Revisit to /h/-Deletion

This study tries to account for a different pattern in obligatory deletion in h-regular and h-irregular verbs of Korean, arguing that morphophonological difference in these two verbs come from structural difference in their underlying representation of stem-final /h/ s. Drawing on the original conception of multi-linear or non-linear phonology, these two /h/ s are shown to be structurally different in terms of a slot in the skeletal tier. Phoneme /h/ in h-regular verbs is represented as a fixed h with a slot in the skeletal tier, while that in h-irregular is represented as a floating h with no corresponding slot. It is claimed that this structural difference in turn leads to a different pattern of suffix-initial vowel deletion and stem-final /h/-deletion. The use of OT constraints referring to slots in the autonomous tiers can give a proper explanation of why these seemingly same-looking segments behave differently in the exactly same environment. French h aspiré and h muet are referred to as a piece of supporting evidence that structural difference in the tiers may be responsible for behavioral difference in the surface. Following suit of Turbid analysis in Goldrick (2000), this study shows that the use of covert or turbid output representations provides a feasible analysis of phenomena related with /h/-final stems.