%0 Journal Article
%A Haspelmath, Martin
%A Caruana, S.
%+ Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Subject diffuseness in Maltese: On some subject properties of experiential verbs : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0010-095F-B
%F EDOC: 21708
%F ISI: 000171875200005
%D 2000
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Like many other languages, Maltese shows some peculiarities in the behavior of its experiential verbs. While the case-marking and agreement properties of these verbs point to (direct or indirect) object status of the experiencer argument, several behavioral properties make the experiencer argument appear more similar to subjects. Different sub-types of experiential verbs can be distinguished, and a number of individual verbs (most notably the possessive verb ghandu/kellu 'have', well-known from the earlier literature) show further peculiarities. The various groups of verbs or individual verbs can be arranged on a continuum which shows an increasing number of subject properties of the experiencer (or possessor) argument. Thus, subject properties are not distributed in a clear-cut manner, and we observe a certain amount of "subject diffuseness".
%J Folia Linguistica
%O Folia Linguist.
%V 34
%N 3-4
%& 245
%P 245 - 265
%@ 0165-4004