Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-qc88w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-01T06:33:01.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neutralization and anti-homophony in Korean1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2009

DANIEL SILVERMAN
DANIEL SILVERMAN*
Affiliation:
San José State University
*
Author's address: Department of Linguistics and Language Development, San José State University, One Washington Square, San José, CA 95192-0093, USAdaniel.silverman@sjsu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Neutralization in Korean involves a large number of oppositions, and affects a significant portion of the lexicon. Nonetheless, it induces remarkably little homophony. These highly divergent facts are argued herein to be related. The present findings suggest a reconsideration of the role that ‘functional load’ (Martinet 1952, Hockett 1967) plays in patterns of sound change.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 453 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

[1]

For their help (which does not entail their endorsement of my conclusions), thanks to Adam Albright, Devin Casenhiser, Stuart Davis, Ik-Sang Eom, David Etienne-Bouchard, Andrew Garrett, Chris Golston, Bill Idsardi, Chiyuki Ito, Jongho Jun, Yoonjung Kang, Abby Kaplan, Bob Kennedy, Hahn Koo, Bruce Lyon, Öner Özçelik, Glyne Piggott, Richard Wiese, members of my SJSU Phonology 2 class S08, and two anonymous Journal of Linguistics referees. This paper is dedicated to the memory of my teacher, Peter Ladefoged.

References

REFERENCES

Albright, Adam. 2008. Explaining universal tendencies and language particulars in analogical change. In Good, Jeff (ed.), Linguistic universals and language change, 144–181. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, Jason. 2007. Incomplete neutralization in Eastern Andalusian Spanish: Perceptual consequences of durational differences involved in s-aspiration. International Congress of Phonetic Sciences XVI (ICPhS 16), 1765–1768.Google Scholar
Bladon, Anthony. 1986. Phonetics for hearers. In McGregor, Graham (ed.), Language for hearers, 1–24. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Charles-Luce, Jan. 1985. Word-final devoicing in German: Effects of phonetic and sentential contexts. Journal of Phonetics 13, 309–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charles-Luce, Jan. 1993. The effects of semantic context on voicing neutralization. Phonetica 50, 28–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, Stuart & Shin, Seung-Hoon. 1999. The syllable contact constraint in Korean: An Optimality-theoretic analysis. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8, 285–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Boer, Bart. 2001. The origins of vowel systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinnsen, Daniel & Charles-Luce, Jan. 1984. Phonological neutralization, phonetic implementation and individual differences. Journal of Phonetics 12, 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flemming, Edward. 1995. Auditory representations in phonology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. [Published 2002, Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series; New York: Routledge.]Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles F. 1955. A manual of phonology (Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics 11 ). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles F. 1967. The quantification of functional load. Word 23, 320–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoenigswald, Henry M. 1960. Language change and linguistic reconstruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hwang, Jennifer. 2008. Neutralizing nasalization in Korean. Ms., San José State University.Google Scholar
Ito, Chiyuki. 2006. Coronal coda distribution in Korean nouns. Ms., Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar
Jun, Jongho. 1995. A constraint-based analysis of place assimilation typology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Jun, Jongho. 2007. Variation in Korean stem-final obstruents. Ms., Seoul National University.Google Scholar
Kang, Yoonjung. 2006. Neutralizations and variations in Korean verbal paradigms. In Kuno, Susumu, Lee, Ik-hwan, Whitman, John, Maling, Joan, Kang, Young-Se, Sells, Peter & Sohn, Hyang-Sook (eds.), Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics 11, 183–196.Google Scholar
Kim, Hyunsoon & Jongman, Allard. 1996. Acoustic and perceptual evidence for complete neutralization of manner of articulation in Korean. Journal of Phonetics 24, 295–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key. 1975. Korea consonantal phonology. Seoul: Tower Press.Google Scholar
King, Robert. 1967. Functional load and sound change. Language 43, 831–852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingston, John. 1985. The phonetics and phonology of the timing of oral and glottal events. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kingston, John. 1990. Articulatory binding. In Kingston, John & Beckman, Mary E. (eds.), Between the grammar and physics of speech (Papers in Laboratory Phonology 1), 406–434. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ko, Heejeong. 2006. Base–output correspondence in Korean nominal inflection. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 15, 195–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1994. Principles of linguistic change: Internal factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lee, June-Yub. 1994. Hangul Code Conversion Program 2.1. http://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/hangul/code/hcode/ (24 July 2009).Google Scholar
Lindblom, Björn, MacNeilage, Peter & Studdert-Kennedy, Michael. 1984. Self-organizing processes and the explanation of language universals. In Butterworth, Brian, Comrie, Bernard & Dahl, Östen (eds.), Explanations for language universals, 181–203. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Lombardi, Linda. 1991. Laryngeal features and laryngeal neutralization. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. [Published 1994, Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series; New York: Garland.]Google Scholar
Martin, Samuel E. 1992. A reference grammar of Korean. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle.Google Scholar
Martin, Samuel E. 1997. How did Korean get -l for Middle Chinese words ending in -t? Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6, 262–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinet, André. 1952. Function, structure, and sound change. Word 8.2, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Port, Robert & Crawford, Penny. 1989. Incomplete neutralization and pragmatics in German. Journal of Phonetics 17, 257–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Port, Robert & O'Dell, Michael L.. 1985. Neutralization of syllable-final voicing in German. Journal of Phonetics 13, 455–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, Susan. 1986. Word-final devoicing of obstruents in Russian. Cambridge Papers in Phonetics and Experimental Linguistics 5, 1–10.Google Scholar
Silverman, Daniel. 1995. Phasing and recoverability. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. [Published 1997, Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series; New York: Garland.]Google Scholar
Silverman, Daniel. 1996. Phonology at the interface of morphology and phonetics: Root-final laryngeals in Chong, Korean, and Sanskrit. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5, 301–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, Daniel. 2006. A critical introduction to phonology: Of sound, mind, and body. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Silverman, Daniel & Jun, Jongho. 1994. Aerodynamic evidence for articulatory overlap in Korean. Phonetica 51, 210–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slowiaczek, Louisa M. & Dinnsen, Daniel. 1985. On the neutralizing status of Polish word-final devoicing. Journal of Phonetics 13, 325–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sohn, Ho-Minh. 1999. The Korean language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Song, Jae Jung. 2005. The Korean language: Structure, use and context. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca. 1995. Positional neutralization. Ms., University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca. 1997. Phonetics in phonology: The case of laryngeal neutralization. Ms., University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Steriade, Donca. 2000. Directional asymmetries in place assimilation: A perceptual account. In Hume, Elizabeth & Johnson, Keith (eds.), Perception in phonology, 219–250. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Surendran, Dinoj & Niyogi, Partha. 2003. Measuring the usefulness (functional load) of phonological contrasts (Technical Report TR-2003-12). Chicago: Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Surendran, Dinoj & Niyogi, Partha. 2006. Quantifying the functional load of phonemic oppositions, distinctive features, and suprasegmentals. In Thomsen, Ole Nedergaard (ed.), Competing models of linguistic change: Evolution and beyond, 43–58. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trubetzkoy, Nikolai S. 1939/1969. Principles of phonology. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Warner, Natasha, Jongman, Allard, Sereno, Joan & Kemps, Rachel. 2004. Incomplete neutralization and other sub-phonemic differences in production and perception: Evidence from Dutch. Journal of Phonetics 32, 251–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Richard. 2004. A review of perceptual cues and cue robustness. In Hayes, Bruce, Kirchner, Robert & Steriade, Donca (eds.), Phonetically based phonology, 34–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar