Categories of number and gender and their textual functions in Persian and Russian

Yarzada Bibi Saliha ORCID: 0009-0000-7342-4806 Postgraduate student; Department of General and Russian Linguistics; P. Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Miklukho-Maklaya str., 15, Moscow, 117198, Russia salihayarzada07@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

Comparing the categories of gender and number in Persian and Russian is an urgent task, which is due to both the difference between the languages and the difficulties in classifying the language categories that are found in Persian. The reason for this problem is mainly syntactic – the combination of a noun with adjectives and numerals, and the fact that the Persian language actually lacks grammatical gender indicators. In the modern world, the relevance of translation activities is growing, which leads to the need for comparative analysis between languages. At the same time, the categories of languages that differ in their basis, which are Farsi and Russian, give rise to a number of difficulties that need to be studied.

The goal requires solving the following tasks:

1. Consider the specifics of the category of numbers in Farsi.

2. Analyze the features of the number category in the Russian language.

3. To characterize the category of gender and number in the Persian language.

4. To identify similarities and differences in the semantics, structure and functionality of these categories.

When solving the tasks defined in the work, the following research methods were used: theoretical analysis methods used to systematize factual material and deduce certain patterns in the description process; component analysis method, used to differentiate the categories of gender and number from related categories in both languages, cognitive-pragmatic method, which allowed to establish and describe cognitive mechanisms, The underlying principles of constructing semantics contained in categories, as well as a comparative method that allows us to talk about common and different indicators of categories in Russian and Persian.

In order to obtain the necessary data, a study was conducted based on the materials of the Persian Speech Corpus (Persian Speech Corpus http://www.persianspeechcorpus.com Russian Russian Language/) and the National Corpus of the Russian Language (the National Corpus of the Russian Language https://ruscorpora.ru /).

The theoretical basis of the research was the works of Russian and Persian authors. This topic has been partially reflected in a number of comparative studies [Vsevolodova, Madaeni 1998], as well as in linguistic methodological works [Prokhorova 1980, Arifi 1985]. The ways of expressing number and gender in the Russian language have vivid specifics, which are most fully and vividly revealed in the mirror of another language. Also, a study of the grammatical outline of the Persian language is contained in the works Rubinchik Yu. A. “Grammatical outline of the Persian language” in the Persian-Russian Dictionary, as well as Moshkalo M. V. - a comparative analysis is contained within the section on the Persian language in the publication “Languages of the World: Iranian Languages". These authors provided important materials and research that were used to compile the theoretical framework. Nevertheless, there are very few studies devoted to the issue we are interested in.

Practical significance of the work: the research materials can be used in universities of the humanities in the study of special courses and seminars on theoretical, practical, comparative linguistics and in the study of the morphology of languages. The data obtained can be used in the process of educational and methodological activities in the creation of textbooks, textbooks on RCT for foreign-speaking students.

Discussion and results

This study was implemented on the basis of the Persian Speech Corpus (Persian Speech Corpus http://www.persianspeechcorpus.com Russian Russian Language/) and the National Corpus of the Russian Language (the National Corpus of the Russian Language https://ruscorpora.ru /). As a result of the analysis, 324 units were identified, of which 211 were in Russian and 113 in Persian.

The first category to be analyzed is the genus category. During the analysis, it was found out that the main function of categories is the concretization of information about the lexical meaning.

Persian (Farsi) is, along with other languages such as Kurdish, Baloch, Talysh, and others, the language of the Indo-Iranian (more precisely, Western Iranian) branch of the Indo-European language family. Today, it is spoken by over 75 million people, and it is the main language in Iran, Afghanistan (along with Pashto) and Tajikistan. Farsi uses a variation of the Arabic alphabet in Iran and Afghanistan, as well as the Cyrillic alphabet in Tajikistan. One of the characteristics of the Persian language is the influence of the Arabic language: in fact, about 50% of the Persian vocabulary is of Arabic origin ^{[11, p. 23]}.

Analyzing the dialects of Farsi, one can come to the conclusion about a large number of its varieties. There is no gender difference in Persian (male or female). Gender is indicated by lexical means. It is important to remember that both nouns and pronouns do not have a grammatical expression, and the feminine suffixes that come from Arabic (pronounced -a in Arabic) lose their index to the gender ـه (pronounced -e in Persian). Despite the fact that many units in the Persian language retain the borrowed form -at, it has no grammatical meaning, and therefore does not indicate gender.

Since there are no concepts of gender and case in the Persian language, it differs in its analytical structure. For example, nominal parts of speech in this language are formed using postpositions, prefixes or prepositions, as well as isafeta, therefore, for the Persian language, the syntactic context of the adjective name, its connection with service words in the phrase will have significant significance for the lexical and semantic content of the corresponding word.

There are also no noticeable formal morphological differences between nouns and adjectives. The same word can refer to both parts of speech, depending on its semantic meaning, since it lacks formal characteristics. For example, the word "boring" can be used as an adjective to describe something that causes boredom. For example: "boring movie." [National Corpus of the Russian language https://ruscorpora.ru /]. However, in a certain context, it can also be used as a noun, denoting a person who is boring or bored. For example: "He's boring." However, in Persian, "خوب" (khoub) is a word that can serve as both an adjective and an adverb. For example: "کتاب خوب" (a good book). It can also be used as a noun, denoting a good person or a kind person. For example: "He is kind" (he is kind). Due to the lack of obvious morphological features that would indicate that words belong to a certain part of speech, the only method of determining the part of speech of these words is to analyze their semantic meaning and syntactic features in the context of a sentence ^[7].

From a semantic point of view, some units that convey quality can be both adjectives and nouns. This ambiguity is due to the fact that they can simultaneously denote both a property and a subject. This is reflected in the morphological properties of these words, which can be used in different contexts.

Let's look at some examples:

1. "Teacher" ("mo'allem") this noun can also be used to describe quality. For example, a good teacher (malam khob) can be understood as a good teacher." Here, the word "teacher" functions as a noun and an adjective at the same time.

2. "The Book" (کتاب - "ketaab") this noun can also indicate a property of something. For example, "The book is interesting" can be interpreted as "an interesting book." In this case, the word "book" has a double meaning as a noun and an adjective. Examples would be کتاب جالب an interesting book or کتاب خوب a good book.

Thus, in Persian, the semantic flexibility of words allows them to function as nouns and adjectives, creating some ambiguity that can be resolved by the context of the sentence. Here are some examples: The adjective [bozorg] is a big one: [ketab-e bozorg] is a big book. Noun: [bozorg] - adult. It can be implemented in an example such as [bozorgan] – adults ^[6].

Adjective: کوچک [koček] - small. For example: کتاب کوچک [ketab-e koček] is a small book. Noun: کوچک [koček] - child, child. For example: کوچکان [kočekān] - children. Adjective: خالی [xāli] - empty. For example: [qāb-e xāli] is an empty box. Noun: خالی [xāli] - vacancy: خالیات [xāliyat] - vacancies.

Adjective: آزاا [ [ [ [ [ [ [ [azad] - free. For example: [mard-e azad] - a free person. Noun: آزااد [ [ [ [ [ [ [azādi] - freedom.Adjective: مجج [ [ [ [ [ [ [mojazi] - virtual. For example: مججاز [ [ [ [ [ [ [mojāziāt] - virtual objects. Noun: a [mojazi] is a metaphor. These examples demonstrate how the same word can perform different functions in a sentence depending on its use and context.

This makes the Persian language unique and interesting in terms of grammatical features.

In Persian, adjectives have certain characteristics that differ from Russian, which can affect the perception and use of the language. However, for native speakers of Persian, mastering Russian grammar presents certain difficulties associated with the need to adapt to differences in grammatical structures and functions of adjectives ^[2].

Arabic adjectives also lose their gender in Persian. But after analyzing the peculiarities of gender representation in grammar, we come to the conclusion that sometimes there are different words for masculine and feminine nouns.:

خروس xorus/ rooster

مرغ morǧ/chicken

The mare

The valet, the servant, the servant

Kolfat/maid, maid, maidservant

For animals, gender can be indicated by the adjectives nar (masculine) and madde (feminine).:

The lion, the lioness

The lion (lit. male lion)

The lioness (lit. female lion)

For humans, gender can be denoted by words such as mard (male), zan (female), pezar (boy) and dokstar (girl).

bâzigar/actor, actress

bâzigar-e mard/actor

bâzigar-e Zan actress

pezešk/doctor, female doctor, doctor

pezešk-e mar/doctor

pezešk-e zan/Doctoral degree

A student, a student

A student of danešju-ye pesar

-ye doxtar/student

Common combinations like "our doctor" ("our doctor") or "a good doctor" ("our doctor") or in phrases: "I talked to a doctor" ("The word semantically refers to the feminine gender ^[14]. And the possessive pronoun that adjoins it is expressed in Farsi by the lexeme (our). Obviously, in the given example, the category of gender is implemented more in the semantic aspect than in the grammatical one ^[16].

There are three genders in the Russian language: masculine, feminine and neuter. Russian words for people are distributed both on the basis of grammar and semantics (for example, a daughter will have feminine semantics, and a brother will have masculine semantics).

Gender in Russian, on the contrary, is a very important category that reflects both semantics and grammar ^[17].

Here are the following general rules that allow us to identify the gender of a significant part of the words in the corpus we analyzed.:

1. In the masculine gender, nouns most often end in a consonant.

2. The available endings are either -a or -I, or b in the feminine gender

3. The neuter gender always finds an ending in -e, -e or -O.

The analysis allows us to note that the rules below do not apply to names and surnames that belong to the same genus as the person who bears them, regardless of their endings.

4. Nouns ending in a consonant (without a soft sign). All the nouns we have highlighted have a masculine gender. For example: swimming pool, house, kitten, vacuum cleaner, lazy.

5. Nouns in-a can be masculine or feminine, nouns in-I can be of any gender. But don't panic, it's not that difficult if we know the meaning of this word ^[18].

Among the examples highlighted to us may be such as a book, dew, allergy, lamp, week, piece, woman, girl, fly, rat.

Masculine nouns ending in -a/z refer to men: man, dad, uncle, grandfather. Corpus analysis has also allowed us to classify names and diminutives of masculine names such as Nikita, Ilya, Misha, Dima and Alyosha as masculine.

A distinctive feature of the Russian language is also the presence of lexemes of a general kind, which are assigned to a particular gender depending on the semantics. In particular, such lexemes as drunkard or orphan can be singled out as examples. Moreover, this rule becomes indicative for many forms of names: Sasha (Alexander or Alexandra), Zhenya (Eugene or Evgenia). At the same time, the word victim is always feminine ^[13].

Finally, there are so few nouns in the highlighted examples ending in -I that an exhaustive list of them can be given (the rest of the words are archaic words): burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown. All these words belong to the neuter gender, and the i in these words comes from an ancient nasal vowel, hence the -n-, which occur in declension.

Words ending in o, e, e, almost all are neuter words: lake, word, sun, heart, linen, raw materials. English nouns, which can be formed from all verbs, are nouns that are formed from verbs – indignation, detachment ^[3].

The exception to the rule is nouns with pejorative or diminutive suffixes in the masculine gender, which are distinguished in the corpus of the Russian language and form an exception to the gender distribution. But these words are not found in Russian very often.

The word coffee is masculine. However, so many people use it as a noun of the neuter gender that now it seems that the neuter gender is accepted as the norm, even if purists do not accept this point of view. On the contrary, the cafe (cafe – establishment) is very neutral.

The most difficult case of the generic distribution that has been highlighted in the context is that words ending in a soft sign can be masculine or feminine, and it is not always possible to guess. Nevertheless, it is worth highlighting several rules ^[19].

Words for women are feminine (mother – mother, daughter – daughter), words for men are masculine (boss, guest - guest).

Finally, there remains the case of pluralia tantum, words that exist only in the plural ending in -i, -s, -a, -I. Their gender cannot always be determined, since adjectives, pronouns, and verbs do not have different forms depending on the plural gender, but gender usually determines the form of the genitive plural. Examples may be the following words: tongs → tongs (masculine), money → money (feminine), bran → bran (masculine), gate → gate (neuter).

Let's also analyze the features of the representation of numbers in Persian and Russian. Just like in Russian, there are two numbers in Persian: singular and plural. But, unlike Russian, the so-called total number is often added in Persian ^[4].

As Figure 1 shows, the common number is combined with the singular, resulting in a common/singular versus plural system.

Figure 1: The Persian system with common/singular and plural numbers

The total number denotes the number of realities with a single declension (zero declension) to indicate semantically a single category that is common to lexemes.

Thus, in Farsi, the form indicates the commonality of certain objects that are realized in the context. If in Western languages the article indicates this, in Russian grammar, then in Farsi it is mainly about semantics, when belonging to a number is determined based on context.

The wolf is here.

"There is a wolf/wolves here."

To denote the plural, Farsi uses two schemes – an indication that we are dealing with nominal formation, on the one hand, while on the other hand it is closely related to the combination of predicate and argument. The singular number is not marked in Farsi in any way. The attribution to a number can thus be recovered from the context ^[5].

As for the specifics of plural labeling, it is obvious that it is poorly defined grammatically. The exception to this rule is the real contrast between the suffixes "- ha" and "-an", which is found in the formal version of the literary language.

In the examples given, "-ha" is implemented with all names, while "-an" can only be used with animate objects. In colloquial speech, the suffix "- an" is rarely implemented. In contrast, the suffix " -ha" (usually abbreviated to " -a") is implemented, which replaces all the previously given values.

Table 1: Plural markers for animate and inanimate beings in Formal/Literary Persian

Semantic categories are ordered in an implicational hierarchy, so if an element, for example, has the plural suffix " -ha", which indicates the position of a living being in the hierarchy (an example would be units that belong to the hierarchy of the human category), the suffixes in such words indirectly indicate a person (for example, gender), but it is not necessary to talk only about a person, reflecting other qualities, for example, animate.

Adjectives in Persian are semantically related to animate and inanimate functions. They use these forms to express the meaning of gender, number, and case in the text of the noun they define, i.e. adjectives always agree with the given noun in gender (and duration), number, and case.

Adjectives can be adjectives, predicates, or complements in a sentence. Adjectives have different forms in the predicate, as well as in its developing participle and in the complement, than in the case of an adjective. These are the so-called nominal forms. There are also substantive adjectives. Sometimes an adjective is used instead of a noun, in which case it has the same grammatical meanings as a noun, can be the subject or complement of a sentence, and can also develop into an adjective.

The so-called substantive forms have the endings of solid substantive declension types (of all genders), i.e. lord, castle, woman, city. Currently, they are not used very often, mostly exclusively in the nominative case or in archaic stylization, and in the accusative case they are rather a sign of a higher style. They do not need other cases, since they cannot be used as part of adjectives. Sometimes the noun form of an adjective semantically departs from complex forms, usually acquiring a modal meaning and valence. For example, dowry as a noun form formed from an adjective.

Nominal shapes are just some of the adjectives solid declension, namely some of the adjectives without the suffix, e.g. سلامت - سالم، جوان - جوان، مهربانی - مهربان، مرگ - مرده، پیری - پیر, etc., and also some adjectives راضی، موظف، خوشحال، توانا / سلامت / healthy, beautiful, kindness - kind, death, dead, age - old, etc., rarely is formed only as بزرگ، کوچک، سیاه، گرم، کامل، عمومی، مرد، فلزی / Large, small, black, hot, full, General, male, metal, etc.

Possessive adjectives in some cases have only nominal forms.

Nominative forms are used most often in the masculine singular; for example, we can say that: They're dead, and he's just old. In addition, in sentences with an infinitive or subordinate clause, usually only some forms of the neuter noun are found, for example, it is possible, clear, difficult, etc. (for example, it is difficult to decide so quickly, for sure, that you made a mistake); the exception is only apparent, because these forms can be understood as adverbs" ^[6].

According to their semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties, all words in a language are grouped into categories called parts of speech. From a compositional (functional) point of view, it is important for individual parts of speech whether they can perform the function of a subordinate clause in a sentence.

The function of a sentence can be performed only by parts of speech that have a complete lexical meaning. Thus, sentences can usually be defined as functions of autosemantic words in a sentence.

The syntactic functions of individual parts of speech are determined by their common meaning. For example, the general meaning of adjectives suggests that in a sentence they can primarily serve as a subordinate noun defining a noun. It is primarily an adjective" ^[12].

The adjective has a definitional function and performs the function of an attribute.

We know that basic sentences are those that are direct participants in the expression of a predicate action. A single-term sentence has one member, which is the main member of the single-term sentence. Since we are analyzing an adjective, in this case the main member of a monomial sentence is expressed simply by a noun (without a conjunction, which cannot even be added) - a special one. Beautiful لجهة سالم است، آنها سالم هستند، آنها مردند.

The nominative part of the predicate is also formed by an adjective. The adjective is always in the nominative case with the conjunction to be. If adjectives are preserved forms of nouns, they are used next to complex forms: لجهة مطمئن بود // موفقیت از مطمئن بود. مجرد // متاهل; خانم غمگین بود - غمگین کهنه است. / He was confident of success. Single // Married; The lady was sad — sadness ages.

In some adjectives, nominal forms are used to denote the current transitional state. In contrast, with complex forms, it expresses mainly a permanent, permanent property that is not tied to predication time, but they can also be used instead of nominal forms.:

من سالم هستم

من از این خوشحالم.

او همیشه خوشحال است.

او گناهی ندارد

او تصمیم گرفت آن روز آپارتمان را ترک نکند.

همه آنها از این موضوع شگفت زده شدند

او برای این نگرانی ناآماده نبود

نشست و جایی پنهان شد

و در اینجا اشکال پیچیده گسترش می یابد:

آنها از اینکه به آنها اجازه ورود به اتاق (گلازاروف) داده شد بسیار شگفت زده شدند.

آنها به خوبی برای امتحان آماده شده بودند.

I'm healthy.

I'm glad of that.

He's always happy.

He's not guilty.

That day, he decided not to leave the apartment.

Everyone was surprised by this.

He wasn't unprepared for such a worry.

He sat down and hid somewhere.

An adjective is a flexible type of word that usually indicates a feature (object, person, object) and is semantically and grammatically related to a noun or pronoun whose meanings or characteristics:

خانه جدید، بزرگ، چوبی، جادار، زیبا، دنج، آبی است.

اتاق روشن، بزرگ، جادار، کودکانه، کوچک، آبی...

دریا گرم، شور، عظیم، عمیق، سیاه، زیبا، آبی...

The house is new, large, wooden, spacious, beautiful, cozy, blue in color.

Bright, large, spacious, children's, small, blue room...

The sea is warm, salty, huge, deep, black, beautiful, and blue...

Usually, the form of an adjective is a noun or nouns and phrases of the congruence type, which means that one word is the so-called main word and defines the grammatical category of the second, subordinate word, and therefore all grammatical categories of adjectives depend on the categories of nouns or pronouns.

The grammatical dependence of adjectives on nouns is complete (see the examples above). Thus, adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number and case, only in the plural the gender becomes fuzzy, and semantic examples are possible for all adjectives: خانه های جدیدد/@تا@/@ریا، خانه های ب/@تا@/@ریا، خانه The site is located in the center of the city.

From the point of view of word formation adjectives are often formed suffixal (شیشه ای، چوبی، بارانی، کودکانه), prefixed (فوق مدرن، غیربهداشتی، قطبی، زیبا) or suffix-prefix method (مدرسه، کنار دریا، رومیزی). Adjectives are also formed by adding (راه آهن، روسیه - چک، قهوه ای روشن), gemorphological by combining two words: امضا شده در افراد زیر = امضا شده، آدرس بالا = بالا یا به اصطلاح صفت (انتقال یک جزء به صفت ها دسته)، به عنوان مثال، موفقیت های برجسته، چشم های خندان.From the point of view of syntax, adjectives most often perform the function of a definition or a nominal part of a predicate.

The above suffixes are thus realized not so much as a reflection of a number, but rather become a semantic marker that characterizes the features of animateness or inanimateness of the participants in the context.

Verbs are marked as important for both singular and plural. Table 2 shows examples of the correct use of the suffix, which is determined by the characteristics of the subject. As for the third person singular, it is more logical to talk about the form.

Table 2. Features of the face realization in Russian and Farsi

Similar to the labeling of a name in literary Persian, the verb also indicates a number semantically. If used with plural subjects, the verb will also indicate the plural.

On the other hand, for the plural of inanimate subjects, the verb may be singular. Such realities cannot be realized in the Russian language.:

The men have returned home."

کتاب ها فروش ضعیفی داشتند The books sold poorly.

Exceptions should also be considered. For example, a singular verb used in Farsi with an inanimate noun indicates that the lexemes are distributed both by type and time.

The sausages are burnt (not the beans).

The sausages burned down.

The content of the statement suggests that the sausages burned all together when frying in the same pan and they are cooked at the same time, which allows them to be considered as a single entity.

Such characteristics suggest that the perception of a number in Farsi is quite subjective. It is the Farsi speaker who decides which units are singular or plural.

The implementation of the system in Persian is not an easy matter. The history of collective/distributive interpretation through singular and plural is even more difficult.

The texts selected from the Iranian language corpus openly use singular verb inflection for inanimate nouns.:

مغازه ها باز شده و بازارها فعالیت عادی خود را از سر گرفته اند. The shops have opened, and the markets have resumed their normal operations.

مذاکرات به مرحله روشنی رسیده است. The negotiations have reached a clear stage.

Despite this, for those inanimate objects that are usually associated with people, such as cars, buses, and governments, preference is given to the constantly used linguistic construction.

اتوبوس ها در خیابان های شهر حرکت کردند. Buses traveled through the streets of the city.

همه وسایل نقلیه باید بلافاصله به سمت راست جاده حرکت کرده و متوقف شوند All vehicles must immediately move to the right side of the road and stop.

همه دولت هایی که با ایران روابط (دیپلماتیک) دارند... All Governments having (diplomatic) relations with Iran…

سینماها نیز باز هستند.Cinemas are also open.

Obviously, such inanimate objects are associated with people here as volitional/autonomous entities, which makes the plural declension necessary. Although inanimate objects are not personalized, as in A. Rumi ^[2], they are now elevated to the status of (human) animate objects through the intervention of people exercising control.

The data on the agreement of numbers and gender are taken from two epochs in the history of the language, which differ in their lexical, syntactic and stylistic preferences, namely: Persian classical prose dating from the XI - XIV centuries AD, including the translation of Monshi from Arabic "Kelile va Demneh" (XI century), which is realized as a work about animals. originally written in Sanskrit. Rumi's Fih-e Ma Fih (13th century), which is characterized as a work on mysticism, and Tusi's Asas al-Egtebas (14th century), the main work on logic, should also be noted separately. Additionally, examples from Iranian modern journalism have also been added.

The logic of choosing these epochs lies in the fact that the marking of numbers and gender in the Persian language does not seem to have changed radically during this period of about 1,000 years. The analysis is expected to shed light on the question of the association of numbers with semantic characteristics such as animateness in the Persian language. Let's turn to the analysis of the results.

در آنجا شکار زیادی وجود داشت و شکارچیان اغلب بر سر این مکان با هم دعوا می کردند There was a lot of game there, and hunters often argued over this place. Such sentences were discarded during the analysis, as they marked the plural only as the names of the subjects.

With the exception of the three final sentences, all other sentences in both classical and modern prose corpus are consistently declined using the plural if the subject of the plural is an animate being. The exceptional cases are listed below, with the plural subject in bold and the corresponding verb in italics.:

سه ماهی در استخر بود. There were three fish in the pool.

Among the crows, there were five known for their supreme wisdom.

این دو اردک که پشت سر شاه پرواز می کنند و در مقابل او فرود می آیند دو اسب هستند که به عنوان هدیه به پادشاه کلنجار آورده شده اند. These two ducks, flying behind the king and landing in front of him, are two horses brought to the king of Kalenjar as a gift.

We can note the consistent use of the singular for all verbs as long as the subject was an inanimate plural being.:

The doors of sustenance were open to me.

باران ها مکرر شد. The rains have become frequent.

Several days have passed.

برخی از مقادیر در برخی دیگر گنجانده شده است Some values are included in others.

There are only four types of things.

His eyes, hair, and teeth will disappear.

These characteristics indicate that the distribution by numbers is realized on the basis of the categories of animateness and inanimateness.

Interestingly, for many inanimate objects, the use of the verb in the singular also becomes indicative.

اگر چنین ویندوزی وجود نداشته باشد ...If there are no such windows…

بهشت نمی توانست چنین مسئولیتی را به عهده بگیرد. Heaven was unable to take on such a responsibility.

کوه ها معادن مختلفی را ارائه می دهند. The mountains offer various mines.

On the other hand, we can also find cases of obvious anomaly when the plural inflection is used for the plural of inanimate nouns.:

The heavens and the earth are conquered by His word.

The mines of gold and silver, as well as ruby and topaz, have been discovered.

افکار (مانند) پرندگان در آسمان هستند.Thoughts are (like) birds in the sky.

صفات شما دوستداران حقیقت هستند. Your qualities are lovers of truth.

هنگامی که ارواح دور می شوند، حقایق چهره آنها را آشکار می کندКак only ghosts fly, truth reveal his face

However, even here the numbers are not in free variation at all. As in many other cases with the inanimate plural and the plural verb inflection in this corpus, the subject of the sentence is a conjunction of some other plural names. Since any of these connected elements is the plural of inanimate ones, considered in isolation as a single whole, for example, آسمان "heaven", it is safe to say that the plural in such cases reflects the status of the subject as a conjunction of two or more names too heterogeneous to be perceived as a single whole; hence the labeling of the plural.

This makes the singular irrelevant, and the plural prevails. As for the hierarchy of animacy, the dividing line between numbers has already begun to shift to the right into the inanimate realm. It seems that there is a split in the language now, due to conscious autonomy/will, and not just animateness.

Similarly, later prose texts randomly selected from the daily newspaper Ettela'at continue to use the singular for inanimate nouns in the plural, which is very close in form to the Russian language, as long as they are considered as collective entities without their own autonomy.:

سیاست های اساسی کشور پس از انتخاب رئیس جمهور جدید تغییر نمی کند. The main policy of the country does not change after the election of a new president.

تهدیدها و توطئه های قدرت های جهانی هیچ اثری نخواهد داشت. The threats and conspiracies of the world powers will have no effect.

کارت های بانکی برای همه گروه های سنی در نظر گرفته شده است. Bank cards are intended for use by all age groups.

On the other hand, as soon as inanimate objects are considered as autonomous entities — regardless of whether they are related to the people controlling them or not — the verb can be realized in the plural.:

محله های بان برز، بان بور، سبزی آباد، ...، محله های واقع در حاشیه شهر، 540 هکتار وسعت دارند. Ban Barz, Ban Bur, Sabziabad, ..., the neighborhoods located on the outskirts of the city cover an area of 540 hectares.

رسانه ها نقش مهمی در گسترش بی اخلاقی داشته اند. The mass media has played an important role in spreading immorality.

سایر کارت های بانکی به شما امکان برداشت حداکثر تا 200000 TM را می دهند. Other bank cards allow you to withdraw money for a maximum of 200,000 TM.

If an entity is animate, it is inevitably calculable, but not necessarily human. The declension of the singular and plural Persian verbs serves as a marker of this semantic hierarchy.

The data show that for names in both classical and modern Persian prose, it is used at the root of the hierarchy, so that if the essence is calculable, it can be marked as plural. For verbs in classical prose, language is usually divided into animation, so if the animated subject has a plural, then the verb following it will also have a plural. On the contrary, if the plural subject is inanimate, then the verb will be marked as singular.

Such conceptualizations of inanimate entities are often close to the Persian language, like the use of psychoglabics for entities in the Alice in Wonderland language. In more moderate cases, this may be limited to the use of verb endings for the plural of inanimate nouns in Persian. The scheme of semantic meaning formation is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Semantic hierarchy for the designation of numbers in the Persian language

The marking of singular and plural in Persian is directly related to iconicity studies, which usually examine the direct/involuntary/non-symbolic relationship between meaning and form. And it's close to the Russian versions.

As studies of the morphology of verbs in the Russian language show, the order of markings relative to the base of the verb is most often iconic. When a Persian speaker says "sausages are burning," he still imagines sausages as multiple entities in essence, but collectivized in action. Similarly, for "sausages are burning" they are individualized with respect to what they do.

Since the verb is an unmarked linguistic realization of an action or event, the verb's proximity to the supposed autonomy of group members in action makes verbs natural markers of collectivity and distributivity.

Even the revised hierarchy proposed here is, at best, only descriptively more adequate in telling us where the separation of names occurs in Persian. The question of why the singular is associated with collectivity, and the plural with distributivity (and not, say, vice versa), still remains forgotten. And this is exactly what distinguishes the Persian language from Russian.

گاوها در انبار بودند. The cattle were in the barn.

جنگل در شمال بود. The forest was in the north.

One possible explanation is that trees in a forest are considered less autonomous than cows and bulls in a herd in terms of managing the course of events.

Interestingly, the Russian language allows both singular and plural verbs with a class of nominal nouns (collective nouns).

The difference between the singular and plural forms of the verb after the singular of the collective noun "reflects the difference in points of view: the singular emphasizes the non-personal collectivity of the group, and the plural emphasizes personal individuality within the group" ^[15].

دولت در حال کاهش خسارات خود است. The government is reducing its loss.

Here again, "the singular of collective nouns has agreement with the verb in the plural in cases where the speaker thinks of the group as consisting of separate individuals" ^[4].

The iconic association of any of the forms with an appropriate way of mentally experiencing an event is also an attractive explanation for the semantic differences between singular and plural in English.:

تیم ما برنده می شود. Our team is winning.

Our athletes are winning

تیم ما وارد میدان می شود. Our team is entering the field.

Iconicity seems to be the correct answer to this question. Both the singular and the collectivity have a common property of unity. Similarly, plural and distributivity share the concept of plurality. The distinction between singular and plural, noted in the name, leaves no room for such maneuvers as those discussed earlier, because we already need them to designate the subject as singular or plural.

Conclusion

Thus, although there is a big difference in the functionality of the Persian and Russian numbers and genders, we can say that the main function is to expand the meaning of the noun and clarify it, nevertheless it is respected. At the same time, the category of number and gender in Farsi differs precisely in semantic definiteness, not morphology.

In the Persian language, the main grammatical categories expressing the substantiality of nouns are the category of number and prominence. There is no noun declension system or gender category. In Russian, nouns are characterized by categories of gender, case, and number.

In the Persian language, when the inanimate subject is in the plural, the predicate is not similar to it in form and can be in the singular. The determining factor of the correspondence of the forms of the number of the two main compositions in a sentence is the characteristic of the subject in terms of animateness/inanimateness.

Gender categories in Russian and Persian are also different. In Russian, grammatical gender is expressed by morphological and syntactic means. All nouns are divided mainly into three groups: masculine, feminine, and neuter words. In Persian, lexemes and special terms are used to express generic differences: lexical units denoting men and denoting women, which are added to the beginning or end of the word. In addition, in Russian, adjectives can serve as a means of indicating the gender of some non-declension nouns, as well as words of a general kind, and in Persian, adjectives are unable to perform such a function due to the lack of a gender category.

The work has research prospects. First of all, it is necessary to make a comparison of categories at the present stage. A diachronical comparison can also be made by tracing how the categories developed in both cases.