Edge-Integrity and the Syllable Structure in Korean

Edge-Integrity and the Syllable Structure in Korean Eungyeong KANG Cornell University Dept. of Linguistics, Morrill Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA ek33@comell.edu Abstract The so-called overapplication of Coda Neutralization in Korean, the occurrence of a neutralized consonant in a non-neutralizing environment, is often considered as evidence for serial derivation. In this paper I propose that the neutralization effect at surface is not a result of a phonological process at an intermediate level in serial derivation, but due to a constraint requiring the integrity of the morphological constituent: EDGE-INTEGRITY. It is argued that this is not reducible to an alignment constraint, but a genuine faithfulness constraint on the edge of a morphological constituent. The putative opacity related with the coda neutralization is shown to be an epiphenomenon arising from the ambisyllabic representation of a consonant at a morphological juncture, satisfying both EDGE-INTEGRITY and syllabic conditions. Consonant Copy in the Jeju dialect provides further evidence for EDGE-INTEGRITY, the only difference being that the conflict between syllabic conditions and EDGE-INTEGRITY is resolved by insertion of a copied consonant. 1� Introduction Syllable structure is regulated by several different constraints. One of them is a purely prosodic requirement, and the asymmetry between onsets and codas in the syllable is well known in that respect: syllables require onsets while they permit codas at most (Ito 1986, 1989, McCarthy and Prince 1993a, Blevins 1995 and references therein). All else being equal, the best syllable structure for a given sequence N iCV2/, is (la) with the intervocalic consonant in the onset of 62. (1)� NiCV2/ a.� al a2� b.� al�02� C.�al 0'2 I� /� \� I� \ / 1 V1. C V2� Vic. v2� Vi . C.V2 [C as an onset]�[C as a coda]�[C as an onset and a coda] Another constraint regulating syllable structure is the integrity of morphological structure: given a morphologically complex sequence N iC+V2/, where + is a morphological boundary, the structure in (lb) is chosen over the one in (la): prosodic structure respects morphological structure. Everything else being equal, no evaluation yields (lc) as optimal. If syllable structure conditions dominate the morphological integrity, (la) is optimal structure. If the ranking is reversed such that the morphological structure takes a priority over the syllable well-formedness conditions, (lb) is optimal. The representation itself is more complex than the other two, too. However, (1c) satisfies both sets of constraints to a certain degree: the intervocalic consonant serves as an onset of a2: (lc) fares better than (lb) with regard to ONSET requirement. It also respects morphological structure and its integrity by being linked with the morpheme with which it is affiliated: the structure (lc) satisfies morphological integrity better than (la) in this sense. In this paper I present a case study in which the ambisyllabic structure in (lc) is forcefully chosen at the cost of simple representation to satisfy both sets of requirements: the so-called overapplication of Coda Neutralization in Korean. I will show that the conflicting constraints on syllable structure from prosody and morphology are resolved …

Content truncated to 500 words