Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 18، number In Volume 9، December 2025 ، issue Number 115

Initialization and focalization in Persian: Syntactic, phonetic, morphological mechanisms and their interaction

Narges Rahmani , Mohammad Reza Oroji (Author in Charge), Hooman Bijani

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This paper presents a systematic and in-depth investigation of two core processes in the Information Structure of the Persian language: Topicalization and Focalization. Topicalization identifies the discourse "Topic" by promoting a constituent to the sentence-initial position. A notable phenomenon is the co-occurrence of the object marker «را» (râ) with non-object constituents in this process, emphasizing Aboutness and Definiteness/Specificity. Focalization is responsible for highlighting "new, contrastive, or emphatic information" (Focus).

METHODOLOGY: This descriptive-analytical study collected its data using library research techniques. The data was gathered purposively, selecting sentences that researchers identified as involving phonological, morphological, or syntactic Topicalization or Focalization. Employing the theoretical framework of the Minimalist Program and Functionalist approaches, the present article describes, analyzes, and compares these mechanisms, their interaction with each other and with the phenomenon of Topicalization, and examines the role of the marker «را» (râ).

FINDINGS: Persian utilizes three distinct yet often overlapping strategies: “Syntactic Focalization” relies on the movement (Scrambling) of a constituent to dedicated syntactic positions like [Spec, FocP]. “Phonological Focalization” is based on applying Heavy Stress/Accent to the intended element in its original grammatical position. “Morphological Focalization” employs Focus Markers such as «که» (ke) immediately following the focal constituent.

CONCLUSION: Topicalization acts as an efficient tool for introducing and tracking discourse topics by promoting a wide range of constituents (objects, complements, adverbs) to the sentence-initial position, i.e., the specifier of the Topic node. A prominent and controversial feature of Persian is the co-occurrence of the marker «را» (râ) with non-object constituents in this position. Focalization is achieved through syntactic movement by relocating a constituent to the specifier of the Focus node, through applying heavy stress to the constituent in its base grammatical position, and also through the use of the in-situ focus marker «که» (ke), which indicates contrastive focus.

Keyword
focalization , focus , focus marker , information structure , scrambling , topic , topicalization