Лингвистика

Forms of address in post-revolutionary Persian: A sociolinguistic analysis.
Language in Society, Vol. 17, pp. 565-575, 1988. (1)
Mohammad Hossein KESHAVARZ

Abstract
The sudden shift from power to solidarity in Iran in the face of the sociopolitical upheaval in the country has yielded some interesting changes in address and reference terms in Persian. In general, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, forms of address and reference terms in Persian have undergone a sociolinguistic simplification. In post-revolutionary Iran, plain speech and address forms marking solidarity have gained popularity, whereas asymmetrical forms reflecting the complex social class structure of pre-revolutionary Iran have gradually declined. This article gives a sociolinguistic account of the pronominal system of present-day Persian and documents the impact of the revolution on this aspect of the Persian Language.
Key words: Sociopolitical change, language change, address and reference terms, politeness system, Persian.

Introduction
Sociopolitical changes can bring about, among other things, changes in the linguistic performance of individuals. Massive demonstration in Iran during the revolution of 1978-79 brought different strata of society close together and narrowed the wide gap previously existing among different social classes. This social change had a profound impact on the language in use, especially in the area of lexical borrowings, mainly from Arabic, and on address and reference terms, with which we are concerned in this article.
Review of literature shows that sociolinguistic studies on Persian have generally been concerned with the linguistic and social situation before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Even the most recently published