The Word-initial Rule and the Structures of Sino-Korean Words

 

The Word-initial Rule and the Structures of Sino-Korean Words

 

 

Bae Juchae

 

 

「漢字語의 구조와 頭音法則」 『어문연구』31권 3호(통권 119), 한국어문교육연구회, 2003. 9. 30. (pp.31-50)

Eomunyeongu 119, September 2003, The Society for Korean Language & Literary Research.

 

 

    The Word-initial Rule applies to first-level words, which are first made out of sino-Korean morphemes.  It applies to one-syllable or two-syllable first-level words.  A two-syllable word tends to be accepted as a first-level word regardless of its word structure.  We could not find any case of two-syllable second-level words to the second part of which the Word-initial Rule applies.  When it is a two-syllable word, the second part of a second-level word is subject to the Word-initial Rule.  Such is the case in full names made up of one-syllable surnames and two-syllable given names.  The second part of a second-level word is not likely to observe the Word-initial Rule when it is a one-syllable word.  The second part of a four-character idiom which can be analysed into two and two syllables is subject to the Word-initial Rule.  Some reduplicated morphemes observe the Word-initial Rule, and others not.  The Word-initial Rule even applies to non-initial positions of some abbreviations.