Dissertation Research: A Study of Diverging Morphology: Native and Loan Verb Formation in Modern Maltese

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Adam Ussishkin, Ms. Alina Twist will conduct research on verb formation processes in Maltese for her doctoral dissertation. Maltese is a dialect of Arabic that has been influenced extensively by contact with English and other Indo-European languages. Maltese speakers appear to make use of two separate systems of word formation. Non-linear word formation, as illustrated by Maltese kiser 'he broke' and kisser ' he smashed', is typical of Arabic dialects. In this type of system, segmental material is added or changed in the middle of the word to alter the meaning. Linear word formation, in which segmental material is added to the edges of words, also occurs in Maltese, which is not typically found in core word formation in other Arabic dialects. Ms. Twist's research project will collect psycholinguistic evidence about how speakers use each of these strategies. This evidence will be analyzed to determine how the two word formation systems interact. A masked priming experiment will ask Maltese speakers to judge whether or not test items are words of their language. The test items will include real verbs of both Semitic and English origin. Filler items will be nonsense verbs constructed to mirror the properties of the test items. Accuracy rates and reaction time will be recorded and reaction times of correct responses compared across speakers. An elicitation experiment will ask native speakers of Maltese to provide a verb form that corresponds to a given noun or adjective, as illustrated by the English pair destruction ~ destroy. The test items will be nouns and adjectives of Semitic and English origin. Responses will be broadly transcribed and analyzed for their similarity to the expected patterns. This research builds on past studies on word formation in languages that exhibit only one type of core word formation strategy, like English or Hebrew. In the past it has been difficult to compare research between these languages, because the writing systems of the two types of languages are so different. Non-linear languages like Hebrew and most dialects of Arabic are written without many vowels. Maltese, on the other hand, is written in Roman letters, including all vowels. This difference will allow direct comparison between this study and previous work in the field of word formation.