The goal of this paper is to discuss the syllable structure change of English loan words in Korean under Optimality Theory(Prince & Smolensky 1993). First, by analyzing some familiar English loan word data with consonant(s) in Coda and in Onset, I explore the constraint hierarchy that can explain syllable structure change of English loan words in Korean. Second, motivated by some English loan words that show Korean-like syllabification in the coda position, we further refine the established constraint hierarchy for English loan words so that it can cover syllabification of pure Korean words as well. In doing so, we show that the universal fundamental constraint hierarchy for syllabification such as PARSE(Seg/F) >> FILL >> Onset, -Coda may be kept the same for the syllabification of both English loan words and pure Korean words. I also show that the difference in the syllabification between English loan words and pure Korean words can be captured by employing different ranking of ALIGN-R. For English loan words for which vowel epenthesis is dominant when they are borrowed in Korean, ALIGN-R is ranked lower than PARSE(F). On the while, for English loan words that show Korean-like Coda neutralization and for pure Korean data in which deletion of stray consonant(s) is obligatory, ALIGN-R is ranked as high as NoComplex and Coda-Cond which are inviolable constraints.
Ⅰ. Introduction
Ⅱ. Characteristics of Korean Syllable Phonology
Ⅲ. Exploration of Constraint Hierarchy for English Loan words in Korean
Ⅳ. Constraint Hierarchy of (22) and Pure Korean Data of (5)
Ⅴ. Conclusion
NOTES
Works Cited