A Review of Zabanshenasi Journal

Abstract

This is a critical review of the Iranian journal of linguistics, the only publication in Iran that is solely concerned with linguistic topics and issues. The journal was founded in 1984, and has been published semi-annually in Tehran ever since. The eighty five articles published in the journal cover a wide range of linguistic issues including the synchronic, diachronic, etymological, dialectal, stylistic, and sociolinguistic aspects of Persian, its variants, as well as other Iranian languages. These issues are presented mainly from a descriptive point of view. The journal, however, includes theoretical papers as well, mostly based on the transformational framework of generative grammar. The need felt by Iranian linguists to explain the fundamental concepts of theoretical assumptions, and to popularize modem linguistic concepts is reflected in a number of articles which introduce linguistic hypothesis, theories, and tendencies. In the first part of this review, the articles of the journal are classified in ten different categories, and their content is evaluated on the basis of the general goals set forth by the journal's editor, A. A. Sadeqi, in the first issue of the journal published in spring of 1984. The main body of the review is devoted to a critical analysis of the methodological and theoretical aspects of the journal, in the light of fundamental trends and tendencies in the field of modem linguistics. The discussion includes a presentation of the positive properties, as well as a discussion of the methodological and theoretical shortcomings evident in some of the ankles in the journal. Basic theoretical assumptions of the generative grammar, proposed first by N. Chomsky in 1957, are also briefly presented in this article. A few suggestions regarding the future of the journal conclude this review.