제약 재위계에 의한 중세영어 모음 음량변화 분석

An Analysis of Quantitative Vowel Changes in Middle English by Constraint Reranking

This paper gives an analysis of Open Syllable Lengthening (OSL), Closed Syllable Shortening (CSS), and Trisyllabic Shortening (TRISH) in Middle English within the framework of Optimality Theory. Many rule-based or constraint-based studies (Bermúdez-Otero 1998, Murray 2000, Sohn 2005b, among others) have tried to give a unified account of these syllable relevant, quantitative vowel changes in Middle English (ME), but their analyses are only limited to the end results of diachronic sound change. By introducing constraint reranking, this paper explains both the stage before and the stage after sound change in a consistent way with the same constraints. The data dealt with are ME nāme /na:mə/ for OSL, ME fifte /fiftǝ/ and liht /liht/ for CSS, and ME suþerne /suðǝrnǝ/ and hæringas /hæriŋgəs/ for TRISH. The constraint hierarchy for the ‘before’ stage is Max-Seg 》Max-μ 》*Clash 》FtBin 》Dep-μ 》NonFin-Syl 》NonFin-C, and the hierarchy for the ‘after’ stage is Max-Seg 》 *Clash 》FtBin 》Max-μ 》NonFin-Syl 》NonFin-C 》Dep-μ. With regard to constraint reranking, the faithfulness constraints Max-μ and Dep-μ go below the markedness constraints FtBin and NonFin, respectively.