Lee, Ponghyung. 2013. Assibilation or analogy?: Reconsideration of Korean noun stem-endings. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 19.2. 317-338.

This paper discusses two approaches to the nominal stem-endings in Korean

inflection including loanwords: one is the assibilation approach, represented by H.

Kim (2001) and the other is the analogy approach, represented by Albright (2002 et

sequel) and Y. Kang (2003b). I contend that the assibilation approach is deficient in

handling its underapplication to the non-nominal categories such as verb. More

specifically, the assibilation approach is unable to clearly explain why spirantization

(s-assibilation) applies neither to derivative nouns nor to non-nominal items in its

entirety. By contrast, the analogy approach is able to overcome difficulties involved

with the assibilation position. What is crucial to the analogy approach is that the

nominal bases end with t rather than s. Evidence of t-ending bases is garnered from

the base selection criteria, disparities between t-ending and s-ending inputs in

loanwords. Unconventionally, I dare to contend that normative rules via orthography

intervene as part of paradigm extension, alongside semantic conditioning and

token/type frequency. (Daejeon University)