Affiliation:
1. Language Sciences , University of Bremen , Bibliothekstr. 1 , Bremen 28359 , Germany
Abstract
Abstract
This study investigates the distribution of long and short independent pronouns in Maltese. By applying proposed positional and functional diagnostics to explain the variation between short and long pronouns (copular use, modification, coordination, peripheral positions) combined with a corpus study of pronominal form, person, and text type, this study sheds light on the factors that influence pronominal form and the status of reduced person forms in Maltese. While the copular use of pronouns does have a weak effect on pronominal form (long forms preferred), a stronger effect is observed with regard to grammatical person (1
sg
prefers short forms, 2
sg
& 3
sg
prefer long forms) and text type.
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