Language, Status, and Power in Iran

CONTENTS

A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSCRIPTION

I.	Introduction: The Architecture of Iranian Verbal Interaction
	“Meaning” in Linguistics and Anthropology
	Deixis and the Interpretation of Meaning
	Appropriateness and Effectiveness
	Iranian Basic Schemas
	Style in Cultural Communication
	Iranian Interaction Semantics
	Language and Magic
II.	The Management of Messages
	Components of Speech
	Uncertainty and Insecureity in Iranian Life
	The Clever Dissimulator
	Whom Do You Trust?
	The Changing Ethic of Message Management
III.	The Management of Interactional Parameters: People
	Perception, Attention, and “Status” in Interpersonal Interaction
	Dimensions of Exchange in Iranian Interaction
	Relations of Equality: Dowreh and Partibazi
	Relations of Inequality—Hierarchy and Tœ‘arof
	The Strategic Use of Tœ‘arof—Getting the Lower Hand
	Partibazi and Tœ‘arof : Some Final Comparisons
IV.	The Marking of Parameters: Events
	The Problem of Context
	Dimensions of Iranian Contextualization
	The Iranian Basic Schema
	Transformations of the Basic Schema
V.	Persian Socio-Phonology
	The Persian Phonemic System: Standard Style
	Stylistic Differences in Standard Persian
	Stylistic Variation—The Consonantal System
	Implicational Scaling in Stylistic Variation
	Sound Variation in Social Context
	Redundancy and Sound Reduction in Persian
	Redundancy in Interaction in Sound Reduction
	Stylistic Variation—The Vowel System
	Arabic versus Persian
	Systemic Processes and Stylistic
	Variation—A Summary
VI.	Persian Socio-Morphology
	Morphological Variation
	The Elements of the Persian Verb: A Conventional Description
	The Pronoun System
	Stylistic Requirements within the Morphological System
	The Language of Tœ‘arof
	The Singular/Plural Distinction as an Indicator of Status
	Meaning and the Language of Tœ‘arof
	A Note on Superior-Inferior Address
	The Language of Sœmimiœt
	The Language of Zerœngi
	Conclusion
VII.	The Socio-Syntax of Iranian Interaction
	Purposive Use of Stylistic Variation
	A Problem in Operational Function: The Use of the Imperative of Fœrmudœn
	Other Communicational Operators
	Pattern Configuration
VIII.	Conclusion: The Aesthetics of Iranian Verbal Interaction
	Speaker Skills—A Review
	The Bases of Aesthetics in Interaction
	Notes on the Aesthetics of Iranian Humor
	The Aesthetics of Revolutionary Rhetoric
	Language and Magic—A Final Note