Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract The concept in sociology and social theories plays an important role. Many concepts have been coined and explained. The questions are, what are the concepts, how are they formed, and what functions do they have for science? In addition, how did the thinkers explain their own concepts? Kant speaks of categories as priori concepts, Hegel emphasize self-evolutionary of concept, Marx, unlike Hegel, considers concept and the dialectic of concepts as a reflection of the real world. Nietzsche focuses on the metaphorical nature of concepts and sees them as the cemetery of perceptions. Durkheim, on the contrary, emphasizes a posteriori and social nature of concepts, and Blumer focuses on a key role of concepts in science and its functions. Although these thinkers are the philosophers or sociologists, but their approaches to the analysis of the concepts are in the first instance, logical, then, psychological and literary, social or cultural.

Abstract Language is the basic element of culture and is affected by the socio-cultural changes, in general and by wars, as the most important social phenomena, in particular. This discussion aims at studying the impacts and consequences of the War, such as migration and language interference by applying migration and social linguistics theories. To collect data, a field study method is employed and the research techniques are participatory observation and narrative interview. The research population is the Sar Poul Zahab's inhabitants, a city which is located in Kermanshah province, Iran. Findings show that migration, as a considerable consequence of the War plays a key role in cultural changes which in turn lead to changes in the other aspects of life, such as language. To sum it up, it should be said that in the mentioned area we see new forms of linguistic concepts, some language interference, language death and recreation of folklore in the intercultural communication of this area.

Abstract This article attempts to show how the translation process at Nasir al-din Shah's period can be concerned as an interaction between minds and languages of translators. We would like to compare the original European texts with their understandings by Iranian translators, as through this comparison, many of the shortcomings and problems of the minds and languages of translators and Iranian intellectuals will be determined. In order to explain the above problem, I used the method of text analysis and linguistic concepts by referring to certain methodological theories and patterns of discourse analysis of Laclau and Mouffe and Michel Foucault's theories. In fact, the Language of translation is the most important arena for social interaction and its powerful presence helped represent and visualize our understanding of self and the European world. Research findings show that translation as one of the main transmission channels of understanding played an important role in introducing the process of change and transformation of the European texts, and helped for progressive goals of some political and cultural figures of the era of Nasir al-din shah, but the language and intellectual barriers and the administration's policy led to some failures. However, the Iranian society continued this attempt in various forms. New concepts adopted in the form of publications and newspaper articles and new versions of modern developments helped the cultural and social activist groups understanding the socio-political and intellectual changes in Europe in nineteenth century.

Abstract In This paper we attempt to explore the historical function of humanities in general; by considering efforts which are related to the matter of social reconstruction in some critical periods of Iran's history. Also we focus on the function of Iranian languages1 in process of social reconstruction, the processes which are continual somehow and discontinued in some phases. Then, it to answer this question that "what is the historical function of translation in humanities and social reconstruction in recent Iran?" We start with the period in which the Arabs conquest of Persia and separate this time period to pre and past- Ferdowsi, and compare them with the aim of a deep consideration of Ferdowsi's intention, in order to find out the reasons of his attempts to build up the reconstruction on the basis of his lingual logics, approach and ideal. Then other matters of reconstructing, after the Mongol conquest of Persia and after Safavid dynasty considered and evaluated. Considering the mutual affects of Persian language and humanities on each other is based on this assumption that translation has an important and extremely effective role in Persian language and the sights of its speakers. Findings show that humanities in our countries have not paid enough attention to cognitive basis of Persian language, in particular, and to the Persian language and social affair in general. This paper claims that "the success of humanities is a matter of social reconstruction in Iran which depends on their attention to the introductory knowledge of the society". Discussions in this article which are related to translation, derived from a research program titledas "Social problems of translation and translators in Iran" and suggest that in the last two centuries, original thoughts have been reduced to translative ones, which in turn make a "translative mind"; this term refers to any kind of imitative thoughts, ideas and acts. We cannot expect humanities to become creative and lead the way in Iranian society, in the present condition.

Abstract From the linguistic point of view, discourse is an individual action which is the product of language use. Such an action that transfers outward and lived experiences of enunciator with inward quest of language into discourse is our main focus of attention and have different features which this study highlights just on some part of this matter. Among different functions of discourse, three characteristics entitled resistive, insisting and appeasing are those properties that are the foundations of many discourses. By focusing on these features we mean that each discourse action is as a result of some release of energy whose guaranty depends on the dynamic process of discourse. This energy causes the formation of discourse resistance, insistence or even appeasement. Discourse resistance negates an affirmative and stabilized status with creation of different and novel situation. The most important issue of affirmative status negation of a discourse is to open the way to a new perspective which represents the route of discourse movement and can prepare the situations of development and transcendence. Discourse actions have always the possibility of self-presence revival in a process totally different from those procedures which have been already traced for them. Action flows have different threshold resistance. It is possible to conduct a flow in a different way merely with a little energy. Resistance and insistence redefine discourse power. Regarding this fact, power can change the situation of affirmative status with quantitative extension of its presence. But sometimes, the reduction and weakness of this quantitative extension is a type of insistence in order to be qualified in term of presence. The more the process of making myth increases discourse resistance, the more the occurrence of appeasing conditions of presence will be better provided. Resistive feature of discourse facilitate the way to the transcendence of discourse actors. This type of resistance makes possible the actors displacement and obstacles their freezing. Now, it should investigate how and based on which functions the discourse will encounter with dynamic process of appeasement and changes affirmative and stabilized circumstances? The main objective of this study is to analyze three features of discourse which are resistive, insisting and appeasing in the framework of semiotics in order to explain this fact that enunciation is an atmosphere with numerous challenges in which transmutation or transcendence of signification process depends on the movement from affirmative status to negative and dynamic space to prohibit signification sediment.

Abstract In recent decades, systematic approach or attitude has always been as an efficient and complementary means in specialized studies of various phenomena in different areas of knowledge and led to a comprehensive and multi-faceted understanding of why and how the natural processes are. In the last century, science, which faced with a large amount of production and accumulation of very diverse and professional data, tried to analyze and explore the relationships between elements of the system to explain the behavior of the entire system. This analysis was based on two assumptions. Firstly, there is not any interaction between components or it is very weak. Secondly the relations between components must be explicable. The emergence of the chaos theory and nonlinear mathematics made it clear that the interactions of whole system components do not follow the above two conditions, so the holistic approach in systems analysis is necessary. In this paper, according to the system of the production process of meaning by complex adaptive systems, the interactions between subject and object (individual with others) within the four semantic systems of Landowski is compared. Findings demonstrate that with the use of an interdisciplinary approach, we could analyze many phenomena and explain the results of complex relationships of them. By the way, our method is descriptive.