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Abstract

Throughout this article, after a brief review of some Structural Linguistics theory principles, the author has tried to give an analysis of urban form. This analysis which has been considered as “Structural-Syntactic”, has as its main purpose the explanation of urban physical
change and metamorphosis. To reach this aim, “physical string (or sentence)”, as a unit for analysis, has been defined, recognized and studied. By evoking the notion of physical strings, a syntactic and semantic interpretation of urban form and space can be taken into
account, by which one can explain many of the spatial and physical fragmentations and permutations in an urban context.
As a tool for interpreting the urban form, the structural and semantic approach to literary sentences has been borrowed and introduced into an urban complex (Zandieh complex in Shiraz); a complex which has had as its components some built and well defined elements and urban spaces. In the given Structural- Syntactic analysis, the loss, deterioration or fragmentation of these elements and connecting
spaces has lead to the absurdity and insignificance of the physical string. This interpretation reveals some of the formal, physical and spatial consequences of undesirable changes and mutations of urban form and fabric during the last century in an Iranian traditional urban complex.

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