Drinking too much (water) : an online study of the processing of non-literal meaning in Maltese

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the processing of lexical narrowing in Maltese. Falling under the area of experimental pragmatics this study takes an experimental approach. One of the main focuses of experimental pragmatics is concerned with how understanding a speaker's meaning involves much more than just grammatical knowledge. This is why the area of experimental pragmatics focuses on understanding the communicative and pragmatic features of language. In relation to this, in the course of this study what is specifically tested is firstly whether context can prime a particular sense (whether literal or narrowed) for a word. Following this, study will also explores whether there is a detectable distinction between processing literal and narrowed meanings of verbs during the process of comprehension when one is reading a text. It is to my knowledge the first time that such a study is being carried out using Maltese.