모음교체 현상의 보편성 연구

A Study on the Universality of Vowel-zero Alternation

One of the main concerns in Korean phonology is to identify the reality of the vowel [ɨ] that alternates with zero in certain contexts. Vowel-zero alternation is a common phenomenon occurring in various languages. Kaye (1990) has proposed the Empty Category Principle (ECP) along with the Proper Government for the phenomenon. However, there are cases that fail to be accounted for by proper government alone. We can find some cases in French and Billiri. As for these cases, Charette (1991) proposes the principle of Government-licensing. This principle accounts for the behavior of the empty nucleus that precedes a consonant cluster. In this paper we adopt the principle of Government-licensing to apply to the cases of the domain-internal empty nucleus of the several languages instead of proper government. That is, an empty nucleus separating two consonants in governing relation may not be phonetically pronounced if the relation is licensed by the following nucleus. Finally, we also see the possibility that the vowel ‘’ of Korean may be the phonetic interpretation of an empty nucleus rather than a phoneme.