A Contrastive Study of Grammatical Metaphor in English and Persian

This paper reports on a typological interpretation of differences between English and Persian in Grammatical Metaphor (GM). GM is developed within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and it is the result of interaction between the lexicogrammar and semantics. In this paper three typological features are identified across Persian and English languages. First, the typological features are described in terms of clause complexes, clauses, and groups. Second, the order of grammatical realisation; and, third the location of elemental GM is identified. On the basis of this typological description, this paper investigated GM differences in Persian and English from three perspectives: congruent and metaphorical expressions, GM subcategories and GM deployment. The findings indicate that differences in GM relates to the typological differences across two languages. The finding has implications for language teaching and learning and translation studies.