Dr Christopher Lucas, Senior Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics at the SOAS University of London, will soon be in Malta as a guest of the Department of Maltese at the University. He will deliver three talks for which everyone is invited.
Maltese numerals and what they can tell us about language in the mind/brain
Thursday 12 April from 11:00 - 13:00
Venue: University of Malta, Gateway Hall E
In this talk Dr Lucas will report on work done in collaboration with Michael Spagnol where they examined the conditions under which the Maltese numerals 偶ew摹 'two' to g魔axar 'ten' take a /t/ suffix when followed by a plural noun. He will show that by carefully studying the many factors that combine to determine whether, in a particular context, this /t/ is always inserted, never inserted, or, most interestingly, sometimes inserted, we can gain important insights into the organisation of linguistic knowledge in the mind/brain.
English in Malta, Britain, and beyond
Thursday 12 April from 17:30 - 19:30
Venue: University of Malta, Gateway Hall A
In this talk Dr Lucas will look at some of the similarities and differences between English as it is spoken by different groups of people in Malta, Britain, and beyond. Drawing on his own research into different aspects of Maltese and British English, he will make the point that proficient English speakers of all kinds have internalised countless intricate rules, of which their knowledge is totally non-conscious, having been acquired through exposure to the speech of those they most associate with, and not from explicit learning. The conclusion is that local variants of English (and any other language) are inevitable and should be celebrated.
Maltese as a window on Arabic... and vice versa
Friday 13 April from 17:30 - 19:30
University of Malta, Gateway Arts Lecture Theatre
In this talk Dr Lucas will start with an overview of what we know about the spread, historical evolution, and differentiation of Arabic dialects. Against this background he will address the thorny issue of the precise relationship between Maltese, Arabic, and other Semitic languages. He will then go on to illustrate several respects in which data from Maltese can improve our understanding of the historical development of Arabic, and show how some puzzling aspects of contemporary Maltese can be explained with reference to a comparative-historical perspective on Arabic dialects.
Christopher Lucas did his B.A. in Arabic at SOAS University of London and his graduate study in Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral thesis examined historical developments in the expression of negation in Arabic and related languages. After completing his Ph.D. in 2010, he returned to SOAS in 2011 with a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, and later in 2011 began a Lectureship in Arabic Linguistics, still at SOAS. Since 2015 he has been Senior Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics. His research and teaching focuses primarily on the historical evolution and contemporary description of varieties of Arabic and Maltese.
