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中动词的形成过程进行研究。马尔他斯语是阿拉伯语的一种方言，受到与英语和其他印欧语言接触的广泛影响。说马耳他语的人似乎使用两种不同的构词系统。非线性构词法是典型的阿拉伯方言，马耳他人Kiser说他断了，Kiser说他砸了。在这种类型的系统中，在单词的中间添加或更改分段材料以改变含义。线性构词法，即在单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通常不存在。特威斯特的研究项目将收集有关说话者如何使用这些策略的心理语言学证据。我们将分析这一证据，以确定这两种构词系统是如何相互作用的。一项蒙面启动实验将要求说马耳他语的人判断测试项目是否为他们语言的单词。测试项目将包括起源于闪语和英语的真实动词。填充项将是为反映测试项的属性而构建的无意义动词。准确率和反应时间将被记录下来，并比较不同发言者的正确回答的反应时间。一项启发式实验将要求以马尔他语为母语的人提供与给定名词或形容词相对应的动词形式，如英语中的DEVERATION~DESTORY对所示。测试项目将是起源于闪语和英语的名词和形容词。回答将被广泛转录，并分析它们与预期模式的相似性。这项研究建立在过去对只表现出一种核心构词策略的语言的构词方法的研究基础上，如英语或希伯来语。过去很难对这两种语言进行比较研究，因为这两种语言的书写系统非常不同。像希伯来语和大多数阿拉伯语方言这样的非线性语言在书写时没有很多元音。另一方面，马耳他语是用罗马字母写的，包括所有元音。这种差异将使这项研究与以前在构词领域的工作直接进行比较。

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.