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This study is a very basic handbook of Farsi phonetics and syntax for use by English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors who have had little or no contact with the structure of the Persian language. Emphasis is placed on presenting an inventory of selected phonological and syntactic items which are problems for native Farsi speakers who want to learn English.

A major question asked is whether literacy skills from a first language are able to be transferred to a second language that does not share the same writing features, grammar, graphic conventions or even the same type of writing system. The purpose of this study was to analyse the role of first language literacy in second language acquisition where languages are quite different. Specifically, it was designed to investigate the relationships between first language(Persian) writing skills and second language(English) writing performance. That is, it investigated the extent to which Iranian primary school children who were already literate in their first language drew upon literacy skills and concept knowledge of literacy from their first language to use in their second language. It was hypothesised that second language learning might be affected by both learners' and parents' attitudes and motivations. Subjects for the study were 70 Iranian students in grades 3, 4, and 5 who attended NSW state primary schools plus Persian School on Saturday and Sunday. Results of the study indicated that the first language Farsi writing skills specifically linguistic and holistic skills were transferred to the English language. Parents' influence on children's English writing skills were not found to be an important determinate in linguistic and holistic writing measures, although there was a relationship between the active parental influence variable and students' English writing technical skills. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Le travail statistique a finalement été effectué avec 317 personnes. Les outils de collecte de données étaient l'inventaire de personnalité NEO PI-R, la version abrégée du questionnaire de l’OMS sur la qualité de vie et le questionnaire d'intelligence culturelle. Pour l'analyse des données, des statistiques descriptives et inférentielles (analyse de corrélation, régression et équations structurelles) ont été utilisées. Les résultats montrent que les traits de personnalité ont une corrélation significative avec la qualité de vie. Parmi ces traits, il y a une corrélation négative avec le névrosisme et une corrélation positive avec les quatre autres facteurs. Par ailleurs, tous les facteurs de la variable « qualité de vie » présentent une corrélation positive significative avec toutes les composantes de l’intelligence culturelle. En ce qui concerne les indices de qualité de l'ajustement du modèle final, nous pouvons affirmer que le modèle fourni et ses coefficients de régression montrent que ces coefficients expliqueraient avec précision la prédiction de la qualité de vie basée sur les traits de personnalité et l'intelligence culturelle. / The statistical work was completed with 317 people. The data collection tools were NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), short version of the WHO quality of life questionnaire and the Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire. For analyzing the data, descriptive and inferential statistics (correlation analysis, regression, and structural equations) were used. The findings show that personality traits have a significant correlation with the quality of life. Among those traits, there is a negative correlation with neuroticism and a positive one with the other four factors. Meanwhile, all the factors of variable “quality of life” have a significant positive correlation with all the components of cultural intelligence. Regarding the goodness-of-fit indices of the final model, we can claim that the provided model and its regression coefficients show that these coefficients would accurately explain the prediction of the quality of life based on personality traits and cultural intelligence.

This thesis examines the adaptation of Iranian Canadians (immigrants from Iran in Canada) to the new cultural environment with a special focus on a paradigm shift in their lingua-cultural attitudes. More specifically, it examines the attitudes of Iranian Canadians to ta’arof, an important politeness phenomenon in Farsi that has attracted the attention of many scholars of linguistics and anthropology. The actual use of ta’arof as well as attitudes to its use are compared for two groups of first generation Canadian Iranians (60 participants total), with long and short periods of exposure to Canadian culture. All the participants come from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This thesis is informed by linguistic relativity, acculturation and politeness theories. The study employs a questionnaire survey as its methodology, commonly used in sociolinguistic studies (e.g. Makarova & Hudyma, 2015; Clement, 1986). The questionnaire contains questions about the respondents' use of ta’arof in different situations, and their attitudes to ta’arof. In addition, it included some sociocultural questions aimed at evaluating the respondents’ level of acculturation. The goal of this study is to describe the use of ta’arof and attitudes to its use among first generation Canadian Iranians, as well as to examine whether social variables such as length of stay in Canada, gender, education and English proficiency contribute to a change in attitudes to ta’arof among first generation Iranian immigrants in Canada. The results show that all the social variables in this study, namely age, gender, education, English proficiency, length of stay in Canada and acculturation can be either positively or negatively correlated with the participants’ use of ta’arof and their attitudes to ta’arof. The results also indicate that “ethnic self-identification,” in terms of “Canadian,” “Iranian,” or “Iranian Canadian,” is positively correlated with “the length of stay in Canada.” The Iranian immigrants with longer duration of stay in Canada are more likely to identify themselves as “Iranian Canadian” than as “Iranian.” Other findings suggest that the Iranian immigrants who have lived for a long perid of time in Canada provide higher acculturation-level responses and use ta’arof less in their interactions with Iranians and non-Iranians in Canada, as compared to immigrants who have lived in Canada for a short period of time. The latter group yields lower acculturation-level responses, and their attitudes to ta’arof are significantly more positive. Overall, even though the Iranian Canadian participants report the use ta’arof in Canada not only in communication within the Iranian diaspora, but also sometimes in communication with members of other Canadian ethnic groups, they dislike the pressures imposed by ta’arof, do not want to teach it to their children, and have overall rather negative attitudes towards ta’arof and its use. With the increase of the duration of stay in Canada, the attitudes to ta’arof become significantly more negative.

This empirical study examines the conflict coverage of two leading Farsi-language news media, Iran International and BBC Persian, regarding peace journalism (PJ) and war journalism (WJ) and the 2022 conflict in Ukraine. Drawing upon available scholarly work in the field of PJ and WJ (studies) and within a normative debate, this research argues that the existing model of PJ/WJ is dualistic and binary. Then, the study conceptualizes and suggests a new concept of semi-war journalism (SWJ), which transforms the existing dualistic model into a multi-dimensional one. The study provides a background on the Farsi-language media ecosystem. It additionally presents an intensive account of the background of the 2022 conflict in Ukraine and demonstrates that this is not a two-party conflict but a multi-party conflict. Also, the conflict has its internal roots in the Ukraine.  Conducting a literature review of the existing scholarship, the study demonstrates that a small share of the journalistic works fulfills the criteria of PJ, and the 2022 conflict in Ukraine is understudied. Apart from PJ/WJ subjects, in many other aspects, Farsi-language media are understudied as well. Qualitative content analysis of twelve news articles from the website of the media under study from their coverage of the 2022 conflict in Ukraine in six months, from February 2022 to July 2022, is conducted. The findings reveal that the dominant frame in all articles is elite-oriented reporting, in which elites are taken into consideration either as the source of information or as actors. Employing PJ/WJ and framing theory, it is concluded that Iran International’s coverage sharply leans toward WJ, with five out of six articles with the WJ approach and only one SWJ article. BBC Persian is chiefly aligned with SWJ (three articles), while it has one PJ article and two WJ. The findings of this study are in line with previous research that underscored that only a small share of conflict reporting fulfills the criteria of PJ, while it seems that, in the case of BBC Persian, there is a shift away from WJ to the two other approaches (SWJ and PJ).

Languages occasionally have syntactic constructions that are difficult, if not impossible, to describe using a context-free grammar. One such construction is a crossing dependency. Crossing dependencies have been well studied for Dutch and Swiss German (Huybregts, 1976; Shieber, 1985), and recently for Tagalog (Maclachlan and Rambow, 2003). In this paper I propose that Persian exhibits crossing dependencies. In this SOV language, a light verb construction in the future tense becomes interrupted by a future auxiliary verb, which agrees with its subject in person and number. The future auxiliary also splits passive constructions in a similar manner. These forms present interesting challenges for computational models of language. I will discuss implications of this phenomenon within current formal and linguistic theories.

This thesis discusses linguistic constraints on scrambling and flexibility in word order in spoken Persian (Farsi) and presents a computational model for efficient implementation of these constraints for a subset of Persian. Linguistic phenomena which we have studies include local scrambling, long distance scrambling, extrapolation of clauses, topicalisation, case tendancy and the discourse marker ra. The work extends previous work on Persian based on Government and Binding (GB) theory by considering the pragmatic aspects of Persian Grammar and long distance scrambling.

This thesis seeks to investigate the various forces that have shaped modern Persianate children‘s literature - history, revolution, political climate, government, institutions, writers, education, and so on. The historical origins of tales popular in modern times, and of themes recurrent in stories from past times to present are analyzed, along with other factors which have shaped Persianate children‘s literature. The thesis begins with a historical and theoretical overview relating to change and continuity in Persianate children‘s literature. It examines the influence of ancient texts on modern Persianate children‘s stories. The cultural development reflected in the organizational infrastructure of institutions is also examined, as well as other contemporary influences, both social and political, in order to assess how these have affected modern Persianate children‘s literature. The contents of children‘s books are analyzed from different aspects, including their representation of social values. Concerns of children themselves are shown in examples of their own work; in addition, works of illustrators of children‘s books, and examples from the extended body of Persianate children‘s literature in Tajikistan are analyzed. Modern children‘s literature is the product of a number of influences and while differences can be perceived between historical periods, underlying similarities can also be seen which show a continuity of socio-political purpose, either supporting the status quo or challenging it. The thesis is concerned with this interplay between the recurring uses of children‘s literature; moralistic, didactic, the political agenda of its authors, criticism of the status quo, etc. and the surface changes which attract attention and which create an appearance of change in its underlying purpose. Fashions and styles may change, but children still read, firstly in order to learn to read, and then for information and amusement. The author contends that, in reality a limited number of changes are possible in the purpose of children‘s literature, and the age-old arguments likewise continue about what those are: entertainment or preparation for the harsh realities of life, retreat into fantasy and acceptance of one‘s place or incitement to rebel and change the world. / Information Science / D.Litt. et Phil.

This thesis seeks to investigate the various forces that have shaped modern Persianate children‘s literature - history, revolution, political climate, government, institutions, writers, education, and so on. The historical origins of tales popular in modern times, and of themes recurrent in stories from past times to present are analyzed, along with other factors which have shaped Persianate children‘s literature. The thesis begins with a historical and theoretical overview relating to change and continuity in Persianate children‘s literature. It examines the influence of ancient texts on modern Persianate children‘s stories. The cultural development reflected in the organizational infrastructure of institutions is also examined, as well as other contemporary influences, both social and political, in order to assess how these have affected modern Persianate children‘s literature. The contents of children‘s books are analyzed from different aspects, including their representation of social values. Concerns of children themselves are shown in examples of their own work; in addition, works of illustrators of children‘s books, and examples from the extended body of Persianate children‘s literature in Tajikistan are analyzed. Modern children‘s literature is the product of a number of influences and while differences can be perceived between historical periods, underlying similarities can also be seen which show a continuity of socio-political purpose, either supporting the status quo or challenging it. The thesis is concerned with this interplay between the recurring uses of children‘s literature; moralistic, didactic, the political agenda of its authors, criticism of the status quo, etc. and the surface changes which attract attention and which create an appearance of change in its underlying purpose. Fashions and styles may change, but children still read, firstly in order to learn to read, and then for information and amusement. The author contends that, in reality a limited number of changes are possible in the purpose of children‘s literature, and the age-old arguments likewise continue about what those are: entertainment or preparation for the harsh realities of life, retreat into fantasy and acceptance of one‘s place or incitement to rebel and change the world. / Information Science / D.Litt. et Phil.