The Role of /x, r, l/ in Sound Changes: OE Breaking and other Processes

• 영문명: The Role of /x, r, l/ in Sound Changes: OE Breaking and other Processes
• 발행기관: 한국영어학학회
• 저자명: Young-Kook Kwon
• 간행물 정보: 『영어학연구』영어학연구 제16호, 243~270쪽, 전체 28쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2003.12.01

영문 초록

Kwon, Young-Kook. 2003. The Role of /x, r, l/ in Sound Change: OE Breaking and other Processes. English Language and Linguistics 16, 243-270. This paper investigates diphthong-related sound changes that affected the vowel system in Old and Early Middle English in the framework of Optimality Theory. Old English Breaking, Northumbrian Retraction, Anglian Smoothing and Early Middle English Coalescence are paid special attention. Past studies do not answer why these diphthong-related sound changes tend to recur before /x, r, I/ throughout the history of English. In addition, such studies analyze each change individually but do not provide a unified account that captures structural coherence among these changes. It will be shown that the combination of, on the one hand, an enhanced theory of representations reflecting temporal relations of the segments involved and, on the other hand, the Optimality Theory of grammar makes possible a unified and natural account of these sound changes. More generally, this paper lends support to OT as a framework for explaining sound change and variation.

목차

ABSTRACT

1. Introduction

2. The phonetic and phonological nature of OE vowels and /x,r,l/

3. A unified account

4. Conclusion

References