Variations in English Loanword Adaptation in Korean Phonology: Attributable to the Borrowing Language’s Internal Grammar or Speech Perception?

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide insight into variations of English loanwords containing consonant sequences within the SB (Ls-to-Lb). Accepting the drawbacks of the perception-only and phonology-only approaches, this paper facilitates Smith`s (2006, 2009) SB correspondence model, which considers such diverse factors in loanword adaptation as perception, Lb-internal grammar, and orthography by holding the relationship between the borrowing form and the borrower`s posited representations of the source-language form (i.e., pLs representation). Further developing Smith`s analysis, this paper suggests that Korean Lb speakers` explicit knowledge of the Ls morphology also plays a crucial role in producing variations in English loanwords. For example, when loanwords contain impermissible consonant sequences, it has been reported that a vowel [i-] is inserted. However, this paper suggests that when loanwords are analyzed as being morphologically complex, they undergo feature changing processes, rather than vowel epenthesis. More specifically, if loanwords are analyzed as a compound deriving from two independent words (i.e., word[word[X]##word[Y]]), they undergo nasalization or delateralization. On the other hand, if they are analyzed as a bimorphemic simple word (i.e., word[X#Y]), they do not undergo delateralization and undergo lateralization. If they are judged as monomorphemic words, vowel epenthesis applies.