SACE Stage 2 Persian (continuers) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Ezafe construction

An unstressed -e linking a noun to a following modifier, possessor, or complement, as in کتابِ خوبِ مریم. Omitting it changes or breaks the phrase in written Persian.

تعارف (ta'arof)

A Persian politeness system of ritual offers, compliments, and refusals. An initial refusal is conventional, and accepting after repeated offers is normal rather than contradictory.

Spoken versus written Persian

Systematic diglossia: colloquial forms like می‌گم and اون contrast with written می‌گویم and آن. Register choice depends on setting, audience, and medium.

شما versus تو

Pronouns encoding social distance and hierarchy. Shifting from شما to تو marks increased intimacy or reduced formality, not merely a grammatical change.

Subject–Object–Verb order

Persian's neutral clause order places the verb last. Fronting objects or adverbials before the subject creates emphasis rather than changing basic meaning.

Modality markers

Words signaling certainty or obligation: باید and حتماً assert strongly; شاید and ممکن است hedge; گویا and ظاهراً attribute claims to hearsay.

Reported speech shift

Converting direct quotation to indirect speech changes pronouns and often tense, and removes guillemets: «می‌آیم» becomes گفت که می‌آید.

Persian comma and question mark

Persian uses ، for the comma and ؟ for the question mark, with «» for quotation. Numerals run left to right inside right-to-left text.

Proverb as evidence

Persian argument often cites a ضرب‌المثل to compress a moral claim. Recognizing the proverb's accepted meaning clarifies the writer's stance.

Verb agreement and dropped pronouns

Persian verbs agree in person and number, so subject pronouns are usually omitted. Endings such as -am, -i, -ad, -im, -id, -and identify the subject.

Address terms

آقا/خانم plus surname is formal-professional; first names alone suggest intimacy; kinship terms like عمو extend to non-relatives as warmth markers.

Formal letter frame

Persian formal letters open with با سلام و احترام and close with با تشکر or ارادتمند, with date, body, and signature in fixed positions.

Nowruz vocabulary

Terms such as هفت‌سین, سیزده‌بدر, and عیدی reference the New Year cycle. Their use signals shared cultural calendar knowledge among Persian speakers.

High-context communication

Meaning relies on relationship, setting, and shared knowledge rather than explicit wording. تعارف and indirect refusals are typical Persian examples of this style.

Face-work strategies

Indirect refusals, apology formulas like شرمنده‌ام, and prefaced disagreement protect both speaker and hearer from loss of face in interaction.

Compliment deflection

Responses such as قابلی نداره or چشم شما قشنگ می‌بینه politely deflect praise. Reading deflection as denial misinterprets the social act.

Kinship precision

Persian distinguishes عمه (paternal aunt) from خاله (maternal aunt), and پدری from مادری. These terms encode family structure precisely.

Discourse markers

Words like خب, یعنی, and راستش organize speech as topic shift, reformulation, and hedged opinion. They carry interactional meaning beyond literal content.

Concessive connectors

با این حال and در حالی که introduce contrast or concession. Recognizing them clarifies how an argument qualifies or reverses a prior claim.

Causal connectors

چون and زیرا introduce reasons; بنابراین, پس, and در نتیجه introduce conclusions. Mapping these links reveals a text's argumentative structure.

Radif and rhyme

In Persian poetry the radif is a repeated refrain following the rhyme. Locating it marks line boundaries and the poem's emotional pivot.

Persian language varieties

Iranian Persian, Dari, and Tajiki share one language with differing vocabulary and script; Tajiki uses Cyrillic. Variety markers are not errors.

Language purism debate

Academy coinages such as رایانه for computer compete with loanwords. The choice indexes attitudes toward national identity and modernity.

Euphemism norms

Direct reference to death, illness, or money is often replaced by indirect expressions. Euphemism choice reflects politeness and cultural discretion.

Request softening

Persian requests become more polite through question framing and compound verbs: می‌شه لطف کنید…؟ is gentler than a bare imperative.

چشم as compliance marker

The particle چشم signals acceptance of an instruction, distinct from neutral بله. Its use indexes deference to the person issuing the request.

Colloquial contractions

Recognize می‌شه for می‌شود, نمی‌دونم for نمی‌دانم, and بریم for برویم. Production should match the register of the setting.

Narrative tense backbone

Persian narratives use past simple for events, past progressive for background, and past perfect for prior events, with present tense for enduring truths.

Stance through attribution

گفته می‌شود marks a reported claim, while بدون شک asserts certainty. Distinguishing the two separates fact from opinion in analysis.

Irony cues

Persian does not mark irony with punctuation. Exaggerated praise, contrastive context, or a proverb set against the literal statement signal ironic intent.

Poetic ambiguity

Lines by Hafez or Rumi support multiple readings. Interpretation should cite specific words and acknowledge ambiguity rather than fix one meaning.

Hospitality scripts

Repeated offers of tea or food and insistence that a guest stay follow predictable sequences. Refusals also follow ritual order before acceptance.

Speech act analysis

Name the act (request, refusal, compliment, apology), then the strategy (direct, conventionally indirect, hint). This reveals cultural norms shaping interaction.