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Abstract
This paper presents the first corpus-based study of DOI in Maltese. In this pilot study, the potential triggering factors were tested as predictors in a descriptive model. The results show that the strongest predictor for object indexing in Maltese is word order, but when taking only semantic referential features into account, the analyses reveal that DOI seems to be strongly predictable by definiteness, as well as by the part of speech of the head of the NP. Our study therefore supports observations from previous investigations, both on Maltese and typological; furthermore, the analysis gives insight into the combined effects of the relevant factors.
