‘Rā’ an Adposition or Function-marker? A Functional-Cognitive Approach to the Grammatical Category of ‘rā’

Abstract:
One of the most disputable elements of Persian is ‘rā’. But what is most debated on is its function. In this investigation based on Prototype Theory, it is focused on another aspect of ‘rā’ which is its grammatical category. Because recognizing grammatical category of different elements of a language and this puzzling element of Persian, is really influential in teaching and learning. So far ‘rā’has been called as object marker or case marker, discourse marker and postposition. In this study, first, it is focused on historical, typological, and syntactic properties that adpositions and ‘rā’ have in common. Then semantic features of ‘rā’ are discussed based on a functional-cognitive framework. The analysis shows that according to categorization and Prototype Theory, which is one of the central components of cognitive approach, ‘rā’ is still an adposition, but it is located on the periphery of this category. And ‘rā’ is getting far away from the prototypes of this category such as ‘dar’ (in) and ‘bā’ (with). Furthermore, ‘rā’ is on a continuum of ‘adposition-function marker’ which denotes it is converting from a postposition to a function-marker in the process of grammaticalization. In teaching Persian, we can refer to both categories of ‘rā’. It is suggested that ‘rā’ as an adposition is taught in basic levels and as a function-marker in advanced levels.
Extended Abstract:
 ‘Rā’ is one of the segments of the Persian language that is troublesome in teaching and learning Persian as a second language. This study investigates the grammatical category of ‘rā’ based on Prototype Theory and Cognitive approach. Grammatical categories like noun, verb, adjective, and adposition are of great importance to teachers and learners because these categories can provide regularity in instructional material and a better apprehension of the structure of the second language. Since there are ambiguities about functions and grammatical category of ‘rā’, it ^[1]is one of the most challenging elements of the Persian language.
Apart from teaching, determining the category of ‘rā’ is applicable to typology. The head-directionality parameter which presents word order of a language, is one the influential criteria in typology. If it is proved that ‘rā’is still an adposition, it will be the only postposition of Persian and the head of a phrase.
Linguists consider different categories for ‘rā’. A marker (Ghomeshi, 1997), a postposition (Lazard, 2003), and a morpheme (Sadrai, 2014) are  the categories which are assigned to ‘rā’. Some others assume it as a postposition and a discourse marker together (Dabir-Moghaddam, 1992 & 2001, Iemmolo, 2010). However, the grammatical category of ‘rā’ is not probed deeply, and the factors are not stated clearly to support the idea of being a postposition or a function marker.
In this investigation, it is presumed that the category of ‘rā’ is fuzzy due to different functions assigned to it. In fact, this element is not considered the best exemplar (or prototype) of the adposition category, but it is still a member of this category. To achieve this goal, it is focused on historical, typological, and syntactic properties that adpositions and rā have in common The first hypothesis is that ‘rā’ is still an adposition, but it is located on the periphery of this category. According to Prototype Theory, membership in a category is determined by a bunch of features.
The entities which possess the most features are the prototypical members and the elements which display fewer features, are still considered a member of the category but they are located on the periphery (Givón 1979 & 2001, Hopper & Thompson 1984, Anderson 1997, and Taylor 2003). In the second step, it is hypothesized that ‘rā’ is on a continuum of ‘adposition-function marker’. In other words, it is converting from a postposition to a function-marker through the process of grammaticalization .
The results of the present investigation provide evidence for considering ‘rā’ as an adposition but on the outlier of this grammatical category. From historical, typological, and syntactic point of view, ‘rā’ have similarities with other prepositions of Persian. For instance, it cannot be used with other prototypical prepositionssuch as ‘dar’ (in) and ‘bā’ (with) in a single sentence which implies its syntactic distribution corresponds to other prepositions.But due to lack of lexical meaning, it is getting away from the core of the category where we can find prepositions with lexical meaning. So the first hypothesis is confirmed.Furthermore, the analysis shows that ‘rā’ connotes grammatical meaning such as definiteness, totality, specificity, and referentiality. As a result, it is approaching the grammatical polar of the ‘adposition-function marker’ continuum. In fact, if the verb of a sentence compels the presence of ‘rā’, it will be an adposition. And if it is determined by discourse, ‘rā’ will be a function marker. As the former treatment of ‘rā’ resembles that of other prepositions and the latter differs from them, we can consider ‘rā’ rā’ on a scale of ‘adposition-function marker’. Actually, it is suggested that we assigntwo positionson this scale to ‘rā’based on being an adposition or a function-marker. Therefore, the second hypothesis is approved
In teaching Persian, we can refer to both categories of ‘rā’. This element as an adposition can be taught in basic levels and as a function-marker in advanced levels. While students are getting more knowledgeable about the meaning of prepositions in first levels of learning Persian, teaching ‘rā’ as an adposition would be helpful for understanding this puzzling element. When students make progress in learning prepositions and master the basics, ‘rā’ can be referred to as a function-marker. Because, in such a case, it is discourse that affect the presence of ‘rā’. So advanced students who have better perception of co-text and context, can readily understand the reason of the presence of ‘rā’.
The functions and the category of ‘rā’ are not mentioned comprehensively in Persian teaching textbooks.Now we can find a solution to develop the instructional material and teach this puzzling element more effectively based on Prototype Theory.