A computational grammar and lexicon for Maltese

2.2.3 Noun
The noun in Maltese has an inherent gender and inflects for number. The number is not simply
singular/plural though, as Maltese nouns may have collective and dual forms. The collective
is syntactically singular but semantically plural, e.g. dan it-tuffieħ ħelu (‘these apples are sweet’)
(as opposed to dawn it-tuffieħ ħelwin. Some Maltese nouns also have a dual, typically parts of
the body and measures of time. Nouns can have two types of plural: determinate and indeterminate.
Table 2.7 summarises these different forms.
Table 2.7: Noun numbers
Form Count Example
Singular 1, more than 10 ħuta
Collective Not numerically quantifiable ħut
Dual (għadd imtenni) 2 ġimgħatejn
Determinate plural 2-10 triqat
Indeterminate plural Not numerically quantifiable toroq
Nouns typically have some subset of these forms, though never all of them together. The
linguistic literature does not identify and paradigms for nouns in this sense, thus some further
investigation was needed. By surveying the 186 nouns in the RGL mini-lexicon (Lexicon.gf),
four different noun paradigms have been identified. There are summarised in table 2.8. Refer
to see appendix B.1 for the full analysis.
Table 2.8: Noun paradigms
Paradigm Singular Collective Dual Det. Plural Ind. Plural
1 qattus - - qtates -
1x triq - - triqat toroq
2 nagħġa ngħaġ - nagħġiet -
2x frotta frott - frottiet frottijiet
2b - persuna - persuni -
2bx - ħalib - ħalibijiet ħlejjeb
2c - ċpar - -
3 pulizija - - - -
4 rkoppa - rkopptejn rkoppiet
4x għajn - għajnejn għajnejn għejun
The analysis also reveals that very few nouns actually have both a determinate and indeterminate
plural form, and when they do one often sounds arcane. While this distinction can
have some linguistic importance, this is simplified in the GF implementation by storing only
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