Fixing the broken plural in Maltese

Abstract

This study is a revisitation of the broken plural in Maltese. On the assumption that internal pluralization is a very irregular phenomenon, previous treatments simply list different broken plural patterns on the basis of similar CV structures and vowel patterns, which are often overshadowed by historical observations. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it provides a synchronic classification of broken plurals, which rests on the relationship between singular and plural forms. Such an approach allows us to uncover generalizations that hold across broken plurals with different CV structures but similar behavior. Second, drawing on these generalizations, it proposes a rule-based account (i) in which singular stems are broken up by the insertion of an additional element, a vowel or an infix, which is the distinctive feature of broken plural formation; and (ii) which allows us to predict, to a certain extent, the plural given the singular. Third, through this novel approach we seek to answer a question which earlier studies have not addressed; namely, what makes a plural broken in Maltese?