Phonological aspects in the syllable-final consonants and the stem-final consonants in Present-day Korean

 

Phonological aspects in the syllable-final consonants and the stem-final consonants in Present-day Korean

 

 

Bae, Juchae

 

 

「음절말자음과 어간말자음의 음운론」 서울대학교 대학원 국어국문학과 석사학위논문, 1989. 2. 25. [『국어연구』91, 서울대학교 국어연구회, 1989. 2. 25.] (ⅲ+123pp.)

MA thesis, Graduate School of Seoul National University (Gugeoyeongu 국어연구 91, The Department of Korean Language and Literature, Graduate School of Seoul National University), 1989. 2. 25. ⅲ+123pp.

 

 

    This thesis aims at examining some methodological problems in analyzing and presenting the consonantal phonological phenomena in Present-day Korean.

    I begin with two theoretical issues in chapter 2, the one relating to phonological representations and the other relating to phonological rules. Firstly, I argue that much importance should be attached to surface phonemes (roughly equal to taxonomic phonemes) which are identified on the basis of opposition or contrast in the surface level. Secondly, I argue that MSCs (Morpheme Structure Constraints) having phonotactic motivations are redundant if phonotactic regularities are to be described by means of phonological rules.

    In chapter 3, the concept and the system of the syllable-final consonants are investigated mainly in terms of the phonemic syllable which should be distinguished from the phonetic syllable and the morphophonemic or underlying syllable. In passing I argue that the so-called Consonant Neutralization in Korean should not be considered a neutralization unless one wants to claim that such consonantal phonological phenomena be a neutralizing process as Nasalization, Liquidization, Place-of-articulation Assimilation, Fortition, etc.

    In chapter 4, working on deciding the underlying forms of some nouns and verbs which have alternational magnitude, I attempt to establish the system of the stem-final consonants.

    In chapter 5, the phonological rules are collectively examined which are applied in the course of the realization of the stem-final consonants. All the phonological rules that take part in transforming morphemic representations into phonemic representations are described, two rule-types being distinguished.

    Firstly, phonotactic rules are the rules which have phonotactic motivations so that they are of purely phonological nature (consequently don’t have any nonphonological constraints) and apply everywhere. Secondly, non-phonotactic rules require some nonphonological information on e.g. grammatical categories and are blocked by potential pauses as well as actual pauses.

    Since most of the phonological rules examined in this chapter are judged to be phonotactic rules, it may be stated that autonomous phonology, especially morphology-free and syntax-free phonology has a pretty broad territory of its own.

    Phonotactic rules are regulated not by extrinsic rule-ordering but by intrinsic rule-ordering. Non-phonotactic rules should always apply before phonotactic rules. And at least some non-phonotactic rules apply before some other non-phonotactic rules.