중간언어 음운론을 위한 모음 연구

A Research on Vowels for the Interlanguage Phonology

This paper discusses the internal structure of vowels based on the alternations of the vowels [e] and [o] with diphthong of languages. Throughout the discussion we find that the division of vowels into monothong and diphthong cannot properly explain the alternations mentioned above and certain phonological errors that can be found in learning second language. For instance, while the vowels /a, i, u/ do not alternate with diphthong, the vowels /e/ and /o/ often alternates with diphthong. It is from this discussion that vowels should be divided into simplex vowels and complex vowels, and complex vowels into compound vowels and diphthong.We also argue against the approaches based on distinctive feature, which appear very arbitrary in analyzing phonological processes. We claim that vowels are not consisting of distinctive features but of 'element(s)' that is a salient property of the vowel.