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Linguistics

 

The Department of Linguistics of TMU started its activity in 1984 with the admission of three graduate students. In 1990, the department began offering Ph.D. program in linguistics. It currently offers general linguistics at graduate and Ph.D. levels and cognitive linguistics in Ph.D. level. The Department of Linguistics which was established in October, 1984 under the direction of Dr. Mohammad Dabir Moghaddam, began its academic activity with the admission of three graduate students. Up to 2000, the department was run by Dr. Seyed Ali Miremadi and Dr. Ali Afkhami. After that period, the management of the department was entrusted to the newly recruited faculty members of the Department of Linguistics. The heads of the department in a chronological order have been:

  • Dr. Arsalan Golfam (2000 - 2003)
  • Dr. Ferdows Aqagolzadeh (2003- 2112)
  • Dr. Aliye Kambouzia (2013- 2015)
  • Dr. Arsalan Golfam (2015- now)

Establishment of Cognitive Linguistics Department:

With the efforts of faculty members and the incessant support of officials, approval for the establishment of Department of Cognitive Linguistics was granted by the Ministry of Science and this department will admit students in the academic year 2018-9. TMU's Department of Linguistics has been one of the leading departments which has been offering cognitive linguistics since 2003 and a large number of master and doctorate graduates have written their theses / dissertations on cognitive linguistics and have published articles in this field. Accordingly, the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has authorized the Department of Linguistics, as a leading department in this field, to establish the Department of Cognitive Linguistics at Tarbiat Modares University.
The titles of some workshops and conferences held since the establishment of the department include:

  • Conducting four National Conferences on Discourse and Pragmatics
  • Conducting the National Conference on Forensic Linguistics
  • Investigating verbal phrase construction in Persian
  • Linguistic analysis of disambiguation methods in jurisprudence
  • Explaining syntactic diversity in English-Arabic and Farsi
  • Hamza in Farsi
  • Comparing and reviewing the critical discourse analysis views in the production and comprehension of the texts
  • Compound verbs in modern Persian: a minimalist approach
  • Investigating the verb structures in spoken Persian vs standard Persian texts
  • Phonological System of colloquial Persian: A generative, prosodic and lexical approach
  • Meaning communication and inference in Language and Literature: A Semiotic Approach

Outstanding theses / dissertations of the alumni

  • Dissertation by late Dr. Keyvan Zahedi, Faculty Member of Allameh Tabatabaee University (a Ph.D. alumni graduated in 1996)
  • Dissertation by Dr. Sahar Bahrami, Faculty Member of Tarbiat Modares University
  • Dissertation by Dr. Hayat Ameri, Faculty Member of Tarbiat Modares University
  • Dissertation by Dr. Yadollah Parmoun, a faculty member of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Research Institute
  • Thesis by Mrs. Sahar Bahrami, Graduated in 2005
  • Thesis by Mr. Alireza Omidvar, graduated in 1996

Department's Exclusive Library:

The exclusive library of the department which was set up in 2001, currently contains some 300 English and Persian books and about 200 master and Ph.D. theses and dissertations for the use of students and faculty members.

Goals of the Department:

  • Setting up Applied Linguistics Department
  • Improving the quantity and quality of educational and research activities of the department based on the curriculum dictated by the Ministry of Science
  • Adapting an applied approach towards research activities based on the scientific needs of the community
  • Setting up the Department of Teaching Persian to Foreign Speakers
  • Setting up the Institute of Language and Dialect
  • Using modern teaching equipment in education
  • Making optimal use of the faculty members' potentials in education and research

Journal of the Department:

The first scientific journal of the department entitled "Language and Cognition", was published in 2016 by the Students' Scientific Association. The editor and chief executive officer of this journal are two Ph.D. students of the Linguistics Department. This journal covers issues such as book reviews, interdisciplinary linguistic disciplines, relevant websites and software, research and promotional papers, conferences and workshops, new books and articles, and other related fields. Interested individuals can get in touch with the journal official through the following e-mail address:
languagecognition@yahoo.com

Students' Scientific Association:

Students' Scientific Association of Linguistics Department began its activity in 2015 with the participation of one Ph.D. student as its secretary and four other Ph.D. students as the main members. Under the guidance of a faculty member of the department, this association has played a vital role in carrying out extracurricular activities, such as holding Ramadan Ceremony, launching the journal, or holding seminars and conferences. By holding about 10 sessions and public meetings, this association has also played a lead role in holding conferences, publishing the "Language and Cognition" Journal, publishing the news of the Iranian Linguistics Society, and other related affairs.