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

在Adam Ussishkin博士的指导下，Alina Twist女士将在她的博士论文中对马耳他语的动词形成过程进行研究。马耳他语是阿拉伯语的一种方言，由于与英语和其他印欧语言的接触而受到广泛影响。说马耳他语的人似乎使用两种不同的构词法。非线性构词法是典型的阿拉伯方言，如马耳他语中的kisser ‘he broke’和kisser ‘he smashed’。在这种类型的系统中，在单词中间添加或改变分段材料来改变意思。线形构词法，即在词的边缘添加分段材料，也出现在马耳他语中，这在其他阿拉伯方言的核心构词法中并不常见。Twist女士的研究项目将收集关于说话者如何使用这些策略的心理语言学证据。我们将对这些证据进行分析，以确定两个构词法系统是如何相互作用的。一个隐藏启动实验将要求说马耳他语的人判断测试项目是否是他们语言中的单词。测试项目将包括闪族语和英语起源的真实动词。填充项是无意义的动词，用来反映测试项的属性。准确率和反应时间将被记录下来，并对不同说话者正确回答的反应时间进行比较。一个启发实验将要求以马耳他语为母语的人提供一个与给定名词或形容词相对应的动词形式，如英语配对destruction ~ destroy。测试项目将是闪族语和英语起源的名词和形容词。回答将被广泛转录并分析其与预期模式的相似性。这项研究建立在过去对只有一种核心构词法的语言（如英语或希伯来语）的构词法研究的基础上。在过去，比较这两种语言之间的研究是很困难的，因为这两种语言的书写系统是如此不同。非线性语言，如希伯来语和大多数阿拉伯语方言，都没有很多元音。另一方面，马耳他语是用罗马字母书写的，包括所有的元音。这一差异将使这项研究与以前在构词法领域的工作进行直接比较。

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.