Vowel Coalescence vs. Vowel Elision in Hiatus Contexts

Abstract

Kim, Young-Seok. 2003. Vowel Coalescence vs. Vowel Elision in Hiatus Contexts. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 28-4, 571-584. In this paper I propose to re-examine vowel coalescence and vowel elision together in the reranking approach where each ranking is determined by its style of speech. It is first argued that vowel coalescence in Korean respects structure preservation (SP). It is this SP rather than the anti-coalescence constraint UNIFORMITY that militates against the change of, say, au>ɔ(:) (e.g., s'aum>*s'ɔ:m 'fight'). Next I examine the directionality of vowel elision in terms of strength hierarchy. Although both V1 Elision and V2 Elision are attested in Korean, the choice of which vowel goes is not random and in this regard I show how Casali's (1996, 1997) claim is borne out by Korean facts. (Sogang University)