Revisit to /l/-related Processes in Korean

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study reviews what previous analyses have suggested for /l/-related processes in Korean, pointing out their weak- nesses. It is shown that previous analyses framed in the standard generative phonology and feature geometry with underspecification lose generality in explanation by treating each process separately and that they cannot account for why /l/-nasalization takes place unilaterally from right to left. Lee (2012), a constraint-based analysis, is examined and criticized since it needs awkward and unnecessary assumptions centering on an underlying repre- sentation of /l/. Assuming /l/ as linked with a mora and overlapped with /n/ captures close interactions between /l/ and /n/ but leaves many questions unsolved. In his analysis, the behavior of /l/ in compounds needs to include a morpheme boundary and constraint re-ranking at once. The present study overcomes the weaknesses of previous analyses by resorting to constraints based on intersyllabic sonority difference. These constraints in combination with other faithfulness constraints solve the directionality problem and provide generality in explanation by treating all /l/-related processes at one fell swoop with no reference to constraint re-ranking in compounds.