Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran.
10.22034/jmzf.2024.427238.1167
Abstract
"God" in Persian slang terms: general concepts and specific concepts
Sasan Maleki[1]
Abstract
Vernacular is one of the informal types of language that originates from the realities of people's lives. This type of language has different components and one of its components is slang terms. The purpose of this descriptive-analytical research is to investigate general concepts and detailed concepts in popular terms including the word "God". For this purpose, we extracted slang terms including the word "God" and literary evidence of their use from Najafi's Persian slang dictionary (1387) and classified them conceptually. The findings showed that the mentioned terms, on a general level, refer to the concepts of "emphasis", "hope", "support", "jealousy", "arrogance", "mercy", "probability", "irresponsibility". , "time", "opportunity", "power", "intensity", "awareness" and "oppression" are implied and most terms, according to the context of their use, formulate unique details of a general concept. One of the remarkable findings of the current research is that by using some terms including the word "God", it is possible to conceptualize the general concept of "time" in the form of "infinity" and "unknown". The recent finding adds to the results of previous studies in the Persian language, in which "time" was analyzed in the form of conceptual metaphors of "place", "object", "person", and "container". In general, it can be concluded from the discussed topics that slang terms are not just phrases to express the generality of some abstract concepts, but they express unique details of general concepts according to the context of their use; In such a way that if non-idioms are used to express details that are somehow compressed in terms, we will end up talking long and complicated.
Introduction
Slang terms are one of the components of the slang language. Idioms, from a linguistic point of view, are unconventional categories, and their unconventionality is due to the fact that unlike conventional language expressions, the concept of an idiom is different from the literal meanings of its components. For example, the term "taking someone's head" means "talking too much and for this reason, hurting someone" and apparently, there is no connection between the words that make up this term and its general meaning.
Statement of the problem and research questions
The current research is based on this general consideration that some concepts are compressed in some way in linguistic terms and the terms, according to the context of their use, express dimensions beyond a general concept in a detailed way. The questions of this research are:
1) slang terms including the word "God", in general, which abstract concepts do they imply?
2) What details of a general concept do slang terms including the word "God" express in each context?
Research Methodology
In this descriptive-analytical research, folk idioms including the word "God" and the literary evidence of their use were extracted from the Persian folk culture of Najafi (1387) and analyzed at two levels, general and detailed.
Discuss
In the present study, it was first discussed that linguistic terms are considered non-combinable phenomena from the perspective of formal linguistics, but from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, they are motivated by the mechanisms of metaphor, permission and conventional knowledge. Then, the issue of conventionality of formal and substantive terms and terms were discussed and then, popular terms including the word "God" were analyzed on two general and detailed levels based on the literary evidence of their use.
Conclusion
In response to the first question of the research, the conclusion was reached that in colloquial Persian, terms including the word "God" generally refer to the concepts of "emphasis", "hope", "support", "jealousy", "arrogance", " Mercy, possibility, irresponsibility, time, opportunity, strength, intensity, awareness, and oppression.
In response to the second question of the research, it was concluded that except for the 2 essential terms "(that) God knows" and "(of) God is unaware" and the formal term "God + unpleasant name", the rest of the terms have unique details. They express individual and beyond general concepts according to the context of their use.
From all the topics discussed, it can be concluded that slang terms are not just phrases to express the generality of some abstract concepts, but according to the context of their use, they express details beyond the general concepts and if non-idioms are to be used to express those details that are somehow compressed in terms, then we will end up talking long and complicated.
[1]. Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran.
sassanmaleki@yahoo.com
Received date: 1402/05/06 (2023/07/28) Accepted date: 1403/11/07 (2024/01/27)
Keywords
