---

Tense plays an important and determining role in human verbal communication; therefore, one of the things that should be addressed in language teaching is the discussion of time and ways to recognize it. Considering the role and importance of grammatical tense recognition in language learning and the lack of related research regarding Persian language learning, the purpose of the present research is to investigate the role of available cues in sentences to recognize grammatical tense by Chinese Persian learners of beginner and advanced levels; For this purpose, 49 Persian learners of Chinese language were selected by available sampling method and divided into two groups of Chinese language beginner (26) and advanced (23) based on the level determination test. The instruments used in this research were two tests in two stages; In the first stage, by using the sentence recognition test, the subjects marked the time of the sentences they heard in the answer sheet, and in the second stage, the same test was performed; with the difference that in this test, the sentences did not have time adverbs. The results of this research showed that the subjects of the beginner Chinese language meaningfully used lexical clues when recognizing the time of the sentence, and the subjects of the advanced level simultaneously used two lexical clues and present tense. Regarding the role of gender, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between gender and the ability to understand sentence time. The results of this research can be useful for language learners, teachers, and producers of educational content and also for test designers.
 

---

The present paper intends to apply the Tense theory of Harald Weinrich to the study of tense in two Persian novels, Boofe Koor and Soveshoon. The findings show that categorization of texts into discussion and narration by Weinrich, could be applied in Persian fiction. Ayande (Future), Haal (Present) and Naqli (Perfect) construct those parts of a text that more tend to have qualities of discussion and discourse. On the other hand, past tenses like Gozashte Sadde (Simple Past), Gozashte Estemrari (Past Progressive) and Gozashte Dour / Ba'eed (Past Perfect) more tend to construct narrative parts of the texts. In addition, each group has its own past, present and future. In discussion system, Naqli plays the role of stating past, Haal is the zero point and states the present and Ayande states the future. On the other hand, in narration system, Gozashte Dour stating past and both Gozashte Sadde and Gozashte Estemrari are zero points and state the present. Moreover, we can say there is not a specific tense in Persian to state the future in this system. Finally, two tenses of Gozshte Sadde and Gozshte Estemarai play a role of foregrounding in narration system. The parts stated by Gozashte Estemrari usually are located on the background of the scene, while the main points of the narration which is stated by Gozashte Sadde are located on the foreground of the scene.

---

In the present article, the frequency and percentage distribution of the kinds of tenses have been analyzed. The goal is to discover the narrative stylistics, some aspects of grammatical voices and the degree of distance from reality. The theoretical framework is based on systematic functional grammar and traditional grammar. Its corpus contains 15890 verbs, which have been selected by systematic sampling in which 16 tenses have been analyzed. The statistical findings show hat the present tense with 64% consists the most and the future tense with 3% is the least. The past tense includes 35% of the all. Aspect of the past tense is 4% and of the present is zero. Also the imperative and subjunctive is 18%.  The high percentage of the present tense shows that Rumi enjoys a humanistic philosophy and he thinks of living here and now. He uses the past  stories and events to explain the dispositions of the people, which results in dialogue and polyphony of the present and the past.      

---

In the last two decades, several approaches to the theory of word formation have emerged which are sometimes quite different in spirit. In contrast to the lexicalist approaches, the theory of Distributed Morphology claims that the complex structure of a word is created in the same way as is the complex structure of a phrase or sentence. Focusing on complex agentive adjectives, the present study argues that there is aparallel between syntactic structure of simple sentences and morphological structure of synthetic compounds in Persian. For this, first the structure of simple sentences will be briefly examined within the framework of Distributed Morphology, before returning to the derivation of compounds. Then, it will be argued that the same hierarchy of lexical and functional projections, including tense and aspect projections, can be found in the morphological structure of agentive adjectives. Finlly, based on the theoretical and empirical considerations provided in the previous sections, the traditional view on the word-formation of agentive adjectives will be totally rejected.On the basis of this analysis, pairs like “dars-xān” (educating) and “dars-xānde” (educated) are both agentive adjectives which just differ in the tense feature and the presence/absence ofAspect Projection, no matter whether the verbal stem is present or past.  

---

  The present study investigates the auxiliary selection in the languages which use this way to encode perfect and progressive aspect, future tense and passive. In other words, it investigates how Persian makes use of the universal auxiliary categories, be and have, and then it attempts to find out the similarities and differences between this language and others with regard to the selection of these verbs. In the next step the gathered data is analyzed within the framework of croft (2003). The study of various languages showed that the selection of each of auxiliary verbs is not an accidental matter but represents different grammatical and historical development. It is concluded that Persian tends to select the verb be for the perfective aspect and in this way it is more similar to Germanic languages rather than Romance ones. With regard to progressive aspect this language uses the verb have and used to select the verb be before with respect to passive voice although it now uses another auxiliary verb as the production of language invention. For future tense the concept of volition remains in its auxiliary verb. Thus some Persain language usages of the auxiliary verbs follow the universal markedness hierarchy while others are restricted to a few number of world’s languages.

---

The purpose of this research is studying the structure of tense and aspect in Bala-Guerive Luri dialect. Bala-Guerive Luri is a variety of Luri dialect spoken by the inhabitants of Khorram Abad city, Lurestan province, Iran. The data have been collected through a ten hours recording of everyday conversations of Lur informants; and analyzed descriptively. This dialect has two tenses: past and non-past. Thus there are simple present, simple past, present perfect and past perfect. The representation of aspect in this dialect is different from Farsi. In this dialect perfective aspect is represented by simple past, present perfect and past perfect. Imperfective and progressive aspects in present time are shown by /h/ and in the past time are shown by /he: /. imperfective aspect is also shown by present perfect structure. Proximate aspect in the present time is shown by/ h/ with agreement to main verb in person and number and in the past time is shown by / hs/ with no agreement to main verb.

---

This article analyzes the function of the verb in the elements of anecdote and narrations.
Efforts have been made to show the importance of verb in narration’s grammar, and its relations with anecdotal elements. Study of the fundamental concepts of narrations, especially the new classifications of narration verbs is one of the goals of this project.
In this study, some of the structural elements of the story; such as the plot, tone, and characters have been assessed with due regard to verbs. By assessment of view of experts in this domain; efforts have been made to present new genres of anecdotes to the related addressees.
The tenses of the verb and their dual roles in grammar and narration have been taken into consideration. Efforts have been made to present examples of anecdotes; and to show how the authors have dealt with particular tenses of the verb; while elaborating on the benefits and restrictions of each of them in relation to the story’s persona, and the rhetoric within the narration.

---

1- INTRODUCTION
Distributed Morphology (DM) introduced in Halle and Marantz (1993, 1994) in the early 1990s is a grammatical model that has emerged within the framework of Principles and Parameters. DM which represents a set of hypotheses about the interaction among components of grammar, including Morphology, syntax and phonology claims that the complex structure of a word is created in the same way as is the complex structure of a phrase or sentence. It is important to say that Distributed Morphology is a framework within the Minimalist Program (MP) which rejects the Lexicalist hypothesis and the notion of a generative lexicon (Siddiqi 2009). In this linguistic model, there is only one generative component of the grammar (the syntax) whereas in Lexicalist Minimalism, there are two (the syntax and the lexicon). The four fundamental differences between DM and Lexicalist Minimalism to be mentioned here are categorization, late-insertion, morphosyntactic decomposition, and underspecification. These key notions are very important for my revision in the Persian past tense inflection.
2- Key Concepts: Root and Root Allomorphy
As I told above, there are four characteristics that distinguished DM from MP. But before going through them, I should briefly discuss what is meant by Root and Root Allomorphy in DM. These two concepts are continuously referred through this article. In addition to functional morphemes, the grammar contains morphemes that are called Roots. By definition, Roots are the members of the open-class vocabulary of a language. This part of the vocabulary is typically thought of as connecting with concepts: a system of mental representations of classes, which exists outside of the grammar (Embick 2015 for an overview). The representation and use of Roots is a complex issue, because of their dual nature as grammatical objects that have important connections with (presumably) extragrammtical cognitive systems. A hypothesis that has been adopted in much work is that Roots can be represented by different allomorphs at the PF. Within this framework I will show that a Root like √bin (see) has two different allomorphs in Persian, one of them is bin and the other one is di. This article proposes an analysis of root allomorphy (e.g., ketāb “book”/ kotob “books”) within the framework of DM that showcases the economy constraint minimize exponence. It also accomplishes two other things: First, following Siddiqi (2009), it proposes some of the revisions to the framework of DM in related to the root allomorphy and readjustment rules. Second, it provides an analysis of verbal allomorphy in Persian (e.g., bin/ di). It should be emphasized that when roots appear in the derivation, they do not have grammatical category. This is the first difference between DM and MP which is discussed in the next part.
3- Theoretical Framwork
The theoretical framwork of DM is based on the following characteristics.
3-1- Categorization
An important property of Roots is that they have no grammatical category inherently. This assumption derives from earlier work on derivational morphology. According to the category-free theory of Roots, traditional lexical categories like ‘noun’ or ‘verb’ or ‘adjective’ are convenient shorthand labels that refer to syntactic structures in which a Root combines with a category-defining functional head such as little n or v or a. This is what happens for that a root like √bin (see). During the derivation, it may merge with a little noun head to generate the noun bineš (vision), or it can absorb a little adjective head for producing binande (viewer) and so on.
3-2- Late insertion
Terminologically, theories that allow for morphemes to receive phonological form after they are combined in the syntactic component are said to have late insertion process. In DM, unlike in GB and its Lexicalist derivatives, rather than manipulating fully formed words, the syntax only manipulates abstract formal features to generate syntactic structures. These morphosyntactic features (such as [plural] and [past]) are selected from a fixed list of abstract features (or feature bundles) rather than being selected from the output of a generative lexicon. The late insertion hypothesis (Halle & Marantz 1994) holds that the phonology which represents the morphological features manipulated by the syntax is provided at PF rather than being present throughout the derivation. At spellout, syntactic terminals in DM are entirely comprised of interpretable features (including roots). Only once all syntactic processes are finished with the structure is phonological content added. This phonology is provided by a component of the grammar called the Vocabulary. The Vocabulary is a static list of items whose function in the grammar is to provide phonology to realize the interpretable features contained in the terminal nodes of a derivation so that that derivation can be pronounced. Individual items within this list are called Vocabulary Items (or VIs for short).
3-3- Morphosyntactic decomposition
One of the strengths of the Distributed Morphology framework is the parallel between syntactic structure and morphological structure. Since the grammar of DM manipulates only syntactic features, the complex structure of a word is created in the same way as is the complex structure of a sentence. Spelling out a complex constituent of the syntax as a “phrase” or a “word” depends on the nature of VIs in the structure. In this model not only the verb mi-binam (I see) is produced in syntax, but also the noun bineš (vision) is derived in the same component.
3-4- Underspecification
Distributed Morphology uses underspecification in the insertion of Vocabulary Items into a terminal node of the syntax. The insertion of a VI is governed by the subset principle which allows for a VI with certain specifications to be inserted into any node that satisfies those specifications, regardless of whether or not it exceeds those specifications. This characteristic of DM is very important for my proposal regarding to past inflection in Persian.
4- Results & Discussion
Based on the above theoretical framework, I try to investigate the properties of the functional heads such as T and Agr to which verbal elements adjoin and show how past tense suffixes and phi-features are absorbed by the verbs. To account for this, first I briefly review the literature on the Modern Persian tense affixes and root allomorphy, before providing a survey of DM, specifically focusing on how it is different from Lexicalist Minimalism. In line with what holds for verb movement in simplex ‎and complex predicates, I will discuss in detail that lexical and grammatical verbs within the little vP move to T via a post-syntactic operation, i.e. morphological merger, to pick up inflectional morphology. Contrary to the claim in the literature, I finally suggest that the automatic phonological alternation “-d/ -t” is the only past tense affix in Persian (this explanation is also true for the past participle and infinitive affixes). According to this analysis, there are no present or past stems in Persian, but a Root like “√bin” (see) has two allomorphs “bin” and “di” while condition under which they occur is predictable and can be described in purely phonological (not morphological) terms: the latter must always be inserted immediately before a morpheme with an initial /d/, and the former obeys elsewhere condition. This conclusion is based on the underspecification and subset principle introduced above.
5- Conclusions
The present study shows that:
1. The automatic phonological alternation “-d/ -t” is the only past tense affix in Persian.
2. The automatic phonological alternation “-de/ -te” is the only past participle affix in Persian.
3. The automatic phonological alternation “-dan/ -tan” is the only infinitive affix in Persian.
4. A Root like “√bin” (see) has two allomorphs in Persian:
       4-1- Di: appears before an affix with an initial /d/, such as: didār, dide, didan, didam.
       4-2- Bin: appears elsewhere, such as: bineš, binande, binā, mi-binam.
 

---

Across most languages, verbs produced by agrammatic aphasics are frequently marked by syntactically and semantically inappropriate inflectional affixes. The present study focuses on tense and grammatical agreement in the speech of Persian agrammatic aphasics according to the Tree Pruning Hypothesis (Friedmann & Grodzinsky, 1997). We wanted to know whether or not all functional morphemes are equally affected in this syndrome. We hypothesized that tense features are more severely impaired than agreement inflection. So we evaluated two Persian agrammatic patients in this descriptive-analytic study. They were classified as agrammatic Broca's aphasics according to the Persian aphasia test. The spontaneous speech, verb completion task and sentence repetition task were also designed and performed. Our findings showed that tense features are more severely impaired than agreement inflection. Results did not indicate a significant difference between different aspects of the Past tense; there was a significant difference between the mean of responses to Past tense in comparison to Present tense and Future. Our findings showed that the impairment in use of Past tense was more than the other tenses. On the other hand, tense features were more severely impaired than agreement inflection. This is because in languages with a rich system of agreement inflections like Persian, the verb agreement is a phonological representation of agreement between subject and verbal head in a specific position called Inflection phrase. Subject-verb agreement errors may occur because there is no movement of verb from the head of the tense phrase to the head of the agreement phrase as a kind of head-to head movement. The general idea is that the selective pattern of impairment in Broca's agrammatic aphasia and the dissociations witnessed in tense and agreement use follows from the inaccessibility of high nodes of the syntactic tree to agrammatic speakers. This causes syntactic structures that relate to high nodes of the tree to be impaired in agrammatism, whereas lower structures are unimpaired. A retrospective examination of the literature shows that our findings are corroborated by others. These findings also bear upon central issues in linguistic theories, such as checking theory in Minimalist Program by Noam Chomsky (1992) and that of Pollock (1989), regarding split inflection.
 

---

Negation is one of the basic concepts in natural languages. In all natural languages, there exist negative statements corresponding to positive sentences. The meaning of negative sentences in these languages is contrary to the meaning of the corresponding positive sentences. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the morphological and syntactic representation of negation and its position in Lori dialect of Kohgilouyeh based on Minimalist Program. In this regard, the main research questions are:
1- Is the negative marker in Lori dialect a word or a prefix?
2. Does the negative marker place in different positions in Lori dialect?
Based on the main research questions, the following main hypotheses are expressed:
1. Negative marker in Lori dialect is a word.
2. Negative marker places in different positions in Lori dialect.
Although one of the authors is the native speaker of this dialect, the research data was extracted from the speech of five male and female elderly speakers, as well. The research results show that the negative marker in Lori dialect precedes the Tense Phrase/TP as an independent phrase and occurs in different positions in the sentence. In non-attributive and interrogative sentences, the negative marker manifesting in the head position of Negative Phrase (NegP1), first precedes the TP and then it is attracted by the verb.  In this position, the relationship between the verb and the head of the negative phrase is realized by Agreement relation. The Negative Phrase2 (NegP2) is another position in which this marker appears in the indicative attributive sentences. In this position, the negative marker is not subject to any movement and remains in its situ position. In addition, in these sentences, the negative marker can also move to the specifier of Focus Phrase/FP. Similarly, the negative marker can occupy the head position of Complementizer Phrase/CP­ in yes-no question sentences. Moreover, this marker can be used as a prefix before the verb and also locate before the TP as a negative adverb.
 

---

     Khanik is a historical village in south part of the Kakhk rural district, Gonabad city in Razavi Khorasan Province. Its people use different constructions of infinitive such as [mæ:jstæ:] (shahkoorzadeh, 1984: 599) and [mæstæ] (Rezaei, 1994: 429) in their speech. This verb has different meaning such as “to want”, “to like” and “to desire”. Due to the fact that different constructions of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] are prevalent in Khanikian dialect, it is one of the most applied verb in this dialect. This verb is mostly used as an auxiliary, while it is also used as an independent or main verb, it has a memorial history to speaker and listener. Some verbs of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] are seen in Persian texts of 4^th  and 5^th  century. This infinitive, verb or a construction of it aren’t present in great and valid dictionaries such as Borhan-e Ghate or Dehkhoda dictionary. In addition, there isn’t any trace of it in Old Persian languages. Different verbs of this infinitive have basic differences with standard Persian language such as having two stems.
      The main questions of this research is about the way of constructing the rare infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] and its nature.
Research questions:

1.  Are the past and present stems of the infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] different in Khanikian dialect?
2. What are the tenses, constructions and species of this infinitive in the past, future and imperative?
3.  Is there a verb or a construction which is not in standard Persian?

 Hypotheses:

1.  Difference in past and present stems is prevalent in this infinitive, which is remained since ancient Iranian languages.
2.  There are vast variety in present stems too.
3.  Building method of verbs of this infinitive is different from standard Persian and other verbs of Khanikian dialect.

 Methodology:
   The method of this research was based on traditional dialectology, in which researcher talked with speakers and records their voices. Then the questionnaire which had been filled by people, were analyzed.
   In this research which is the first one in its kind, different constructions of rare infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] in the past, present, future, interrogative forms, negative forms and imperative forms are described and analyzed. There are several differences among verbs of this infinitive with standard Persian. The most important point of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] is its high frequency and diversity in present and past form.
     There aren’t such diversities in other verbs of Khanikian dialect, especially in present form. In addition to current tenses in standard Persian, this infinitive has some other tenses which are not in Persian or other dialects (Ekhtiari, 2015: 36–45). A) Past tenses of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] are included:

• Simple past: with [x] and

with [bæ]

•  Past progressive: with [x]
•  Present perfect: with [xæ] and

with [bæ]

•  Present perfect progressive: with [xæ] and

with [bæ] (it rarely applies except than in first person)

• Past subjunctive: with [xæ] and

with [bæ]
in special case (due to the replacement of identifier) with [xæ]

• Past progressive subjunctive: with [bæ]

in special case with [xæ] (due to the replacement of identifier)

• Past perfect: with [x]
• Past perfect (in future form): (past in future), it isn’t in old or current Persian such as [ma:yesta m boda bo bor om] (Ekhtiari, 2016: 34-36)
• Past perfect progressive: with [x], Past perfect and past perfect progressive hasn’t heard with [bæ]
• Ab?ad (in past present perfect form): with [x]
• Ab?ad (in progressive form): with [xæ]

 
B) Present and future tenses:
    Simple present in Khanikian dialect has 12 different constructions such as simple future, future progressive and interrogative form. Some important differences of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] and four constructions with standard Persian language are as follows:

1. Lack of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] and its different constructions in standard Persian language. For example past progressive subjunctive, future progressive and present perfect in future are not in standard Persian.
2. Infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] has some present stems or roots which are in contrast with present stems in standard Persian.
3. There are some tenses of [mæ:jstæ:] in Khanikian dialect which standard Persian doesn’t have them.
4. Present and past intensifiers are different in construction of infinitive

[mæ:jstæ:], while in standard Persian six intensifiers in past and present are used alike.
    Making negative form of this infinitive, is in contrast with most verbs of the dialect. Sharifi (2011) believes in respect that “when there is negative element in verb construction, it is just after verbal prefix.” (Sharifi: 2011, 10), but in opposite of what is prevalent in most verbs of Khanikian dialect, verbs of infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] don’t have prefix and its negative form is in contrary with rules of other verbs in this dialect. For example positive form from a regular verb [var guftan] (to say) in this dialect is [vær gujʊ m] (I say) which its negative is [vær næ gujʊ m] (I don’t say), but when it comes with auxiliary verb from infinitive [mæ:jstæ:] negative mark is added at the beginning of auxiliary verb and it does not replace the place of identifier: [næ mæ m værgu: jʊm] (I don’t want to say).
    Introducing and reviving of this infinitive will help reconstruct about 500 verbs of Persian language (its past, present, future, negative, imperative and interrogative forms) which some of them are used in old text of Persian. In addition, its different method of verb construction will help Persian language ministration in word making.

---

This study examined the effect of metalinguistic feedback and revision on the accuracy of the regular and irregular simple past tense. To this end, 56 Azari-Turkish learners of English participated in a quasi-experimental study. The study lasted for 7 sessions. In session one, a proficiency test (KET) was administered to all learners. The learners in 4 classes were randomly assigned as a metalinguistic explanation (ME) group (N = 13), a metalinguistic explanation plus revision (R) group (N = 17), a revision group (N = 14), and a control group (N = 12). To get assurance as to the initial homogeneity of groups involved in terms of the dependent variable (i.e., past tense command), a pretest was administered. The feedback treatment was performed for 4 sessions. In each session all individuals were required to write a 150-word text in 20 min. All texts drafted in each session were returned to the same individuals with varying comments in line with the condition defined for each group. The texts produced by the control group were not manipulated. Finally, all learners took a post-test and completed an attitude questionnaire to assess their attitude towards the treatment. The results indicated that the metalinguistic explanation plus revision group outperformed the other groups significantly in the accurate use of the past tense. English teachers are advised to spare enough time to provide appropriate feedback along the writing tasks of Iranian learners of English.
 

---

The dialect of Tonekaboni differs from the dialects of the speakers in the East of Mazandaran and the West of Guilan where the native speakers of the three regions use Persian to communicate. During the implementation of a part of a research project and in order to find the reason for the lack of mutual understanding between the speakers of the east and west of Mazandaran and the difference between their dialects which both are taken into account as Mazandarani (Tabari) language, the author has concluded that the most important factor is the difference between the construction of their verbs due to the unusual stem in Tonekaboni verbs. The aim of this paper is to describe the verb stem and analyze its different structure in Tonekaboni dialect. In this research, a fieldwork for data gathering was applied through a targeted interview with 10 native speakers to obtain the different paradigms of verbs. The current study showed that verbs stems in this dialect were based on "aspect", while in most languages, like Iranian language family, the stems of verb are based on its tense (commonly present and past), to which inflectional affixes – including aspect of the verb – are attached. This study on one hand, introduces the distinctive feature of aspect -based stems in Tonekaboni, the most widely-used dialect of one of the Caspian language group, which is in decline; and on the other hand it may be useful for dialectology, typology and sociolinguistic studies.
 

---

This study compares and contrasts tense and inherent aspect in English and Persian lan-guage from a semantic and syntactic point of view. The aspectual verb system in both English and Persian are semantically interpreted alike. However, in Persian a group of stative verbs are grammaticalized by the imperfective obligatory morpheme mi-, while in English all sta-tive verbs perfective. Furthermore, while in Persian all accomplishment verbs can be shifted into activity verbs by deleting their direct object markers (i.e. by means of noun-incorporation), in English accomplishment verbs cannot be shifted into activity verbs2 . Fi-nally, while English has six tense forms such as present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect, Persian has only five tense forms; it lacks future perfect tense and present perfect tense is being used instead. Inherent aspect and tense are syntactically instan-tiated in both English and Persian. The model that has been followed is based on Arad's (1996) and Borer's (1994) views that the interface between the lexicon (i.e. meaning) and syn-tax is aspectually determined. Based on event-predicated based approach, telic events are projected by the aspectual projection of measurer where accusative case is also checked, at-elic events are projected by the aspectual projection of originator, where an agent interpreta-tion is determined, and non-dynamic situations are projected by neither the aspectual project tion of measurer nor originator; they are base-generator in the VP, because they are aspectually contentless. However, independently of these factors tense is uniform ally projected in the IP.

---

The present study investigated the differential influence of direct focused and unfocused written corrective feedback on the intermediate learners’ accuracy of simple past tense. To this end, 60 Iranian EFL learners were divided randomly into two experimental groups (focused and unfocused) and a control group. All groups were required to perform a story-writing task and deliver it to the teacher for four sessions. The focused group received feedback on regular and irregular simple past tense errors. The unfocused group received feedback on all types of errors. The control group received no feedback on their writing. Results revealed that the performance of the focused group was better than the unfocused and control groups on the immediate posttest. Results of the attitude questionnaire showed that learners preferred the focused feedback more than the unfocused one.

1. Introduction
Developing the writing skill in second language (L2) is a big challenge for learners (Zacharias, 2007) since they fail to use accurate sentences in their writings. In order to help them overcome such problems, teachers are recommended to provide written corrective feedback (WCF) on their errors (Hyland, 1990). Focused and unfocused corrective feedback are two common types of WCF provided on learners’ errors. In focused feedback, only one or two types of errors (e.g., only past tense) are corrected while in unfocused feedback all errors related to grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. are corrected by the teacher. Proponents of focused feedback (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2010a) claim that it can decrease the learners’ cognitive load and can facilitate mastering those forms. However, the advocators of unfocused feedback (e.g., Bruton, 2010) argue that focused feedback can delay developing the writing skill and can lead to fossilization. So far, a large body of previous studies have compared the role of focused and unfocused corrective feedback in improving the writing skill (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Marefat & Pashazade, 2016). However, the inconclusive results of the previous studies urge more future studies to shed light on the superiority of one type over the other. 
Analyzing the literature demonstrates that most previous studies have compared the effect of focused and unfocused feedback on structure-based errors which are easily corrected by consulting with a dictionary or grammar book including the article a and the (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Sheen et al., 2009), the prepositions (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016), and regular past tense (e.g., Frear, 2010). However, only a limited number of studies have addressed item-based errors which cannot be corrected relying on the information provided in books and are in need of teacher intervention and explanation such as conditional sentences (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016; Shintani et al., 2016) and passive voice (e.g., Palizvan, 2018). The present study intends to compare the influence of focused and unfocused feedback on a structure-based (i.e., regular past tense) and an item-based (i.e., irregular past tense) error. It also attempts to elicit learners’ attitudes towards these two types of feedback. The following research questions are formulated:

1. Do focused and unfocused corrective feedback influence learning regular and irregular past tense differently?
2. What are learners’ attitudes towards focused and unfocused corrective feedback?      

 
2. Literature Review
            To date a vast number of studies (e.g., Bruton, 2010; Ellis et al., 2008; Farrokhi & Sattarour, 2011; Frear, 2011; Lee, 2004; Sheen et al., 2009; Van Beuningen, 2010) have compared the role of focused and unfocused feedback on L2 writing. However, controversial findings have been achieved. Some (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2008; Farrokhi & Sattarpour, 2011; Sheen, 2007; Sheen et al., 2009) have found the superiority of focused feedback while some others (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Frear, 2010; Karimi & Fotovatnia, 2012; Rouhi & Samiei, 2010) have not found any significant difference between focused and unfocused feedback.
       The inconclusive results of the previous studies might be attributed to four main reasons. The first reason refers to the difference among the target forms which have been investigated. Some studies (e.g., Ellis et al., 2008; Shintani & Ellis, 2013) have examined the role of feedback in improving structure-based errors. While some others (e.g., Marefat & Pashazade, 2016; Palizvan, 2018) have investigated item-based errors. Frear (2002, 2003) argued that structure-based errors, which result in less cognitive load, improve more than item-based errors which need more cognitive processing. Since previous studies have investigated the role of focused and unfocused feedback on different structure-based and item-based errors, they have found different results.
       The second reason that can play an important role in the effectiveness of feedback is learners’ level of proficiency. High proficient learners can easily overcome the form-meaning competition (Van Patten, 2004) and pay attention to form more than low proficient learners who rely more on meaning. Different studies have compared the role of focused and unfocused feedback in the accuracy of low intermediate (e.g., Bitchener, 2008; Bitchener & Knoch, 2008, 2010a), intermediate (e.g., Sheen, 2007; Sheen et al., 2009), and even advanced learners (e.g., Rummel, 2014; Truscott & Hsu, 2008). Relying on the poor capacity of low proficient learners’ attention to language forms (Van Patten, 2004), those studies who have recruited low proficient learners are expected to result in little gains.
       The third reason goes for the degree of the salience of the focused or unfocused feedback for learners. Some studies have adopted direct feedback (e.g., Bichener & Knoch, 2008; Frear, 2012; Stefanou Revesz, 2015) in which errors are underlined or crossed out and the correct forms are written above.  Other studies have used indirect feedback (e.g., Rouhi & Samiei, 2010; Truscott & Hsu, 2008) in which errors are underlined but the correct forms are not provided. Studies which have compared the effect of direct and indirect feedback on L2 accuracy (e.g., Sheen et al., 2009; Van Beuningen et al., 2008) have found that direct feedback improves L2 accuracy more than indirect one. However, proponents of indirect feedback (e.g., Ferris, 2003) purport that it can result in more L2 accuracy since it urges learners to self-correction.
       The last reason refers to some methodological problems associated with previous studies. Ellis et al. (2008), that found no significant difference between focused and unfocused feedback, reported that the focused group was exposed to more feedback than the unfocused one. Sheen et al. (2009), that found focused feedback superior to unfocused one, explicitly stated that the unfocused group received feedback irregularly. Although a huge number of studies have compared the influence of focused and unfocused feedback on the accuracy of L2 writing, more future studies are needed to remove such controversies. The present study intends to compare the role of focused and unfocused corrective feedback on the accuracy of regular and irregular past tense among Iranian intermediate learners of English.
 
3. Methodology
            A total of 60 (39 female and 21 male) Iranian intermediate learners were recruited in an eight-session study. In the first session, all learners were given a proficiency test (Preliminary English Test) to ensure their homogeneity. They were then randomly divided into two experimental and one control group, 20 in each. In the second session, learners were given a pretest to measure their initial knowledge on past tense. In a four-session treatment, learners completed a written picture-description task and were required to embed as many past tense sentences as they could. The next session, they received the teachers’ feedback on their errors under three different conditions: The first experimental group received focused feedback on their regular and irregular past tense. The teacher had underlined their errors and had written their correct form using a red pen. The second experimental group received unfocused feedback on all types of errors. The teacher also had underlined and written their correct form using a red pen. The control group did not receive any feedback. The experimental groups were required to look at their corrected paper carefully for five min and give it back to the teacher. Then learners did the second picture-description task. They received the same treatment in the next two sessions. In session 7, learners took an immediate posttest. They were also given a Likert-scale attitude questionnaire to elicit their opinions on the treatment. Three weeks later, in session 8, they took a delayed posttest. 
      
4. Results and Discussion
                        Results of a one-way ANOVA run on the data obtained showed that the focused group outperformed the other groups significantly in producing more accurate simple past tense on the immediate posttest. Results of the present study are in line with some studies (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2010a, 2010b; Ellis et al., 2008) which have concluded the positive influence of focused feedback on L2 writing. However, such a gain was not maintained on the delayed posttest in which there was not a significant difference between the focused and unfocused groups. Results of the delayed posttest are supported by previous studies (e.g., Frear, 2010; Marefat & Pashazade, 2016) which found the similar effect of focused and unfocused feedback on learners’ writing skill.
The unfocused group of the present study who was overwhelmed with a large number of red-pen corrections failed to benefit from unfocused feedback due to high cognitive load. The outperformance of the focused group can be attributed to Schmidt’s (1990) noticing hypothesis. The focused group, who was provided with feedback on past tense only, paid more attention to the accuracy of past tense. Consequently, such a noticing and attention improved the accuracy of their past tense. Results of the questionnaire indicated that learners preferred focused corrective feedback over unfocused one. Results of the questionnaire are on a par with the results of one-way ANOVA. However, they are contrary to some studies (e,g., Lee, 2004, 2005; Oladejo, 1993) which found learners’ positive attitudes towards unfocused feedback.
As an implication of the study, results recommend language teachers to use more focused feedback, especially for intermediate learners’ written errors. Future researchers are commended to compare the role of focused and unfocused feedback on other item-based errors. Also, they are suggested to investigate the probable difference between the improvement of regular and irregular past tense under the influence of focused and unfocused feedback
           
 

---

The Persian morpheme ra has attracted the attention of many linguists including Karimi (1989), Dabir-Moghaddam (1990) and Ghomeshi (1996) among others. Karimi takes ra as the accusative case marker, the presence of which on subjects and objects of prepositions render the sentence ungrammatical. According to Ghomeshi (1996), it marks DPs functioning as VP-level topics. Dabir-Moghaddam (1990) analyzes ra as the secondary topic marker in the Halidayian Functional grammar framework. In none of these analyses, this morpheme appear on deep subjects. In this article, it is highlighted that ra may also mark subjects, just in case it occurs in the right grammatical configuration. More specifically Persian has the category of small clause in which an NP marked with ra is the subject of the small clause rathar than object of the matrix sentence. This is an unprecedented hypothesis in Persian linguistic literature. I also present a minimalist account of the construction in question.

---

The main question of the present study is that of psycholinguistic reality of Relative Tense in Persian; How Persian tenses are processed? Cross modal lexical decision tasks applied by dmdx software program have been used here to examine relative tense processing during sentence processing. Theoretical framework used here is that of Comrie (1985) linguistically and Shapiro (1990) psycholinguistically. Independent variable is the type of tense used in the verb form and the dependent variable is subjectsˈ reaction times to visual stimuli. 25 university students aged 18-30 participated in experiments who were divided into two groups; male and female participants. The results of the first experiment showed that sentences containing non-finite relative tense verbs, are processed later than the other tenses (present perfect, past perfect, and subjunctives). The explanation is to be found in the un-markedness of non-finites (lacking mood, tense, number). The results of the second experiment also showed that converting simple sentences to the complex ones will erase the meaningful differences in the participantsˈ reaction times.  This shows that the independent variable of sentence type is much more effective on cognitive load than tense type. In these two experiments the gender of the participants is not effective. The findings can be used in curriculum design for non-natives of Persians as it shows the cognitive load of relative tenses across memory.

1. Introduction
Different linguists have proposed different definitions for tense. This study investigates processing of sentences containing different  relative tenses of  Persian by the cross-modal lexical decision method. This psycholinguistic method has been used classically by Shapiro (1990) to estimate the cognitive load across the mind. The main question of this inquiry is the psycholinguistic reality of tense complexity hierarchy arranged for relative one. The theoretical framework is mainly based on episodic processing in which mental representations of linguistic items are not as abstract as it seems, but it is subject to the sensory input by which the representation is formed. Also the classification of Comrie (1985) on tenses has been applied here. He divided tenses into two broad categories of past/ non past. Absolute and relative types of the Persian tense have been elaborated and analyzed in detail.
Research Question(s)
The main question of the present study is that of psycholinguistic reality of Relative Tense in Persian; How Persian tenses are processed?

2. Literature Review
Theoretical framework applied here is that of Comrie (1985) linguistically and Shapiro (1990) psycholinguistically. Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari (2002) has written in detail about the nature and function of variety of absolute and relative tenses in Persian.

3. Methodology
The main question of the present study is that of psycholinguistic reality of Relative Tense in Persian. Cross modal lexical decision has been used here to examine relative tense processing during sentence comprehension. Theoretical framework applied here is that of Comrie (1985) in linguistics and Shapiro (1990) in psycholinguistics. Independent variable is the type of tense used in the verb form and the dependent variable is subjectsˈ reaction times. 25 students of universities aged 18-30 participated matched across some specific factors in this study. The results of the first experiment showed that sentences containing non-finite relative tense verbs, are processed later than the other tenses (present perfect. past perfect, and subjunctives). That may be related to the un-markedness of  non-finites. The results of the second experiment also showed that converting simple sentences to the complex ones will erase the meaningful differences in the participantsˈ reaction times. In these two experiments the gender of the participants is not effective. The findings can be used in curriculum design for non-natives of Persians, for it shows the cognitive load  of relative tenses across memory.

4. Results
It was found out that, in terms of psycholinguistics, Persian has two absolute tenses : Past and present; as well as four relative tenses: the perfective. the pluperfect, the subjunctive, and the relative past. The main question of the present study is that of psycholinguistic reality of tense in Persian. Cross modal lexical decision has been used here to examine tense during sentence processing. The Persian language has a variety of absolute and relative tenses, each of which is used as needed, and Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari (2002) has written in detail about the nature and function of each, and since this work is a comprehensive description of the topic of time in Persian provides the basis for data collection of the present study. Since this work provides a comprehensive description of the topic of tense in Persian, it is the basis for collecting data from the present study. The two main research questions are: a) Which types of  relative tenses is processed faster than the others and why? B) According to data from Persian language, what is the mental representation of grammatical  relative tense in Persian? The two hypotheses corresponding to the questions of this research are that there is a significant difference between the processing time of sentences containing different types of relative tenses and also the complexity of these representations has a psychological reality. In order to answer the questions, two experiments have been developed. The results of the first experiment showed that sentences containing non-finite relative tense verbs, are processed later than the other tenses (present perfect, past perfect, and subjunctives). The explanation is to be found in the un-markedness of non-finites (lacking mood, tense, number). The results of the second experiment also showed that converting simple sentences to the complex ones will erase the meaningful differences in the participantsˈ reaction times.  This reveals that the independent variable of sentence type is much more effective on cognitive load than tense type. In these two experiments the gender of the participants is not effective.
If the cognitive burden/load may be considered as the basis of learning, this research can have implications for teaching Persian language. The high reputation of using reaction time in psychological research, especially in the field of cognition and language processing, is something beyond theoretical interest. The choice of mean reaction time as a dependent variable in widely used cognitive experiments is due to convenience. In this study, reaction time to the auditory stimulus is the basis for measuring cognitive load. Cognitive load refers to the amount of mental energy needed to perform a task. This mental energy can be nourished by memory, storage and retrieval. The concept of cognitive burden can be used in teaching Persian language and the research results can be considered in compiling educational materials .

---

Present- and past perfect paradigms are commonly thought of as having the perfect aspect. Examining the concept of tense and aspect along with their definitions, the present study argues that what is often referred to as the perfect aspect in Persian is essentially a temporal concept. Taking into consideration the reference-, event-, and speech points, the study shows that the reference point comes necessarily after the event point in the case of the present- and the past perfect as well as their variants. In other words, this indicates the continuing relevance of a previous situation. Since this concept does not entail the completeness of the event, referring to it as “perfect” would be inaccurate. For this reason, the present study proposes the term the anterior tense as a substitute for the perfect aspect. The authors emphasize the significance of the reference situation in determination of grammatical tenses by referring to the function of temporal adverbs and participles. Participles, as independent words, are present in the structures of deverbal adjectives, perfect verbs, passive verbs, complex predicates, and attributive expressions. In all these functions, the morpheme of “-te/-de” represents the anterior tense. Reexamining the previous approaches, the present study reveals that tense, in addition to representing the reference and speech situations in the form of the trichotomy of present/past/future, represents the reference and event situations as well. In other words, tense of a verb encompasses both the trichotomy of past/present/future and the dichotomy of anterior/non-anterior.


1. Introduction
Tense is a linear notion. Anteriority, synchronicity and posteriority of the event point (E) in relation to the speech point (S) on this line create tense trichotomy (past, present, future). It is quite clear that this division does not account for the difference in many constructions; for example, the distinction between simple past and imperfective past, or the difference between imperfective past and past continuous, or the difference between simple past and quotative past (present perfect). The main question of the current article focuses on the latter distinction. Most linguists have considered the distinction in aspect, and they believe that the quotative past has a perfect aspect.
The current research claims the distinction in Persian cannot be considered an aspectual one and shows that the morphemes that are present in the perfect constructions express a kind of tense concept which we have called anterior tense. Moreover, we will try to identify the trace of these morphemes in deverbal adjectives.

2. Literature Review
It seems that the term quotative past in the meaning we presumed, was first used in Dabestɑn-e Parsi by Habib Esfahani (1906). Evidently, grammarians have studied quotative past and distant past separately and have not noticed their similarity with respect to the so-called perfect aspect. Only Lazard, who adopted a comparative approach in order to explain these constructions, considered distant past to be the past of quotative past (2010: 186). Furthermore, in case of aspect and tense, the past subjunctive is similar to quotative past and their difference is solely in terms of mood. Most grammarians have not studied the two with their relation to each other. But Lazard considered past subjunctive to be the subjunctive of quotative past (2010: 189). Sadeghi & Arzhang (1979), and following them, Haghshenas et al. (2008) have also mentioned this point. Farshidvard (2003: 405) has also pointed it out.
Concerning grammatical aspect in Persian and especially about perfect constructions, the most important studies are Darzi & Jafari (2020) and Veisi Hesar & Sharif (2019). Following Declerck (2006, 2015), Veisi Hesar & Sharif (2019) divide the time axis into two fields of past and present. The present field is itself divided into three zones. Present tense zone refers to the part of present field which corresponds to moment zero (now). Pre-present zone has begun before moment zero and continues to its vicinity. Post-present zone starts just after moment zero. The past zone is situated before the pre-present zone. Past, pre-present, present and post-present zones constitute past tense, present perfect, present, and future, respectively. This view is problematic. Firstly, delimiting the fields is totally vague; e.g. the limits of the pre-present zone are blur and it is unclear what separates it from past tense. Secondly, this analysis cannot provide a consistent analysis of the property shared by the perfect constructions. Based on this analysis, past perfect is a relative tense, while present perfect is an absolute one. Thirdly, in order to answer the question of the difference between present perfect and simple past, these scholars, following Declerck (2006) declare that present perfect is situated in the pre-present zone which is in the vicinity of and in contact with moment zero, while past tense is completely separate from moment zero and thus expresses completeness and temporal distance. Therefore, the difference between these two tenses… can be explained by their proximity or remoteness from moment zero (2019: 19). Nevertheless, In Persian, simple past has a usage which is in stark opposition to this claim. In fact, present perfect cannot be used to refer to an action that is done at the very moment of speaking and simple past is what must be used.

3. Methodology
We examined the most significant achievements in describing the perfect constructions in Persian. In Theoretical Basis, chiefly based on Comrie (1976) and its followers, we considered aspect and its types, and based on Reichenbach (1947) and Hornstein (1993), the role of R in determining tenses was recognized. Then, we studied aspect and its types in Persian and the perfect constructions, and it was shown what the morphemes representing the so-called perfect concept are and how they interact with other morphemes which express tense.

4. Results
Tense is determined based on the position of R, E, and S on timeline. First, the relation between E and R, and then the relation between R and S is determined and the result shows the relative position of these three points to each other. There are specific morphemes in Persian which encode these two relations and their aggregation determines the tense label of a construction. Absence of the past marker morpheme “-t/d” means the simultaneity of S and R (present tense), its presence means R is before S (past tense), and presence of the morpheme “xɑh” (as an auxiliary) signifies S before R (future tense).

Table 1.
 Morphemes Expressing the Relation of S and R

R___S	R & S simultaneous	S___R
+ past affix	- past affix	- past effix + xɑh
Past tense	Present tense	Future tense

In the table, some tenses traditionally labeled as “past” are here considered present. Note that the participle consists of the two morphemes of the stem and “-te/de”. The latter morpheme expresses the relation between R and E. If E is before R, it signifies the anterior tense and if these two points are simultaneous, it expresses the unmarked state for which we use the term non-anterior tense. Note that based on the relation between E and R in Persian, we come to a tense dichotomy: One in which E is before R called anterior, and the other in which E and R are simultaneous and is called non-anterior. Nevertheless, if Persian like English had a special construction for future, i.e. if R could be before E, then we would have a trichotomy: anterior, simultaneous, and posterior.

Table 2.
Morphemes Expressing the Relation between E and R

E___R	E & R simultaneous
+ te/de	- te/de
Anterior tense	Non-anterior tense

Now, we must answer the question why in perfect tense constructions, we considered the morpheme “-te/de” to express the relation between E and R. It seems that this morpheme, irrespective of whether it is used in the verb or not, signifies that E is anterior to R. In fact, adjectives such as “dɑneshɑmuxte” (graduate) signify perfectness, because in their construction, exactly like that of anterior tenses, E is before R. Note that in these adjectives, the relation between R and S, and as a result, the relation between E and S are unclear.
In general, E before R represented by the suffix “-de/te” appears in these constructions: 1. In adjectives such as “dɑneshɑmux-te”, “mor-de”, “gandi-de”, etc.; 2. In the so-called perfect constructions such as quotative past, distant past, quotative past continuous, etc. 3. In passive sentences; 4. In the so-called past participle clauses.
What we said here, clearly shows the incorrectness of claims made by scholars such as Farshidvard (2003: 380), or Hornstein (1993) who consider the auxiliary to signify perfectness. It is clear that the participle, whether used in a verb or outside it, has this meaning. The auxiliary in these constructions includes a morpheme which determines the relations between E and S.
As is shown in table 3, imperfective anterior present, continuous anterior present, and anterior present subjunctive constructions have a tense exactly the same as that of anterior present, since their difference with anterior present is in concepts unrelated to tense, i.e. aspect and mood. The difference between anterior past and anterior present is in the relation between S and R. In any case, double anterior present is slightly different. It is primarily formed as anterior past, i.e. E is located first in relation to an R in past, and then in relation to a secondary R in present. In other words, the E in this construction, in addition to being related to a posterior situation in past (R₁), is still relevant to now (R₂).

Table 3.
Representation of Anterior Tense

	Constructions with Anterior Tense	Example	S & R	E & R	Representation
1	anterior present	rafte am	present	anterior	E__S,R
2	imperfective anterior present	mirafte ast	present	anterior	E__S,R
3	anterior present continuous	dɑshte [ast] mirafte [ast]	present	anterior	E__S,R
4	anterior present subjunctive	rafte bɑshad	present	anterior	E__S,R
5	anterior past	rafte bud	past	anterior	E__R__S
6	double anterior present	rafte bude ast	present	anterior	E__R1__S,R2

5. Conclusion
By considering R next to S and E, we showed how time concepts are grammaticalized in Persian. Contrary to common approaches to tense, the trichotomy of past, present, and future is not determined by the relation between E and S. These tenses are determined by the relative anteriority or posteriority or simultaneity of S and R. Beside this trichotomy, based on the relation between R and E, tenses are divided into two groups of anterior and non-anterior. In most previous views, this notion has been considered a type of aspect and usually labeled as perfect aspect. However, as we elaborated, it cannot be an aspect, since the position of situations on the time axis has nothing to do with aspect which relates to the internal state of an event. Therefore, the common characteristic of all perfect constructions is that R is before E which is grammaticalized in the morpheme “-te/de”. This morpheme is used in participles which are used in verbs such as past perfect and present perfect (and its types), passive verbs, past participle clauses, etc. and in all cases expresses this meaning.
 

---

Tensegrities are a kind of spatial structural system composed of cable (in tension) and strut (in compression). Stability of this system is provided by the self stress state between tensioned and compressed elements. In this paper, co-rotational method is used for study geometrical nonlinear analysis of tensegrity structure and analysis of the effect of pre-stress on it. This approach unlike other available approach in nonlinear static analysis, the major part of geometric non-linearity is treated by a co-rotational filter. The function of CR formulation is to extract relevant deformation quantities free or almost free from any rigid body motion in a given displacement field. One of advantage of the co-rotational approach is the fact that linear models can be easily used in the local coordinate system for modeling of nonlinear problems. The geometric non-linearity is incorporated in the transformation matrices relating local and global internal force vectors and tangent stiffness matrices. Three different numerical examples are studied using this approach. Results demonstrate that the deformations of tensegrity system are dependent on the value of pre-stress in tensegrity systems. The displacements of tensegrity system are decreased for fixed external tensile loading and increasing pre-tension force, however, for fixed pre-tension force and increasing external loading the displacements of tensegrity system are increased.

---

In this paper, a new formulation is developed for nonlinear dynamic analysis of 2-D truss structures. This formulation is based on dynamics of co-rotational 2-D truss. The idea of co-rotational approach is to separate rigid body motions from pure deformations at the local element level. Using this approach, internal force vector and tangent stiffness matrix, inertia force vector and the tangent dynamic matrix are derived. Furthermore, the inertia force vector, tangent dynamic matrix, mass matrix and gyroscopic matrix are directly derived from the derivation of current orientation matrix with respect to global displacements or orientation matrixes. Using this new formulation, nonlinear response of any 2-D truss structures can be examined. Here, for example the response of tensegrity structures under dynamic loads are investigated. Tensegrity structures are a class of structural system composed of cable (in tension) and strut (in compression) components with reticulated connections, and assembled in a self-balanced fashion. These structures have nonlinear behaviour due to pre-stress forces. And their integrity is based on a balance between compression and tension. Two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the new formulation and results show that the new formulation has more convergence rate than the existing models.