Dr. Ahmad R. Lotfi
Dept. of English Language at
E-MAIL: arlotfi@yahoo.com
ASSISTANT
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Member of the Academic Staff of
offer Syntactic Argumentation, Issues in Linguistics,
and Discourse Analysis to Ph. D/
M.A students of ELT.
Member of the Advisory Board of the LINGUIST List (Eastern
Wayne State University), URL: http://linguistlist.org
.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests include minimalist syntax, second language
acquisition studies
in generative grammar, and Iranian linguistics.
For the past few years, I have been developing a radically minimalist
theory of syntax.
The original outline of the theory is available online as an
unpublished manuscript
(Semantico-Phonetic Form: A Unitarianist Grammar) via the link below:
URL: http://cogprints.org/1669
Semantico-Phonetic
Form is a unitarianist theory of language in two different but
inter-related
senses: first, it assumes that the Conceptual-Intentional and Articulatory-
Perceptual
systems (responsible for semantic and phonetic interpretations respectively)
access
the data at one and the same level of interpretation; hence a single interface
level—
Semantico-Phonetic
Form, SPF. Second, it is unitarianist in that (although it is still a
formalist
theory of language) it potentially permits the incorporation of both formalist
and
functionalist explanations in its formulation of the architecture of language.
Within
the framework of Semantico-Phonetic Form, and as an alternative proposal to
Chomsky's
minimalist thesis of movement, the Pooled Features Hypothesis proposes that
"movement"
is the consequence of the way in which the language faculty is organised
(rather
than
a simple "imperfection" of language). The computational system CHL
for human
language
is considered to be economical in its selection of formal features from the
lexicon
so
that if two LIs (to be introduced in the same derivation) happen to have some
identical
formal
feature in common, the feature is selected only once but shared by the
syntactic objects
in
the derivation. It follows that the objects in question must be as local in
their relations as
possible.
The locality of relations as such, which is due to economy considerations,
results in
some
kind of (bare) phrase structure with pooled features labelling the structural
tree nodes
that
dominate the syntactic objects. Pooled features, in a sense, are structurally
interpreted.
Other
features, i.e. those not pooled, will be interpreted at SPF.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
_(2006). Agreement in Persian. Linguistik Online29.
URL: http://www.linguistik-online.de/29_06/lotfi.pdf
_(2006).
Feature Sharing v. Feature Checking: An Analysis of Persian Pre- and Post-verbal
CPs.
URL: http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln/pdf/Checking%20v.%20Sharing.pdf
_ (2003).
Persian Wh-riddles. In Multiple Wh-Fronting, C. Boeckx and K. K.
Grohmann
(eds),
161-186. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins
Publishing Company.
_ (2003).
Intonation contours, yes/no questions, and minimalist syntax: A unitarianist
perspective.
Cognitive Science 1:70-83.
_(2002).
Minimalist program revisited: Chomsky’s strength to trigger movement. In Proceedings
of the
34th Linguistics Colloquium
(Germersheim 1999), R. Rapp
(ed), 131-140. Frankfurt am
Peter
Lang.
_(2002). Dances with the Quantifiers. Journal
of Language and Linguistics 1.
URL: http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/1_1/lotfi1_1.html
_(2001). Persian ‘bayad’: A violation of the
extended projection principle?
Notes 1. URL: http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln/spring01_articles/spring%202001.htm
_(2001). Iconicity: A Generative Perspective. Working
Papers in LinguisticIconicity.
URL: http://www.trismegistos.com/IconicityInLanguage/Articles/Lotfi/lotfi.html
Lotfi, A. R.
and M. Shahrokhi. 2005. Interlanguage subjectivity. Journal of Language and Linguistics.
Vol. 4 No. 2. URL: http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/4_2/lotfi_shahrokhi.htm
Lotfi Khajooi, M. and A. R.
Lotfi. (2004). Teaching vocabulary to Iranian students of English:
The application of Rosch’s Prototypicality Model in
vocabulary learning. Danesh va Pezhouhesh. No. 4.
Lotfi, A. R. and N. Vaziri
Tehrani. (2002). Thinking-for-speaking effects in English (L1=Persian)
interlanguage. Danesh va Pezhouhesh 13, 14: 31-41.
Lotfi, A.
R. and A. Ameri Golastan. (2002). Wh-extraction from claim-type constructions
in Persian-
speaking
L2 learners’ English interlanguage. Danesh va Pezhouhesh 10: 13-22.
Lotfi, A.
R. and N. Saei-pour. (2001). Access to X-bar theory: A Study of (L1=Persian)
English
interlanguage.
Danesh va Pezhouhesh 7: 13-24.
Sharifian,
F. and A. R. Lotfi. (2003). Rices and waters: The mass/Count distinction in Modern
Persian. Anthropological
Linguistics 45(2): 226-244.
BOOK REVIEWS
Syntax:
Uriagereka (1998) URL:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/10/10-926.html
General
Linguistics: Darnell, Moravcsik, Newmeyer, Noonan & Wheatley, eds. (1998)
URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/11/11-3.html
Syntax: Martin,
Michaels & Uriagereka, eds. (2000) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-974.html
Linguistic
Theories: Bybee & Hopper, eds. (2001) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-2116.html
General
Linguistics: O'Grady, Archibald, Aronoff & Rees-Miller, eds. (2001)
URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2273.html
Syntax/Semantics:
Di Sciullo, ed. (2003) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-2481.html
Syntax/Language Acquisition: van Hout et
al (2003) URL:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-646.html
Syntax/Computational
Linguistics: Kruijff & Oehrle, eds. (2003)
URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2326.html
Syntax: Brody
(2004) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1456.html
Syntax:
Schweikert (2005) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-646.html
Syntax:
Everaert & van Riemsdijk, ed. (2006) URL: http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-3167.html
DETAILED BIBLIOGRAPHY
A more detailed bibliography is available via the link below to Online
Faculty Information System
(OFIS) at
URL: http://khuisf.ofis.ir/default.aspx
*NOTE* Once in OFIS, you must click on Members
on the left, and then on my photo in order to
be directed to my OFIS page.
Updated
on Jul. 09, 2007