Optimality Theoretic Approach on the Tone Patterns of the Blended Words of South Kyungsang Korean

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine tonal interaction patterns of blended words in South Kyungsang(SK) Korean in the viewpoint of Optimality Theoretic(OT) approach. From previous research of SK Korean (loanword) compound tone patterns(Lee, 2011, 2013), we observed that the tonal interaction of SK compounds shows fundamental constraints such as the prohibition of long monotone, word initial L tone sequence, and two pitch falls in a prosodic domain. From the basis of the previous study on the tonal interactions of SK blended words(Lee, 2017), this paper investigates whether the OT constraints that were utilized in the tonal interaction analyses of SK compound words can be used in blended word analyses. The results of the present study indicate that the OT constraints of the SK tone system(Lee, 2009), e.g. no word initial L tone sequence, and the prohibition of long monotone (H) words, and of two accents (pitch falls) in a prosodic domain can be utilized in the OT analyses of the SK Korean blended words as well.