An Investigation of Verb Valency in the Stories of Shafiq Namdar Based on Dependency Grammar

Abstract

Syntax is the branch of linguistics that analyzes and examines the structure of sentences in a language. The rules governing sentence structure in a language are limited, and syntax identifies and explains the structural rules of linguistic constructions. Sentences are formed through the combination of morphemes and words, among which certain relationships exist. These relationships, which are formed between a head and its dependents, are more clearly explained in dependency grammar. From the perspective of dependency grammar, the verb is the head of the sentence, and other constituents function as its dependents. Accordingly, the present study investigates verb valency in the stories of Shafiq Namdar, a contemporary Persian Dari writer and storyteller from Balkh, Afghanistan, within the framework of dependency grammar. The aim of this research is to identify the structure of verb valency in contemporary Persian Dari based on this approach in his writings. An important point is that dependency grammar, unlike other grammatical and linguistic theories, emphasizes the syntactic relationships between the verb and its dependents. In this approach, a sentence is not divided into subject and predicate; rather, the verb is considered the head of the sentence, and other sentence constituents—such as obligatory complements, optional complements, and adjuncts—are regarded as its dependents. The research method is qualitative. The data were extracted from the stories of Shafiq Namdar and analyzed and described accordingly. In terms of nature, the study is a review of previous works. The findings of the research indicate that verb structures in Namdar’s stories are used with valences such as monovalent, bivalent, trivalent, and rarely tetravalent verbs. However, the most frequent usage is bivalent, followed by monovalent verbs. This is because the narrative style of contemporary storytelling, which also draws on spoken language, tends to employ more simple and short sentences; therefore, bivalent verbs are used most frequently in his stories.