Ponghyung Lee

Daejeon University, English, Faculty Member

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My fields are Korean and English phonology, phonetics, and morphology. During the past decade, my interest has undergone a gradula transition from qualitative to quantitative sound pattern.
Address: Korea, Republic of

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차용어 적응의 확대 음절모형

The Modern Linguistic Society Of Korea, Aug 1, 2009

The issue of whether phonetic perception intervenes amid the process of loanword adaptations woul... more The issue of whether phonetic perception intervenes amid the process of loanword adaptations would be quite tricky. The present study attempts to polemically review the previous phonemic model, presented by LaChatite and Paradis 2005 and the phonetic model introduced by Pepperkamp et al. 2008. In the wake of our exploration, we are going to propose an extended syllable model. The upshot can be found in the ideas that loanword adaptation is heavily dedepent upon two crucial factors, being licensed by L1 syllable structure and passing the threshold of perception. As by-product of our contention, we are able to handle what is called "incomplete adaptation" in a persuasive way.

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VOT and F0 Variation in Korean Stops: Measurements and Probing a Sociolinguistic View

Language & Information Society, 2019

This study devotes itself to exploring the variation of acoustic correlates associated with the K... more This study devotes itself to exploring the variation of acoustic correlates associated with the Korean stop phonation. Since the seminal work of Lisker and Abramson (1964), acoustic and articulatory measurements for the laryngeal settings for the ternary distinctions of tense, lax and aspirated stops have been attempted by myriad practitioners of Korean sound patterns. For now, we have availed ourselves of the spoken database created by the National Institute of the Korean Language (NIKL) (2003). Thus, besides the measurements of acoustic properties per se, as reinventing the wheel, we aim to address the issue from a different angle: whether or not they are products of linguistics proper or sociolinguistic manifestations adjusted to meet the compelling social demands. One of the findings therein is that the striking shortening of VOT with aspirated consonants confirms the underpinning of previous literature on the role of VOT. Our novel finding is that the surge of F0 as an offset effect of VOT shrinkage is, for the present, limited to females with aspirated stops. Furthermore, an array of changes occurring to the laryngeal phonation entail that those phonetic modulations are currently underway rather than completed across-the-board. In relation to the categorization of the variation, the acoustic evidence and others to avail lead us to conclude that the phonation variation has a double-barreled character of extralinguistic adaptations to the social context as well as being hard-wired knowledge as part of the internal-language. Key words: VOT, F0, phonation, sociolinguistic variation, Korean stops

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Frequency Effects on the English PastTense Morphology

Studies in Linguistics, 2018

Ponghyung Lee (2018), Frequency Effects on the English Past Tense Morphology. Studies in Linguist... more Ponghyung Lee (2018), Frequency Effects on the English Past Tense Morphology. Studies in Linguistics 48, 25-43. This paper is to address the roles of token and type frequencies of English past tense forms in the course of deciding their productivity and regularisation. Our findings for the first issue come to the claim that both token and type frequencies significantly contribute to increasing their productivity. When it comes to the controversial issue related to the tie of one&#39;s token frequency to its productivity, our position is borne out by the tallies earned from fine-grained investigations into high, medium and low frequency tokens. Our analyses stand out by engaging in an exhaustive examination of the Brown Corpus, in contrast to the arbitrary sampling methods tried by the previous literature like Bybee and Moder 1983, Moder 1992. On the contrary, token and type frequencies prove to be insignificant to regularisation of the irregularity, leaving the impression that the frequency of a certain word makes a negative and, at most, weak impact on regularisation. The opposite results between productivity and regularisation with respect to token/type frequencies awaken us to the contention that multiple factors are bound up with English past tense morphology. (Daejeon University) ______________________________ * Many thanks to three anonymous referees of SL. Certainly, I alone am responsible for the views and descriptions shown here.

In Favor of Max(F) and Dep(F): Evidence from Korean Laryngeal Features

The Journal of Studies in Language, 2010

1 The Impact of Borrowed Sounds and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts: An Entropy-Driven Analysis

This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a c... more This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a contrastive function are phonemes. Above all, every phoneme is not equal in terms of phonological contrasts as evidenced by defective distributions. For instance, the ban of syllable-initial velar nasal [ŋ], syllable-final [h], and word-final lax vowels like [ɪ], [ɛ], [ʊ] in English and German undermines contrasts of the concerned sounds with others. In this work, we try to present a solution to the difficulties resulting from the phoneme-allophone dichotomy in light of phonological contrasts. For this purpose, quantitative analyses of Korean relying on phonological entropy (uncertainty) are conducted, and the following are considered: word-initial laryngeal feature variation such as [s]~[s`], [t]~[t`], [tʰ]~[t], and [t`]~[tʰ], an imported consonant [f], the promotion from allophonic to partial-phonemic status of [ʃ], the quasi-merger of [e] and [ɛ], and syllable-final neutralization of a...

Constraint Cloning and Lexical Listing in Korean Irregular Verbs and Adjectives*

The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irre... more The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irregular. Traditional approaches are in agreement espousing the dichotomy between regulars and irregulars. What is problematic is that Korean conjugations conflict with our common sense that regulars are the majority and irregulars the minority. In reality, p, lɨ-irregulars overwhelmingly outnumber their regular counterparts, and t, s, h, lə-irregulars are statistically comparable to regulars. To address this problem, regulars vs. irregulars are identified as inconsistent in terms of constraint hierarchy, and constraint cloning with concomitant listed lexical items is proposed. One of my key findings is that a unitary schema Markedness irregular items>> Faithfulness>> Markedness regular items guarantees the rise of regulars vs. irregulars. Second, the size of the set of listed lexical items affects existing inflectional paradigms. Larger sets are likely to launch a paradigm inno...

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Information-Controlled Laryngeal Feature Variations of Korean Consonants

This study attempts to investigate the variations occurring to Korean obstruent consonants. We pa... more This study attempts to investigate the variations occurring to Korean obstruent consonants. We pay a special attention to the fact that Korean consonantal variations center around laryngeal features of the concerned sounds. Our fundamental premise is that the weak contrast associated with concerned segments might be held accountable for the oscillation of the status quo of the concerned consonants. What is more, we assume that an array of notions as a measure of communicative efficiency of linguistic units would be significantly influential on triggering those variations. To this end, we have computed the surprisal, entropic contribution, and relative contrastiveness associated with Korean obstruent consonants. What we found therein is that the Information-theoretic perspective is compelling enough to lend support to our approach to a considerable extent. That is, the variant realizations, chronologically and stylistically, prove to be profoundly affected by a set of factors enumera...

Sonority-Driven Vowel Epenthesis in L2 Acquisition

Second Language Research, 1998

This paper addresses the vowel epenthesis attested by Korean-speakers of English. I demonstrate t... more This paper addresses the vowel epenthesis attested by Korean-speakers of English. I demonstrate that a set of Optimality Theoretic constraints are responsible for the phenomenon. In particular the interaction between faithfulness constraints and sonority-based markedness constraints determines whether the process takes place or not. This explanation is successful to predict surface variations and transitory movement from the earlier to the later stage of language acquisition, The result of this analysis is that vowel epenthesis is motivated to satisfy the universal markedness constraints in favor of onset. This sonority-based explanation clarifies the graded preference to be onset among consonant( ;.. obstruents are compelled to occupy onset, to the exclusion of sonorants. The primary strength of this approach surfaces in overcoming the problems arising from principles-and-parameters approach. The idea of all-or-nothing of the approach is ill-suited to entertain the variations and m...

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The Impact of Borrowed Sounds and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts: An Entropy-Driven Analysis

This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that have a co... more This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that have a contrastive function are phonemes. Above all, every phoneme is not equal in terms of phonological contrasts as evidenced by defective distributions. For instance, the ban of syllable-initial velar nasal [ŋ], syllable-final [h], and word-final lax vowels like [ɪ], [ɛ], [ʊ] in English and German undermines contrasts of the concerned sounds with others. In this work, we try to present a solution to the difficulties resulting from the phoneme-allophone dichotomy in light of phonological contrasts. For this purpose, quantitative analyses of Korean relying on phonological entropy (uncertainty) are conducted: word-initial laryngeal feature variation such as [s]~[s`], [t]~[t`], [tʰ]~[t], and [t`]~[tʰ], an imported consonant [f], the promotion from allophonic to partial-phonemic status of [ʃ], the quasi-merger of [e] and [ɛ], and syllable-final neutralization of alveolar obstruent consonants from s...

Assibilation or analogy?: Reconsideration of Korean noun stem-endings

This paper discusses two approaches to the nominal stem-endings in Korean inflection including lo... more This paper discusses two approaches to the nominal stem-endings in Korean inflection including loanwords: one is the assibilation approach, represented by H. Kim (2001) and the other is the analogy approach, represented by Albright (2002 et sequel) and Y. Kang (2003b). I contend that the assibilation approach is deficient in handling its underapplication to the non-nominal categories such as verb. More specifically, the assibilation approach is unable to clearly explain why spirantization (s-assibilation) applies neither to derivative nouns nor to non-nominal items in its entirety. By contrast, the analogy approach is able to overcome difficulties involved with the assibilation position. What is crucial to the analogy approach is that the nominal bases end with t rather than s. Evidence of t-ending bases is garnered from the base selection criteria, disparities between t-ending and s-ending inputs in loanwords. Unconventionally, I dare to contend that normative rules via orthography...

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Constraint Cloning and Lexical Listing in Korean Irregular Verbs and Adjectives

The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irre... more The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irregular. Traditional approaches are in agreement espousing the dichotomy between regulars and irregulars. What is problematic is that Korean conjugations conflict with our common sense that regulars are the majority and irregulars the minority. In reality, p, l.-irregulars overwhelmingly outnumber their regular counterparts, and t, s, h, l?-irregulars are statistically comparable to regulars. To address this problem, regulars vs. irregulars are identified as inconsistent in terms of constraint hierarchy, and constraint cloning with concomitant listed lexical items is proposed. One of my key findings is that a unitary schema Markedness irregular items >> Faithfulness >> Markedness regular items guarantees the rise of regulars vs. irregulars. Second, the size of the set of listed lexical items affects existing inflectional paradigms. Larger sets are likely to launch a paradigm in...

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Case Studies in Glides

A variation view on vowel insertion in loanwords

We claim that a variation view is integral to explore an array of the vowel insertion arising ami... more We claim that a variation view is integral to explore an array of the vowel insertion arising amidst of the English loanword adaptation into Korean. For the purpose, it needs to stretch the reach of phonological variation: inter-contextual variation, which results from the allowance of candidates without sharing the input, and intra-contextual variation, which means the free variation in a traditional sense. This type of reorganization enables us to account for the phonological variation in a consistent way, i.e., the higher a variant ranks, the more frequent and well-formed it is, as was attempted by Coetzee (2004 et sequel). For the lexical exceptions, our contention is that a morpheme-specific indexation in collaboration with constraint indexation intervenes for over- and underapplication of concerned processes.

Modeling phonetic perception vis-à-vis L2 phonological structures in Korean loanword adaptation and transmission

The purpose of this paper is, concerning the role of phonetic perception and L2 phonological stru... more The purpose of this paper is, concerning the role of phonetic perception and L2 phonological structures, to model a loanword adaptation and transmission. To this end, we conduct nonlinear regression analyses on the correlation between the early and present day Korean loanwords from English and phonetic perception of the English stimuli. Coupled with this kind of issue, the level of linguistic knowledge on the target language is assumed to be crucial in loanword determination. Our logic deploys as follows: In the Enlightenment Period (from the 1880s to 1920s), the knowledge on English was low and hence it is expected that phonetic perception was dominantly prevailing, compared to L2 phonological structures and the opposite will be the case with the current Korean. In the wake of nonlinear regression analyses, we obtain a skewed R2 values 0.216 in the Enlightenment Period and 0.732 in the Present Day, respectively. On top of that, the reference line showing an ogive curve in a scatter...

Assibilation or analogy?: Reconsideration of Korean noun stem-endings

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Syllable and Consonant Assimilation in English

The goal of this paper is a straightforward one. That is to demonstrate and give evidence to the ... more The goal of this paper is a straightforward one. That is to demonstrate and give evidence to the proposal that nasal and voicing assimilations and their cognate processes are regulated by syllable structures of the concerned sequences. This approach turns out to be plausible in some respects. First, in the case of nasal assimilation it is possible to describe it in terms of a single rule schema and cope with the difficulties derived from the previous foot-based analyses. Second, for the explanation of voicing agreement, we can offer a phonological account, rejecting the morphological accounts of Mascar6 (1987) and others. In this case it proves that reduction parameter is positive in earlier lexical levels to provide a coherent description of voicing assimilation in English.

OCP-Based Dissimilation in English

Quantification of the Impact of Loanwords and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts

This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a c... more This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a contrastive function are phonemes. Above all, every phoneme is not equal in terms of phonological contrasts as evidenced by defective distributions. For this purpose, quantitative analyses of Korean relying on phonological entropy (uncertainty) are conducted, and the following are considered: word-initial laryngeal feature variation such as [s]~[s?], [t]~[t?], [t?]~[t], and [t?]~[t?], an imported consonant [f], the promotion from allophonic to partial-phonemic status of [?], the quasi-merger of [e] and [?], and syllable-final neutralization of alveolar obstruent consonants from six to three. The findings of our investigation are as follows: First, loanwords are apt to exert significant impact on the pattern of contrasts in a native language. Second, it is mandatory to view that contrasts between sounds in a language are constantly in flux.

Alignment, Linking, and Faithfulness

On the Strict Layer Hypothesis

차용어 적응의 확대 음절모형

The Modern Linguistic Society Of Korea, Aug 1, 2009

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VOT and F0 Variation in Korean Stops: Measurements and Probing a Sociolinguistic View

Language & Information Society, 2019

Download

Frequency Effects on the English PastTense Morphology

Studies in Linguistics, 2018

In Favor of Max(F) and Dep(F): Evidence from Korean Laryngeal Features

The Journal of Studies in Language, 2010

1 The Impact of Borrowed Sounds and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts: An Entropy-Driven Analysis

Constraint Cloning and Lexical Listing in Korean Irregular Verbs and Adjectives*

Download

Information-Controlled Laryngeal Feature Variations of Korean Consonants

Sonority-Driven Vowel Epenthesis in L2 Acquisition

Second Language Research, 1998

Download

The Impact of Borrowed Sounds and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts: An Entropy-Driven Analysis

Assibilation or analogy?: Reconsideration of Korean noun stem-endings

Download

Constraint Cloning and Lexical Listing in Korean Irregular Verbs and Adjectives

The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irre... more The present study addresses the question of whether Korean irregular conjugations are really irregular. Traditional approaches are in agreement espousing the dichotomy between regulars and irregulars. What is problematic is that Korean conjugations conflict with our common sense that regulars are the majority and irregulars the minority. In reality, p, l.-irregulars overwhelmingly outnumber their regular counterparts, and t, s, h, l?-irregulars are statistically comparable to regulars. To address this problem, regulars vs. irregulars are identified as inconsistent in terms of constraint hierarchy, and constraint cloning with concomitant listed lexical items is proposed. One of my key findings is that a unitary schema Markedness irregular items >> Faithfulness >> Markedness regular items guarantees the rise of regulars vs. irregulars. Second, the size of the set of listed lexical items affects existing inflectional paradigms. Larger sets are likely to launch a paradigm in...

Download

Case Studies in Glides

A variation view on vowel insertion in loanwords

Modeling phonetic perception vis-à-vis L2 phonological structures in Korean loanword adaptation and transmission

Assibilation or analogy?: Reconsideration of Korean noun stem-endings

Download

Syllable and Consonant Assimilation in English

OCP-Based Dissimilation in English

Quantification of the Impact of Loanwords and Neutralization on Korean Contrasts

This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a c... more This paper examines the validity of the conventional phonological idea that sounds that serve a contrastive function are phonemes. Above all, every phoneme is not equal in terms of phonological contrasts as evidenced by defective distributions. For this purpose, quantitative analyses of Korean relying on phonological entropy (uncertainty) are conducted, and the following are considered: word-initial laryngeal feature variation such as [s]~[s?], [t]~[t?], [t?]~[t], and [t?]~[t?], an imported consonant [f], the promotion from allophonic to partial-phonemic status of [?], the quasi-merger of [e] and [?], and syllable-final neutralization of alveolar obstruent consonants from six to three. The findings of our investigation are as follows: First, loanwords are apt to exert significant impact on the pattern of contrasts in a native language. Second, it is mandatory to view that contrasts between sounds in a language are constantly in flux.

Alignment, Linking, and Faithfulness

On the Strict Layer Hypothesis

Ponghyung Lee

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