with various topics, including the context of information distribution (information structure) (Shehbazi, 1378). Subject Noun phrases may contain old or new information that the textual (context) and situational context and the listener play significant roles in these analyses.

METHODOLOGY: Prince (1981) makes a seven-fold division that forms the theoretical framework or perspective of the current research. In this study, the relationship among some syntactic features and some discoursal features of syntax in connection with discourse topics has been studied and analyzed. Out of the total Khayyam’s 178 quatrains of the examined version, 141 quatrains, i.e. 21.79% of Khayyam"s quatrains, constitute the research data. All the sentences of the studied quatrains have been identified and the subject noun phrases of the sentences have been studied and analyzed based on the level of familiarity for the listener based on the classification of Prince (1981).

FINDINGS: The studied quatrains included 776 sentences; so that in 748 sentences, noun phrases were found in the subject position of the sentences. Also, in 28 sentences, the subjects of the sentences were non-nominal phrases such as prepositional phrases, independent clauses or dependent clauses. Finally, 340 subject noun phrases, 45.45% of the total subject noun phrases of the sentences are devoted to the noun phrases referenced or mentioned in the text, which have shown the most frequency or usage in this study.

CONCLUSION: The results of the analysis indicate that 83.69% of the subject noun phases (SNP) in the sentences convey listener- oriented old information and 16.31% of SNP convey new information. Therefore, in general, it can be concluded that the SNP of the analyzed sentences have a high level of familiarity for the listener, that is, they often convey old information.

Keyword
information structure , noun phrase , old information , new information , listener- oriented old information , Khayyam's Quatrains

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