Prosodic structure and intonation in Maltese and its influence on Maltese English
This thesis presents a formal characterisation of prosodic structure and intonation in Maltese. It also examines selected structures of Maltese English, specifically structures having an interrogative function, in order to determine areas of influence of Maltese on Maltese English. Apart from accent-related rising and falling nuclear tunes, Maltese possesses two accent-related post-nuclear tunes. A tonal entity specific to structures such as vocatives, imperatives and tags is also identified. This vocative contour is similar to the post-nuclear tunes in many respects. In order to account for the fact that the specific choice of post-nuclear tune depends on that of the preceding nuclear tune, a distinction between independent and dependent domains is postulated. A proposal to deal with post-nuclear entities as being extrametrical to the phonological phrase (P-phrase) containing the nuclear tune, but crucially occurring within the same intonational phrase (I-phrase), successfully incorporates the aforementioned characteristics of Maltese intonational phonology. The vocative contour is analysed along similar lines. I advance the claim that the focus domain in Maltese is the P-phrase rather than the I-phrase.
Vella, Alexandra
Prosodic structure and intonation in Maltese and its influence on Maltese English. This thesis presents a formal characterisation of prosodic structure and intonation in Maltese. It also examines selected structures of Maltese English, specifically structures having an interrogative function, in order to determine areas of influence of Maltese on Maltese English. Apart from accent-related rising and falling nuclear tunes, Maltese possesses two accent-related post-nuclear tunes. A tonal entity specific to structures such as vocatives, imperatives and tags is also identified. This vocative contour is similar to the post-nuclear tunes in many respects. In order to account for the fact that the specific choice of post-nuclear tune depends on that of the preceding nuclear tune, a distinction between independent and dependent domains is postulated. A proposal to deal with post-nuclear entities as being extrametrical to the phonological phrase (P-phrase) containing the nuclear tune, but crucially occurring within the same intonational phrase (I-phrase), successfully incorporates the aforementioned characteristics of Maltese intonational phonology. The vocative contour is analysed along similar lines. I advance the claim that the focus domain in Maltese is the P-phrase rather than the I-phrase.
prosodic_structure intonation maltese influence maltese english present formal characterisation prosodic_structure intonation maltese also_examine select structure maltese english specifically structure interrogative function order_determine area influence maltese maltese english apart accent related rise_fall nuclear tune maltese posse accent related post nuclear tune tonal entity specific structure imperative tag also_identify contour similar post nuclear tune many_respect order account_fact specific choice post nuclear tune depend precede nuclear tune distinction independent dependent domain postulate proposal deal post nuclear entity phonological phrase phrase contain nuclear tune crucially occur_within intonational phrase phrase successfully incorporate aforementioned characteristic maltese intonational phonology contour analyse along similar line advance claim focus domain maltese phrase rather phrase