구성원소 이론을 통한 한국어와 일본어의 모음 현상 비교 연구

The Element-based Approach to Phonological Phenomena of Vowel in Korean & Japanese

This paper aims to analyze some phonological phenomena of vowels which occur in Korean and Japanese within the theory of Government Phonology(GP). Based on the element theory and the internal representation of vowels, first we present how vowel system of Korean and Japanese is organized. Among the licensing constraints, which defines the way how elements are combined at the level of internal representation, the one stating that 'I must be head & U must be head' commonly exists in both Korean and Japanese. Some phonological phenomena of these two languages can be explained with the same principle on the role of elements in internal structure. Korean vowel phenomena such as changing process to monophthong [e] from [əj] and [aj] in 19c, diphthongization of [ö] and [ü] to [we] and [wi], and umlaut phenomenon are caused by the element combination abide by licensing constraints. Vowel coalescence which occurs in chain of Japanese vowel can be analyzed by applying the same principle.