음성음운형태론연구 18집 3호 Tak, Jin-young

Tak, Jin-young. 2012. Palatalization and depalatalization in computer-mediated Korean within the framework of Optimality Theory. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 18.3. 471-490. 

Previous research argues that depalatalization frequently occurs in computer-mediated Korean, while palatalization is one of the least frequent processes (Jeon 2002, 2004; Park 2006). Hence, this paper aims to provide a uniform analysis toward these two phonological processes within the framework of Optimality Theory. Additionally, it is proposed that they are in fact different from the typical palatalization and depalatalization detected in many natural languages (i.e. Spanish, Japanese, Nyamwezi, and so on). Along the lines of Sagey (1986) and van Oostendorp (2005), present research suggests that palatals in computer-mediated Korean are contour segments specified for [+continuant] and [-continuant], while [-anterior] under the Coronal Node does not need to be specified because it is redundant. On the other hand, this paper also facilitates Kiparsky’s (1993) lexical prespecification system and argues that palatals that undergo depalatalization are prespecified for [-anterior]. Then, unlike previous research (Jeon 2002, Park 2006, Lee 2010), depalatalization in computer-mediated Korean is defined as the decomposition of palatals c, c’, ch into the corresponding alveolars followed by a glide, assuming that alveolars are underspecified for the Coronal Node, whereas palatals and a glide are specified for [-anterior] under the Coronal Node. In addition, palatalization in computer-mediated Korean is analyzed as a phonological process that restrictively applies to some selected words where alveolars followed by i are specified for [+anterior]. Furthermore, within the framework of Optimality Theory, this paper posits that constraints Palatal-i (palatalizing alveolars before [i]) and Integrity-IO (banning a multiple realization of an input) are ranked low, while Coronal-Have[anterior] (which is a lexically specific constraint), Max-Palatal, Identity-[-anterior], and *C-Palatal[-anterior] are undominated. (Sejong University)