Prepositions and their Grammar in Maltese

该项目旨在全面描述马耳他介词系统。在现存的马耳他语结构文献中，介词并不是人们感兴趣的焦点。因此，对它们的语法和功能域的许多方面知之甚少。关于马耳他语介词的数量，专家们还没有达成共识。文献中提出的介词数量在17到44个之间波动。回顾自20世纪30年代以来发表的先前提案，发现对于什么是介词存在分歧。在区分介词与副词等其他词类时会出现困难。介词的二元序列的可能性提出了确定两个介词之间的句法关系的一般问题。只有足够的注意，如果有的话，已经支付不仅是介词和不同类别的补语的相互作用，而且（至少表面上）同义介词的域的划界。为了充分描述马耳他介词的共时系统性，该项目旨在提供一本马耳他介词手册，其中包括五章，即：（A）一般介绍，（B）注释词典，充分说明与马耳他介词相关的结构和功能现象，（C）由词典中描述的单个介词的特性产生的语法，（D）对马耳他事实的类型学评价，（E）关于马耳他发现对介词一般理论的影响的一般结论。对于词典和语法，从语音到形态和句法到语义的所有层次都要仔细检查。在（B）和（C）部分具体提出的主题中，一方面，可以去掉空间介词，如fi 'in'，与地名补语结合使用，另一方面，可以区别地应用Equi-P-删除。该项目从假设马耳他介词系统可以被捕获的连续体或径向类别的格式开始。为了检验这一工作假设的合理性，我们采用了语言现象原型法的原则。本文的研究方法是严格定性的，并以语言学基本理论为指导。更广泛地说，该项目是在功能类型学的框架内进行的。马耳他的数据进行了分析，完全从共时的角度来看。经验基础是由2.5亿字的《马尔蒂文集》提供的。该项目的成果将在一份开放获取出版物中提供。该项目将为马耳他语的学生、附加系统专家和类型学家提供有价值的新数据，供他们在未来的研究中考虑。

The project seeks to describe the system of Maltese prepositions comprehensively. In the extant literature on Maltese language structures prepositions are not in the focus of interest. Thus relatively little is known about many aspects of their grammar and functional domain. There is as yet no consensus among the specialists about the size of the inventory of Maltese prepositions. The counts put forward in the literature oscillate between 17 and 44 prepositions. A review of previous proposals published since the 1930s reveals that there is disagreement as to what qualifies as a preposition. Difficulties arise in connection with the distinction of proper prepositions from other word classes such as adverbs. The possibility to have binary sequences of prepositions poses the general problem of determining the syntactic relation between the two prepositions. Only insufficient attention, if at all, has been payed not only to the interaction of prepositions and different classes of complements but also to the delimitation of the domains of (at least superficially) synonymous prepositions. To provide an adequate description of the synchronic systematicity of Maltese prepositions, the project aims at providing a handbook of Maltese prepositions which comprises five chapters, namely (A) a general introduction, (B) a commented dictionary with ample illustration of structural and functional phenomena associated with Maltese prepositions, (C) a grammar that results from the properties of the individual prepositions described in the dictionary, (D) the typological evaluation of the Maltese facts, and (E) the general conclusions as to the bearing the Maltese findings have on the general theory of prepositions. For the dictionary and the grammar, all levels from phonology via morphology and syntax to semantics are scrutinized. Among the topics which are specifically raised in Parts (B) and (C), there is, on the one hand, the possibility of dropping spatial prepositions like fi 'in' in combination with a toponymic complement and, on the other hand, the differential application of Equi-P-deletion under coordination. The project starts from the assumption that the system of Maltese prepositions can be captured in the format of a continuum or a radial category. To check the tenability of this working hypothesis the principles of the prototype approach to linguistic phenomena are adopted. The methodology is strictly qualitative and is indebted to Basic Linguistic Theory. More generally the project is situated in the framework of functional typology. The Maltese data are analysed exclusively from the synchronic perspective. The empirical foundation is provided by the Korpus Malti with a size of 250 million words. The results of this project will be made available in an open access publication. The project will provide students of Maltese, experts of adpositional systems, and typologists with valuable new data to be taken into account in their future research.