Dr. Ahmad Reza Lotfi (born Sep 6, 1965) is a linguist at Azad Univesrity, Esfahan.
He was born in Shahreza, Iran, grew up in Esfahan, and studied at Azad University of Tehran. He has taught linguistics at Azad University at Khorasgan (Esfahan) since 1995. He offers courses in minimalist syntax to PhD and MA students of ELT.
He developed his Semantico-Phonetic Form which is a unitarianist theory of language in two different but inter-related senses: first, it assumes that the Conceptual-Intentional and Articulatory-Perceptual systems (responsible for semantic and phonetic interpretations respectively) access the data at one and the same level of interpretation; hence a single interface level—Semantico-Phonetic Form, SPF. Second, it is unitarianist in that (although it is still a formalist theory of language) it potentially permits the incorporation of both formalist and functionalist explanations in its formulation of the architecture of language. Within the framework of Semantico-Phonetic Form, and as an alternative proposal to Chomsky's minimalist thesis of movement, the Pooled Features Hypothesis proposes that "movement" is the consequence of the way in which the language faculty is organised (rather than a simple "imperfection" of language). The computational system CHL for human language is considered to be economical in its selection of formal features from the lexicon so that if two LIs (to be introduced in the same derivation) happen to have some identical formal feature in common, the feature is selected only once but shared by the syntactic objects in the derivation. It follows that the objects in question must be as local in their relations as possible. The locality of relations as such, which is due to economy considerations, results in some kind of (bare) phrase structure with pooled features labelling the structural tree nodes that dominate the syntactic objects. Pooled features, in a sense, are structurally interpreted. Other features, i.e. those not pooled, will be interpreted at SPF.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
_(2006). Agreement in Persian. Linguistik Online29.
http://www.linguistik-online.de/29_06/lotfi.pdf
_(2006). Feature Sharing v. Feature Checking: An Analysis of Persian Pre- and Post-verbal
CPs. California Linguistic Notes. Vol. XXX1 No. 1.
http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln/pdf/Checking%20v.%20Sharing.pdf
_(2003). Persian Wh-riddles. In Multiple Wh-Fronting, C. Boeckx and K. K. Grohmann
(eds), 161-186. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company.
_(2003). Intonation contours, yes/no questions, and minimalist syntax: A unitarianist
perspective. Cognitive Science 1:70-83.
_(2002). Minimalist program revisited: Chomsky’s strength to trigger movement. In Proceedings
of the 34th Linguistics Colloquium (Germersheim 1999), R. Rapp (ed), 131-140.
Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang.
_(2002). Dances with the Quantifiers. Journal of Language and Linguistics 1.
http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/1_1/lotfi1_1.html
_(2001). Persian ‘bayad’: A violation of the extended projection principle? California
Linguistic Notes 1.
http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln/spring01_articles/spring%202001.htm
_(2001). Iconicity: A Generative Perspective. Working Papers in LinguisticIconicity.
http://www.trismegistos.com/IconicityInLanguage/Articles/Lotfi/lotfi.html
Lotfi, A. R. and M. Shahrokhi. 2005. Interlanguage subjectivity. Journal of Language and
Linguistics. Vol. 4 No. 2.
http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/4_2/lotfi_shahrokhi.htm
Lotfi Khajooi, M. and A. R. Lotfi. (2004). Teaching vocabulary to Iranian students of English:
The application of Rosch’s Prototypicality Model in vocabulary learning. Danesh va
Pezhouhesh. No. 4.
Lotfi, A. R. and N. Vaziri Tehrani. (2002). Thinking-for-speaking effects in English
(L1=Persian) interlanguage. Danesh va Pezhouhesh 13, 14: 31-41.
Lotfi, A. R. and A. Ameri Golastan. (2002). Wh-extraction from claim-type constructions in
Persian-speaking L2 learners’ English interlanguage. Danesh va Pezhouhesh 10: 13-22.
Lotfi, A. R. and N. Saei-pour. (2001). Access to X-bar theory: A Study of (L1=Persian) English
interlanguage. Danesh va Pezhouhesh 7: 13-24.
Sharifian, F. and A. R. Lotfi. (2003). Rices and waters: The mass/Count distinction in Modern
Persian. Anthropological Linguistics 45(2): 226-244.
BOOK REVIEWS
Syntax: Uriagereka (1998) http://linguistlist.org/issues/10/10-926.html
General Linguistics: Darnell, Moravcsik, Newmeyer, Noonan & Wheatley, eds. (1998) http://linguistlist.org/issues/11/11-3.html
Syntax: Martin, Michaels & Uriagereka, eds. (2000) http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-974.html
SLA: Gass & Macky (2000) http://linguistlist.org/issues/11/11-1414.html
Linguistic Theories: Bybee & Hopper, eds. (2001) http://linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-2116.html
General Linguistics: O'Grady, Archibald, Aronoff & Rees-Miller, eds. (2001) http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-2273.html
Syntax/Semantics: Di Sciullo, ed. (2003) http://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-2481.html
Syntax/Language Acquisition: van Hout et al (2003) http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-646.html
Syntax/Computational Linguistics: Kruijff & Oehrle, eds. (2003) http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2326.html
Syntax: Brody (2004) http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1456.html
Syntax: Schweikert (2005) http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-646.html
Syntax: Everaert & van Riemsdijk, ed. (2006) http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-3167.html