Last month Dwayne Ellul graduated from the University of Malta with a distinction in Master of Arts in Maltese. His research was funded by the Malta Government Scholarship Scheme.

The main aim of his work – Il-Kompilazzjoni ta’ teżawru tematiku Malti dwar in-natura tal-bniedem u r-relazzjonijiet soċjali tiegħu, supervised by Prof. Manwel Mifsud – was to compile the first thematic thesaurus in Maltese. Besides examining vocabulary books in Maltese and other languages and reviewing discussions about theories of lexicography, preparatory reading and writing involved analysing all thesauruses (and other works claiming to be such) compiled in Maltese to date, be they published, unpublished or online. 

The thesaurus is not structured alphabetically

To help the user speak or write better in Maltese (as opposed to a user who is on the receptive side and merely needs to understand the meaning of a word), Ellul’s thesaurus is not structured alphabetically but has a thematic macrostructure. It consists of six themes, namely: 1. Il-familja u l-ħbieb (family and friends); 2. Il-ġisem u l-kura tiegħu (the body and its care); 3. Id-deskrizzjoni fiżika (physical description); 4. Id-deskrizzjoni tal-karattru (character description); 5. Is-sentimenti u l-emozzjonijiet (sentiments and emotion); and 6. Il-fażijiet tal-ħajja (life’s phases). Each theme is then further organised into subthemes allowing users to drill down to: the headword they need; a sentence that illustrates its usage; and a group of synonyms, tagged whenever necessary to indicate, for example, archaic words or idioms.

This thesaurus would not only help users in finding alternative words or phrases for the ones they already know (which is the usual function of any thesaurus), but also as a sort of word prompter due to its thematic nature. So if a word is at the tip of your tongue but just slips your mind, or if you may not know what kind of word you would need, or are simply stuck for the right word, you may find Ellul’s thesaurus particularly helpful. Merlin Publishers are currently working on this project to get it published in 2019.  

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