Knowledge of Maltese singular-plural mappings

Analogy explains it best

Bibliographic Data

ID4580882
AuthorsJessica Nieder (0000-0001-5977-8958, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), Ruben Van De Vijver (0000-0003-0761-4649, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), Holger Mitterer (0000-0003-4318-0032, University of Malta)
Year2021
Volume31
Issue2
Pages147-170
Publication date2021-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMorphology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1871-5621 • E-ISSN: 1871-5656
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11525-020-09353-7
OpenAlexW3012973865
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited33

Which factors determine the choice of a plural allomorph for a new singular form? Are regular mappings stored differently from irregular mappings? Do native speakers only rely on analogical mappings to inflect novel word forms or do they use rules? To answer these questions we used data from Maltese, a language with a split morphology, which has a rich and variable set of concatenative and non-concatenative plural patterns.We conducted a production experiment, in which we investigated the mapping of a singular onto a plural. We show that this is driven by an interplay between the similarity of novel singular forms with existing singular words and their corresponding plural forms. Moreover, knowledge of the frequency of the plural patterns in the mental lexicon serves as a basis for generalization to novel words. Our results support an analogical model of morphological processing. We do not find evidence that native speakers use default rules

Allomorph · Basis (linear algebra · Generalization · Image (mathematics · Linguistics · Maltese · Mental lexicon · Morpheme · Natural language processing · Plural · Set (abstract data type · Similarity (geometry · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Mathematics · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

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