This thesis provides an analysis of Korean and English syllable structure and syllable-level phenomena such as consonant cluster simplification and consonant assimilation within the framework of Optimality Theory. The explanatory power of the syllable... This thesis provides an analysis of Korean and English syllable structure and syllable-level phenomena such as consonant cluster simplification and consonant assimilation within the framework of Optimality Theory. The explanatory power of the syllable has earned it a central role in phonological theory and this thesis also takes the syllable as the basic unit of phonological analysis. Therefore, chapter 1 presents the brief contents of this thesis and the goals of such an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of syllables. In chapter 2, the basic concepts and principles of Optimality Theory are introduced. In Optimality Theory, the specific language-particular details of rules are replaced by a set of universal, violable constraints. Optimality Theory proposes that each language has its own ranking for the constraints and the differences between constraint rankings result in different individual grammars. The assumption that one optimal output is selected from the candidate set for a given input by evaluation is quite persuasive in that speakers tend to choose the most convenient pronunciation of a word and make an utterance of it. Chapter 3 presents the basic constraints of syllable structures and their ranking is given in (1): (1) <Korean> Peak 》*Complex, Sonority 》Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda <English> Peak 》Sonority 》Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda, *Complex The only difference between Korean and English is the position of *Complex; Standard Korean always obeys *Complex while English violates *Complex in some cases. Chapter 4 deals with the constraints which are needed to explain the phenomena of consonant cluster simplification in syllable-final position and consonant assimilation. Such constraints related to consonantal alternations should be ranked before Faithfulness constraints as in (2) and (3): (2) <Korean> Peak 》*Complex, Sonority 》Coda-Condition 》Ph 》Coda-Sonority 》 Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda <English> Peak 》Sonority 》Coda-Condition 》Ph 》Coda-Sonority 》 Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda, *Complex (3) Syllcon 》ICC[Place], ICC[Manner] 》Ident-IO(F) In (2), three constraints for consonant cluster simplification in coda position are newly proposed: Coda-Condition, Peripherality and Coda-Sonority. In(3), Syllcon is the Syllable Contact Constraint and ICC is the Identical Cluster Constraints. They are introduced to account for assimilatory processes; especially, place assimilation and total assimilation occurring in the regressive direction are examined in this thesis. English data have been selected by considering Korean data, which means both data from Korean and English undergo phonological alterations in the similar environments. Another common constraint Ident-IO[Nasal] is ranked between Syllcon and ICC as shown in (4): (4) Syllcon 》Ident-IO[Nasal] 》ICC[Place], ICC[Manner] 》Ident-IO(F) Ident-IO[Nasal] is a kind of Faithfulness constraints but it is more marked than Ident-IO(F). In addition, it is seen that all the examples of place assimilation comply with Syllcon; it thus can be said that place assimilation is a phenomenon which appears in order to simplify the articulation. The each potential constraint ranking of Korean and English is finally suggested as follows: (5) <Korean> Peak 》*Complex, Sonority 》Coda-Condition 》Peripherality 》 Coda-Sonority 》Syllcon 》Ident-IO[Nasal] 》ICC[Manner], ICC[Place] 》 Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda <English> Peak 》Sonority 》Coda-Condition 》Peripherality 》 Coda-Sonority 》Syllcon 》Ident-IO[Nasal] 》ICC[Manner], ICC[Place] 》 Max-IO, Dep-IO, Ident-IO(F) 》Onset, NoCoda, *Complex In (5), there is still only one difference between Korean and English, which is *Complex; and consequently, it is found out that Korean and English have quite a few syllable-related features in common. Lastly, in chapter 5, the comprehensive review of the literature is provided. It is expected that listing and ranking constraints under Optimality Theory will promote better understanding of each language's natures and systems. ，韩语论文网站，韩语论文范文 |
