국어의 /n/-삽입 현상에 관한 재고

Abstract

Lee, Sechang. 2016. Revisiting the /n/-Insertion in Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 41-4, 637-659. This paper revisits the so-called /n/-insertion analyses in Korean phonology and aims to provide further insight into the phenomenon. The assumption presented in this paper constitutes a far going departure from the standard explanation type of insertion theory. I point out that the earlier treatments are inadequate both on descriptive and theoretical grounds. I show that the previous OT analyses fail under the force of universal constraint requirements. I claim that a better way of handling this problem is to operate in terms of allowing the input specification of /n/ to be added to that of /j/. The [nasal] feature of /n/ is assumed to be parasitic in that it can only be licensed by doubly-linked structure. It means that the /n/ is supposed to be realized as a partial geminate, which turns out to be the case in crucial data. Following this line of thought, I show that the relevant OT constraints come to be equipped with universal nature in the sense of Prince and Smolensky (1993), arguing that proper establishment of universal constraints sheds new light on the phenomenon. All the relevant data are explained in terms of the interaction of constraints in a single constraint hierarchy in the spirit of OT. (Sookmyung Women’s University)