Papers by Mehrdad Naghzguy-Kohan
Indo-Iranian languages, 2026
This study investigates the encoding strategies and diachronic sources of similative plurals-cons... more This study investigates the encoding strategies and diachronic sources of similative plurals-constructions denoting 'X and similar entities'-in Western Iranian languages. Unlike ordinary plurals, the set formed by similative plurals is comprised of some heterogeneous members. While previous research on Western Iranian languages has predominantly examined ordinary and associative plurals, similative plurals remain understudied. Drawing on data from various languages and dialects across this branch, the present article identifies four major strategies for expressing similative plurals: (1) echo-reduplication, (2) a complementary system of echo-reduplication and suffixation, (3) the functional extension of the default plural suffix-hā to a similative marker, and (4) non-morphological constructions using lexical items meaning 'thing'. In general, similative plural constructions are headed by a nominal bearing the [-animate] feature, most commonly denoting trivialization, mockery, or ridicule; in some instances, they may additionally convey an ironic interpretation. However, in Iranian languages, similative plurals may be deployed with nominals marked for the [+human] feature in specific contexts; in such cases, the construction conveys a pejorative meaning. The sole exception to this pattern is the use of the similative suffix-hâ with a proper noun head. Diachronic analysis shows that non-morphological similative markers predominantly originate from lexical sources-most commonly nouns meaning 'thing', whereas the ultimate source of morphological similative markers is unknown or only partially knownsuch as Persian-hâ, which evolved from an adverbial derivational suffix into a plural marker before subsequently developing a similative function. This trajectory constitutes a typologically rare pathway of linguistic change.
این کتاب با مقدمهای در مورد تغییر زبانی آغاز میگردد. در این راستا، مهمترین منابع زبانشناسی تا... more این کتاب با مقدمهای در مورد تغییر زبانی آغاز میگردد. در این راستا، مهمترین منابع زبانشناسی تاریخی معرفی میشوند. سپس نظامهای خطی و شیوهی تکوین آنها مورد توجه قرار میگیرد. فصلهای سوم تا ششم به انواع تغییرات زبانی اختصاص دارد. تغییرات معنایی و واژگانی از جمله تغییراتی هستند که معمولاً زودتر از سایر تغییرات اتفاق میافتند، بنابراین فصل سوم به این نوع تغییرات اختصاص دارد. برخلاف تغییرات معنایی و واژگانی، تغییرات آوایی نسبت به سایر تغییرات بهسختی رخ میدهند، بنابراین، آخرین فصلِ تغییرات زبانی (یعنی فصل ششم) به انواع تغییرات آوایی اختصاص دارد. سرانجام دو فصل آخر کتاب بهترتیب به انواع روشهای زبانشناسی تاریخی و معرفی خانوادههای زبانی جهان اختصاص یافته است. در مبحث خانوادههای زبانی سعی شده است تا زیرگروه زبانهای ایرانی با تفصیل بیشتری مورد بحث قرار گیرد. پیشنهاد نگارنده این است که فصول این کتاب به ترتیبی که به نگارش در آمده است مطالعه شود، ولی با توجه به نیازهای فوری یا علایق خوانندگان میتوان، بعد از خواندن فصل اول، هر یک از فصول را بهطور مستقل مطالعه کرد. لازم به یادآوری است که کتاب فرهنگ توصیفی زبانشناسی تاریخی (139۴) نوشتهی نگارنده و خانم دکتر شادی داوری میتواند مکمل کتاب حاضر باشد
Italian Journal of Linguistics, 34.2 (2022), p. 121-142, 2022
This paper aims to identify and account for the grammatical constructions expressing indefinitene... more This paper aims to identify and account for the grammatical constructions expressing indefiniteness in Old Persian. Based on the extant data from this stage, the use of the 'indefinite article' ai ̯va in marking noun phrases (exclusively) denoting human beings is elaborated on. In the corpus, we find both this usage of ai ̯va and its original function as numeral 'one'. Here, it is argued that the former usage emerged as the result of a specific construction that the latter found itself in: 'There is only one X, the X represents a human being'. The metonymic relations triggered reanalysis of ai ̯va to an 'indefinite article' which in turn paved the way for its metaphoric extension. To depict this path of development, a Construction Grammar model is adopted. This study is based on the corpus of Old Persian gathered by Schmitt (2009). Our investigation illustrates that the token frequency of the aforementioned indefinite article in the total NPs (4130) amounts to 0.5%. This percentage is not very high; however, it implies that it is a newly formed grammatical construction in the oldest extant texts of Persian language. The indefinite article emergence in this stage and lack of a definite marker make Persian another counter example to the languages of the world, since the emergence of the latter in grammar is superior to the former.
An Associative plural refers to a construction where a nominal along with a (synthetic or analyt... more An Associative plural refers to a construction where a nominal along with a (synthetic or analytic) marker refers to a human referent and other people associated to him/her. Unlike ordinary plurals, the set formed by associated plurals is comprised of some heterogeneous members. The aim of this article is to identify and describe associated plural constructions employed in selected Western Iranian languages. Furthermore, the sources from which the associative markers originate are also indicated. The bulk of the data analyzed in this study come from the spoken varieties while the grammaticalized associative plurals usually belong to the casual and informal speech. The findings of this study indicate that six different strategies are used to express associate plurals in Iranian languages. In some languages two complementary strategies are used with different subset of nominals (proper nouns, or kin terms) in the same language. Still in some others, the usage of the alternative strategies demonstrates some sociolinguistic implications not touched upon in similar studies on associative plurals.
زبان پژوهی, 2020
There are conditional sentences in all languages. A conditional sentence consists of two main and... more There are conditional sentences in all languages. A conditional sentence consists of two main and subordinate clauses that are apodosis and protasis clauses respectively. In this study, due to the importance of conditional constructions and the lack of typological classification of these structures in Persian language, we have studied the typology of conditional constructions in New Persian language. Theoretical concepts In this study, we will examine conditional sentences of New Persian language, based on the theoretical framework of Declerck and Reed (2001). In this semantic theoretical framework, conditional sentences can be classified in different types according to the possible worlds of protasis clause. In this typology possible world of protasis clause can be factual or theoretical. If the possible world is theoretical, it can be neutral or non-neutral, and if it is non-neutral, it can be one of the four types of closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual. In diagram 1, this...
̒Ilm-i Zabān, 2019
One of the most important issues in cognitive linguistics is Spatial Orientation. Languages use s... more One of the most important issues in cognitive linguistics is Spatial Orientation. Languages use sources such as human body (body-part), landmarks, dynamic concept (typically motion verbs like come, go, etc.) and cardinal direction to conceptualize spatial and geographic directions. Every language uses the whole or some of these sources based on its historical and cultural issues. The present study sought to consider the features and sources of Spatial orientation in Persian language based on of Heine's (1997) theory. The results of the study indicated that Persian language employs human body and animal body (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic model) as the main source of conceptualization, since the bodily experience in space serves as the basis for the majority of metaphorical expressions. The next source was Landmarks (environment – specific features) such as rivers, mountains and rocky places, sea and trees and other related properties. The third and final sources were motion and...
Phonological borrowings from Arabic in some non-standard varieties of spoken Persian
From kin term to discourse marker: The case of bâbâ 'father' in Modern Persian (corresponding author: Dr. Mehrdad Naghzguy-Kohan, Accepted paper for SLE 2016, 49th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 31 August – 3 September 2016, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy)
The grammaticalization of progressive aspect in Persian
The Grammaticalization of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality, 2017
Pandemi covid telah merubah seluruh tatanan kehidupan manusia, khususnya di dunia Pendidikan. Hal... more Pandemi covid telah merubah seluruh tatanan kehidupan manusia, khususnya di dunia Pendidikan. Hal tersebut mengharuskan pendidikan berubah dan beradaptasi secara cepat untuk tetap melanjutkan proses pembelajaran. Tujuan dari artikel ini untuk meninjau dampak dampak yang ditimbukan kebijakan menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia tentang Work From Home (WFH) di dunia pendidikan terutama di kalangan sekolah dasar. Artikel ini ditulis dengan meninjau artikel artikel dan referensi terkait tentang kebijakan pembelajaran online yang dianggap sebagai solusi untuk tetap melanjutkan proses pembelajaran ketika sekolah sekolah ditutup untuk menghindari penyebaran virus. Namun, dilain sisi kebijakan tersebut telah memberikan dampak terhadap proses tranformasi ilmu pengetahuan baik terhadap peserta didik, guru maupun orang tua atau keluarga. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif yang berbasis library resert (keperpustakaan).
Development of contrastive-partitive in colloquial Persian
STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 2020
This article discusses the development of the contrastive-partitive function of the possessive =e... more This article discusses the development of the contrastive-partitive function of the possessive =eš in colloquial Persian. Examples of colloquial Persian show that the third person singular clitic pronoun =eš in some adnominal possessive constructions does not refer to any obvious referent present either in the syntactic structure (co-text) or in the situational context. Instead, the function of =eš, namely contrastive-partitive, is to mark the host as a part and contrast it with other parts of the similar set. The same function is attested in a few languages of Uralic and Turkic group. We believe that the same development has been occurred in possessive =eš in Persian. To describe the process of the development of the contrastive-partitive function, authentic colloquial examples from Internet blogs and formal examples from a historical corpus of New Persian are investigated. It is argued that this non-possessive function of =eš has originated from the whole-part relation in cross-re...
بررسی کلمات ربط تقابلی فارسی و چگونگی تکوین آنها
جستارهای زبانی, Dec 22, 2013
پژوهش های زبان شناسی تطبیقی, Aug 23, 2013
Possible Worlds of Conditional Construction in Contemporary Persian Language
Conditional sentence is a compound sentence consisting of two clauses: protasis and apodosis. The... more Conditional sentence is a compound sentence consisting of two clauses: protasis and apodosis. The purpose of this paper is investigating the conditional sentences in contemporary Persian language based on the Declerck and Reed typology (2001). According to this semantic typology, possible world of protasis is divided in to two factual and theoretical classes. Theoretical possible world can be neutral or nonneutral and the nonneutral is divided in to four types: closed, open, tentative and counterfactual. In the present study, we try to examine these types with respect to the corpus of 286 conditional sentences extracted from ten contemporary story books and the frequency of occurrence of each one to be determined separately. The analysis of Persian conditional sentences shows that the Persian conditional construction is compatible with mentioned typology and open possible world has the highest occurrence frequency, and the neutral, closed, factual, tentative and counterfactual possible worlds respectively dedicated the highest frequency of the open possible world. The higher frequency of occurrence of the open possible world arises from the fact that in this possible world a probabilistic situation is considered and there is no certainty about its occurrence and this interpretation is most consistent with the operation of the conditional construction. This study also shows that in addition to the common conditional conjunctions such as “ agar, be shartike, vaella, vagarna, ta, ...” other conjunctions are also used as conditional conjunctions like : “ valo, farzan, hamin ke, be mojarade inke, vaghti, cheo…che, hala ke, harvaght, ….” .
This paper identifies the grammatical constructions expressing indefiniteness in Old Persian. Bas... more This paper identifies the grammatical constructions expressing indefiniteness in Old Persian. Based on the extant data from this stage of Persian language, There had been no indefinite article before Old Persian era and its grammaticalization is the result of the bridging context 'There is only one X, the X represents a human being'. In fact, the metonymic relations triggered reanalysis of "aiva" 'one' to an 'indefinite article' which in turn paved the way for its metaphoric extension. To explain this path of development, a Construction Grammar model is adopted. This research is based on the corpus of OP gathered by Kent (1953). The investigation illustrates that the token frequency of the aforementioned indefinite article in the total NPs (4130) amounts to 0.5%. This percentage is not much high; however, it implies that it is a newly formed grammatical construction in Old Persian. In other words, it illustrates the early stages of the indefinite article grammaticalization.
Persian Language and Iranian Dialects, 2021
In addition to the grammatical weight and the nominal head thematic role effects on the processin... more In addition to the grammatical weight and the nominal head thematic role effects on the processing of a relative clause, which has been dealt with extensively in previous studies, other factors influence the processing of the relative clause. In the present paper, the research data has been collected from TV and radio programs and the quantifier's role on relative clauses occurrence has been investigated based on Wiechmann approach (2015). Wiechmann believes that each component in a relative construction can affect other components occurrence. Results show that ambiguity and generality in the meaning of the modified head, and occurring in special constructions affect the relative clause presence. This is compatible with exemplar–based theory in that components of a structure affect each other's occurrence. The result of this study can be used in determining the degree of ambiguity among Persian quantifiers and can explain how relative clauses are processed.
Language Related Research جستارهای زبانی, 2023
This article studies semantic development of pronominal clitics as possessors of pertensive const... more This article studies semantic development of pronominal clitics as possessors of pertensive constructions in New Persian. The structure of the adnominal possessive constructions in this language is pertensive, not genitive, since it is the head of the construction, the possessed item, that is marked either with an ezafeh particle or a clitical possessor. One of the functions of Persian pronominal clitics is the possessive function and they are varied according to three person and two number features. In the present article, the semantic relations of the pertensive structures including pronominal clitics as their possessors are investigated. Since the study is diachronic, the data are of written type and only the prose texts of this period, 10th to 20th centuries, are studied. From each century, three manuscripts with different authors are selected. Three criteria determine the selection of the texts. First, the language used in the texts is simple, meaning that the speech figures or rhyme schemes that might affect the usage of various linguistic items are limited; second, the texts are narrative since in this genre, it is more probable to find various person features of pronominal clitics; and third, the dates when they are written are certain. The corpus consists of about 500000 words, including 15000 words per manuscript. From this amount, 1952 adnominal possessive constructions including clitical possessors are extracted. Their semantic relations are represented based on the descriptions in Heine (1977), Nikiforidou (1991), Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2002) and Lehmann (2002). The frequencies of the semantic relations per century in addition to their growth are demonstrated in tables and figures and a semantic map of their development is depicted based on the semantic extension map in genitive structures introduced by Nikiforidou (1991) but with modifications. The analysis shows that the most frequent relations encoded by the possessive pronominal clitics both in the whole corpus and in the data of each century are body-part and kinship relations, with 60% of the sample in total. The ownership relation includes only 5% of the data. The findings do not support the hypothesis that ownership or legal possession is the basic meaning in genitive (here pertensive) constructions. All semantic relations show increase of usage through centuries and some are rare or recent. Moreover a transfer from more concrete to more abstract concepts to be included in possessive relations is detected. This is more observable for the whole-part relation where the more abstract concepts of partitivity or quantification are not used sooner than 15th century. It is also showed that the non-pronominal functions of the third person singular pronominal clitic, named as contrastive-partitive and definite, are results of the semantic extensions and abstraction of the possessive constructions leading to the reanalysis of this pronominal clitic. This issue is also supported with the data showing that the third person singular pronominal clitic has the most frequent usage in the corpus, 70%, and covers the most variety of the semantic relations.
Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 2020
Our purpose in this article is to investigate the formal mechanisms of causative constructions of... more Our purpose in this article is to investigate the formal mechanisms of causative constructions of Modern Persian language based on Dixon (2012) typology. In this diachronic study, a corpus of more than 330000 words and 4151 causative constructions extracted from 30 books of 4 th to 7 th and 13 th and 14 th AH centuries. The analysis of Persian causative constructions shows that this language uses three known lexical, morphological, and syntactic mechanisms in order to express the causative meaning so that lexical mechanism has the highest occurrence frequency among them. The data shows that syntactic causative application is restricted to the recent centuries so that no construction of this type has been found in early centuries. Our findings also prove that 4 th century has the most frequency of causatives and we can see a decreasing rate of these constructions so that 13 th century has the lowest position and again we observe an increasing rate in the current century. The results also indicate that morphological causatives have had a decreasing frequency so that some verbs like "faramushandan", "shanavandan", "agahandan" and… have been omitted from speakers' vocabulary. Another result is that although existence of a causative verb is necessary for a construction to be regarded as a causative, it is not enough.
On competition and blocking in inflectional morphology: Evidence from the domainof number in New Persian
Folia Linguistica, 2016
Blocking, as traditionally defined, refers to a situation where the mere presence of a form or pa... more Blocking, as traditionally defined, refers to a situation where the mere presence of a form or pattern in language preempts the application of another form or pattern. Recent studies on blocking, especially in derivational morphology, have provided many examples which seriously cast doubt on the assumed discreteness of the notion. Using data from sizeable corpora, this paper seeks to address this issue in inflectional morphology. Within that domain, it is illustrated that – throughout time – there may have been an alternation between competing morphological patterns. In particular, pluralization by suffixation and transfixation, may have alternated in assuming the role of a blocker. On the basis of frequency data of inflectional classes in New Persian, it is shown that whenever there is an increase in the usage of either of these two strategies, there is also a decrease in application of the other. This alternation follows a neat and systematic pattern strongly suggesting that trans...
There are conditional sentences in all languages. A conditional sentence consists of two main and... more There are conditional sentences in all languages. A conditional sentence consists of two main and subordinate clauses that are apodosis and protasis clauses respectively. In this study, due to the importance of conditional constructions and the lack of typological classification of these structures in Persian language, we have studied the typology of conditional constructions in New Persian language.
Theoretical concepts
In this study, we will examine conditional sentences of New Persian language, based on the theoretical framework of Declerck and Reed (2001). In this semantic theoretical framework, conditional sentences can be classified in different types according to the possible worlds of protasis clause. In this typology possible world of protasis clause can be factual or theoretical. If the possible world is theoretical, it can be neutral or non-neutral, and if it is non-neutral, it can be one of the four types of closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual. In diagram 1, this typology is shown:
Diagram 1: Typology of possible worlds
In factual protasis conditional the situation of protasis clause is interpreted as a fact, which forms part of the real world that can be occurred truly (Declerck & Reed, 2001, p. 65-66). The following sentence is a factual one:
1. If I had a problem, I always went to my grandmother.
In a conditional sentence that refers to the theoretical world, if there is no relation with the real world, it will be neutral. The speaker who uses the neutral conditional has no presupposition or assumption about the likelihood of a theoretical world and the real world. The following sentence is a neutral one:
2. If a woman has a history of cancer in her family, she should be examined each year.
On the other hand, if the speaker uses the non-neutral theoretical protasis, there is a presupposition about the likelihood of theoretical and real world. Given the degree of this probability, there are four types of non-neutral theoretical conditionals. In these types the presupposition of protasis clause with real world can be one of the true, probably true, unlikely, and false ones. These are called closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual respectively (ibid, p. 67-72).
In the closed conditional the speaker assumes that the situation of the protasis clause in the real world is true. The following sentence is a closed one:
3. If you know something about this, tell me.
If there is not a certain correspondence between protasis’s possible world and the real world, then the possible world would be open. In this type of conditional sentences there is no certainty, no probability or doubt about corresponding between real world and possible world. The following sentence is an open conditional sentence (Ibid, p. 91-93):
4. If the train is late, we will miss our appointment.
In the tentative possible world, the accommodation of the protais’s possible world and real world is impossible but it is not improbable. In fact, in this conditional sentence, it is more likely that the situation of the protasis clause in the real world is false (ibid.,p. 93-98). The following sentence is a tentative one:
5. If he resigned, I would be happy.
Finally, the conditional sentence in which there is an assumption that the protasis’s theoretical world is contrary with factuality and which is completely different from the real world is the counterfactual conditional (Declerck & Reed, 2001, p. 99). The following sentence is a counterfactual one:
6. I would never have gone with them if I were you.
According to the research objectives, the authors have selected the data needed for the research from the written texts of New Persian language produced from the 4th to the 14th century AH. In each of these centuries, ten books from different authors were selected. Then, from each of the selected books, randomly an approximate number of 5000 words was examined and conditional constructions were collected in the aforementioned corpus of each book. Therefore, 110 books from 11 centuries and approximately 50,000 words from each century were examined. Finally, it can be said that the present study consists of an approximate number of 556072 words and 3045 pages. In other words, 50552 words and 277 pages have been examined from each century. Then we examined all the 3648 conditional sentences that were extracted from the corpus and then, we determined the type of conditional construction of each conditional sentence based on the theoretical framework.
We indicated that the conditional construction of the New Persian language can be adapted to the typology of Declerck and Reed (2001). Therefore, there are factual, neutral, closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual conditional types in New Persian language. By examining the frequency of occurrence of conditional sentences in the 4th to 11th century AH, we concluded that the use of conditional constructions in the early centuries was much higher than the later centuries, and there was a steady decline down to the 10th century. By examining the frequency of possible worlds in conditional sentences in the 4th to 14th centuries, we concluded that the highest frequency of occurrence of possible worlds belongs to the open possible world and subsequently the neutral, closed and factual possible worlds have a high frequency. The reason for the higher frequency of open possible world is the higher iconicity of this conditional construction. In this construction the speaker considers the hypothetical position that is likely to occur. This situation by constructing the concept of a conditional term that expresses a hypothetical position has the highest degree of similarity and therefore has the highest iconicity. By increasing the iconicity of a construction that can be a criterion in the rising of the frequency of a construction, the frequency of the conditional sentence with the open possible world is increased, and this result is due to the ease in the processing of such sentences
Theoretical concepts
In this study, we will examine conditional sentences of New Persian language, based on the theoretical framework of Declerck and Reed (2001). In this semantic theoretical framework, conditional sentences can be classified in different types according to the possible worlds of protasis clause. In this typology possible world of protasis clause can be factual or theoretical. If the possible world is theoretical, it can be neutral or non-neutral, and if it is non-neutral, it can be one of the four types of closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual. In diagram 1, this typology is shown:
Diagram 1: Typology of possible worlds
In factual protasis conditional the situation of protasis clause is interpreted as a fact, which forms part of the real world that can be occurred truly (Declerck & Reed, 2001, p. 65-66). The following sentence is a factual one:
1. If I had a problem, I always went to my grandmother.
In a conditional sentence that refers to the theoretical world, if there is no relation with the real world, it will be neutral. The speaker who uses the neutral conditional has no presupposition or assumption about the likelihood of a theoretical world and the real world. The following sentence is a neutral one:
2. If a woman has a history of cancer in her family, she should be examined each year.
On the other hand, if the speaker uses the non-neutral theoretical protasis, there is a presupposition about the likelihood of theoretical and real world. Given the degree of this probability, there are four types of non-neutral theoretical conditionals. In these types the presupposition of protasis clause with real world can be one of the true, probably true, unlikely, and false ones. These are called closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual respectively (ibid, p. 67-72).
In the closed conditional the speaker assumes that the situation of the protasis clause in the real world is true. The following sentence is a closed one:
3. If you know something about this, tell me.
If there is not a certain correspondence between protasis’s possible world and the real world, then the possible world would be open. In this type of conditional sentences there is no certainty, no probability or doubt about corresponding between real world and possible world. The following sentence is an open conditional sentence (Ibid, p. 91-93):
4. If the train is late, we will miss our appointment.
In the tentative possible world, the accommodation of the protais’s possible world and real world is impossible but it is not improbable. In fact, in this conditional sentence, it is more likely that the situation of the protasis clause in the real world is false (ibid.,p. 93-98). The following sentence is a tentative one:
5. If he resigned, I would be happy.
Finally, the conditional sentence in which there is an assumption that the protasis’s theoretical world is contrary with factuality and which is completely different from the real world is the counterfactual conditional (Declerck & Reed, 2001, p. 99). The following sentence is a counterfactual one:
6. I would never have gone with them if I were you.
According to the research objectives, the authors have selected the data needed for the research from the written texts of New Persian language produced from the 4th to the 14th century AH. In each of these centuries, ten books from different authors were selected. Then, from each of the selected books, randomly an approximate number of 5000 words was examined and conditional constructions were collected in the aforementioned corpus of each book. Therefore, 110 books from 11 centuries and approximately 50,000 words from each century were examined. Finally, it can be said that the present study consists of an approximate number of 556072 words and 3045 pages. In other words, 50552 words and 277 pages have been examined from each century. Then we examined all the 3648 conditional sentences that were extracted from the corpus and then, we determined the type of conditional construction of each conditional sentence based on the theoretical framework.
We indicated that the conditional construction of the New Persian language can be adapted to the typology of Declerck and Reed (2001). Therefore, there are factual, neutral, closed, open, tentative, and counterfactual conditional types in New Persian language. By examining the frequency of occurrence of conditional sentences in the 4th to 11th century AH, we concluded that the use of conditional constructions in the early centuries was much higher than the later centuries, and there was a steady decline down to the 10th century. By examining the frequency of possible worlds in conditional sentences in the 4th to 14th centuries, we concluded that the highest frequency of occurrence of possible worlds belongs to the open possible world and subsequently the neutral, closed and factual possible worlds have a high frequency. The reason for the higher frequency of open possible world is the higher iconicity of this conditional construction. In this construction the speaker considers the hypothetical position that is likely to occur. This situation by constructing the concept of a conditional term that expresses a hypothetical position has the highest degree of similarity and therefore has the highest iconicity. By increasing the iconicity of a construction that can be a criterion in the rising of the frequency of a construction, the frequency of the conditional sentence with the open possible world is increased, and this result is due to the ease in the processing of such sentences