The causative-inchoative alternation in Maltese

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the causative-inchoative alternation in Maltese, which revolves around three main issues: (i) the direction of derivation of the causative and inchoative alternants, (ii) the instability of the alternation and anticausative morphology in Maltese, and (iii) the derivational relationship between transitive and intransitive variants that share the same verbal form. The analysis reveals that the alternation has undergone considerable change, which goes parallel to the typological shift in word formation, from templatic to concatenative. While templatic verbs generally effect the alternation anticausatively, most concatenative verbs mark the contrast labially, with one verbal form used both transitively and intransitively. Lastly, an elicitation test suggests a tendency in the direction of derivation for a set of labile verbs in Maltese