Syllable-final hardening in Harmonic Serialism: focusing on /p/-irregular stems in Korean

Abstract

Lee, Sechang. 2020. Syllable-final hardening in Harmonic Serialism: focusing on /p/-irregular stems in Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 45-3, 601-617. This article aims to provide a viable approach to the [p]~[w] alternation observed in the so-called /p/-irregular stems of Korean. It is noted that unlike the parallel Optimality Theory in the sense of Prince and Smolensky (1993/2004) which lacks the intermediate representations, Harmonic Serialism is capable of capturing some significant phonological interactions in question. Translated into the system to be proposed here, the /p/-irregular alternation is shown not to be irregular any more but it is entirely natural to see it as a hardening phenomenon with serial derivational steps. The question then arises as to how to resolve a ranking paradox of faithfulness constraints compared with the typical consonantal place of articulation. The patterns observed in the consonantal place of assimilation requires the faithfulness of dorsal constriction to dominate that of labial constriction, but the hardening at hand demands the opposite ranking. In order to resolve the paradox, it is suggested that Harmonic Serialism should be equipped with a feature theory unifying vowel and consonant place features in our current analysis. It will be shown that the /w/-hardening phenomenon is inherently derivational, and that all relevant cases can be dealt with more adequately in an Harmonic Serialism framework that has recourse to serial derivation within Optimality Theory. (Sookmyung Women’s University)