Variation and change

The twelve contributions to this collection of articles focus on variation and change in the lexicon, morphology, syntax and phonology of Maltese. Various aspects of lectal variation are addressed: the properties of sociolects, technolects, regional varieties, and different registers of present-day Maltese are discussed. On-going changes are looked at in several of the papers. The questions of whether or not there is a typical Maltese EU-variety or a distinct sociolect spoken by the younger generation are raised. Not all of the phenomena which attest variation can be ascribed to the sociolinguistic sphere. Morpho-syntactic issues like the definition of clitics, the causative-inchoative alternation and the employment of the possessive relative clause are linked more closely to structural and functional factors. Suprasegmental issues like the use of pauses in spoken Maltese and the syllable structure of Maltese are scrutinized as well. These topics are complemented by dialectological studies, investigations of the pragmatics of Maltese and the description of literary Maltese. The range of topics covered in this collection proves that it is worth the while studying Maltese from the perspective of general linguistics.