L-aspett lessikali fil-verb Malti

Abstract

This study is concerned with the lexical aspect of verb predicates in Maltese, classifying them into five major lexical categories: statives, activities, accomplishments, achievements and semelfactives. They are distinguished in terms of their lexical meaning, which is echoed in their morphosyntactic behaviour. Linguistic tests based on the aspectual parameters of dynamicity, telicity and durativity are presented for every lexical category. It is shown that the intrinsic temporal qualities of verbs play a fundamental role in the verbal system of Maltese, and that the overall aspectual meaning of a sentence is determined by the interplay of lexical and grammatical aspect.

F’dan l-istudju nistħarrġu l-predikati verbali tal-Malti fid-dawl ta’ l-aspett lessikali tagħhom u naslu biex nikklassifikawhom f’ħames kategoriji lessikali: l-istativi, lattivitajiet, it-temmiet, il-kisbiet u s-semelfattivi. Nagħżluhom minn xulxin skond it-tifsir lessikali tagħhom li jkollu riperkussjonijiet fuq kif iġibu ruħhom morfosintattikament. Ix-xogħol jinkludi testijiet lingwistiċi għal kull kategorija lessikali bbażati fuq ilparametri aspettwali tad-dinamiċità, it-teliċità u d-dewmien. Naraw li l-karatteristiċi temporali intrinsiċi fil-verbi għandhom sehem fundamentali fis-sistema verbali talMalti, u li t-tifsir aspettwali ta’ sentenza ma naslux għalih jekk mhux b’analiżi ta’ laspett lessikali f’interazzjoni ma’ l-aspett grammatikali.