A Study on the Usage of ‘rā’ and Its Education through the Analysis on Iranian Film Scripts

Abstract

The postposition rā, which is traditionally considered a direct object case assigner and a marker for definiteness or specificity in Persian, is a difficult grammatical element for learners because of its semantic and pragmatic characteristics. However, the way to teach this element has not been studied thoroughly. In this paper, we critically review previous linguistic analysis and textbooks on this element in order to see whether the analysis is useful for the learners. In addition, based on the pattern of errors in the use of rā by Korean learners of Persian, this paper is finds that the learning materials should provide concrete and explicit explanations of the element. Accordingly, the phrase or structures in which rā is used are classified and presented in detail, taking Iranian film scripts as a corpus since those scripts can provide various semantic and pragmatic contexts of rā.