Abstract:
Sociopolitical change can be considered as one of the causes of language
change. The sociopolitical upheaval in Iran as a result of the Islamic
Revolution of 1979 brought about,
amongst other things, changes in the
speech behavior of individuals. In general, after the revolution plain speech
and linguistic forms marking solidarity gained popularity. This article studies
the impact of revolution, as a causal factor of language change, on a micro
aspect of Persian grammar, namely the pronominal system. The rationale for
the choice of this topic is the widely-held view that the best place in the
grammar of a language to find a correspondence between social structure and
language is the pronominal system and forms of address.
Machine summary:
Before the revolution, there were specific terms of address which the speaker was expected to use in reference to self when talking to the former Shah of Iran and the members of the Royal family, aristocrats, and high-ranking officials.
However, although the Islamic Revolution has emphasized and promoted equality among members of the society, people still use self-lowering forms in their speech in order to show their modesty and humility.
Thus, when people talk to a superior in terms of age, status, and religion, they may use one of the following self-lowering forms of address when referring to themselves.
Of course, these words were already in the Persian lexicon as kin terms; however, for a few years after the revolution they became widespread as new reciprocal forms of address in the society at large, and not only in the familial context.
For an account of the sociolinguistic change in China, see Fincher (1973); Fang and Heng (1983); and Scotton and Zhu Wanjin (1983); and for a comprehensive study of the linguistic aftermath of revolution in Russia, see Comrie and Stone (1978).
In a speech event, when speakers are equal in age and social status to the person referred to or with whom they have an intimate relationship, they use the familiar pronoun /u/.
CONCLUSION In this article, the impact of the Islamic Revolution as a sociopolitical change in Iran on the forms of address in Persian was examined along three deictic dimensions: (a) the speaker, (b) the addressee, and (c) other referent(s).