Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T09:48:40.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Language Without a Rhyme: Syllable Structure Experiments in Korean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Yeo Bom Yoon  and
Bruce L. Derwing
Yeo Bom Yoon
Affiliation:
Seoul National University of Education
Bruce L. Derwing
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior research has suggested that Korean might constitute an exception to the proposed notion of the universality of the rhyme. Five experiments were performed to test this hypothesis out with native speakers of that language. Four different experimental tasks were employed: a global sound similarity judgement task, a concept formation task, a unit reduplication task, and a list recall task. In all cases the results indicate that Korean syllables were seen to contain a cohesive CV or body unit, in contrast to the VC of rhyme unit of English. The final experiment, involving list recall, was considered especially important, as it involved the testing of preliterate children, whose results could not have been influenced by knowledge of the orthography. An attempt is made to explain these findings in terms of intrinsic properties of the syllables in the two languages. The theoretical significance of this research is also discussed.

Résumé

Résumé

Des recherches antérieures suggèrent que le coréen pourrait faire exception à l’idée, déjà avancée, de l’universalité de la rime. Cinq expériences ont été menées afin de tester cette hypothèse auprès de sujets de langue maternelle coréenne. Quatre tâches différentes ont été utilisées, dont une tâche de jugement de similitude globale des sons, une tâche où il s’agissait de former des concepts, une tâche de réduplication des unités, ainsi qu’une tâche sur le rappel de listes. Dans chaque cas, les résultats indiquent que les syllabes du coréen contiennent une unité CV ou «corps». Par contre, les syllabes de l’anglais contiennent une unité VC, ou «rime». La dernière expérience, sur le rappel de listes, revêt une importance particulière, puisque les sujets testés sont des enfants d’âge préscolaire, pour lesquels les résultats ne pouvaient avoir été biaisés par la connaissance de l’orthographe. Les résultats obtenus sont évalués selon les propriétés intrinsèques des syllabes des deux langues et l’apport théorique de la recherche est également abordé.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 46 , Issue 3-4 , December 2001 , pp. 187 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahn, Sang C. 1988. A revised theory of syllabic phonology. Ene (Language) 13:333–362. Seoul: Korean Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Baker, William J., Prideaux, Gary D., and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1973. Grammatical properties of sentences as a basis for concept formation. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 2:201–220.Google Scholar
Beinert, Richard A., and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1993. Segment, rime, syllable, tier or root? Evidence from global sound similarity judgements in Arabic. In Proceedings of the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics, ed. Bernstein, Michael, 1–10. Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Bendrien, Tracey A. 1992. Sound similarity judgements in English CVC’s. B.A. honor’s thesis, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Blevins, Juliette. 1995. The syllable in phonological theory. In The handbook of phonological theory, ed. Goldsmith, John A., 206–244. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bolton, Neil. 1977. Concept formation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Broselow, Ellen. 1995. Skeletal positions and moras. In The handbook of phonological theory, ed. Goldsmith, John A., 175–205. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1973. The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy: A critique of language statistics in psychological research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 12:335–359.Google Scholar
Clements, George N., and Keyser, Samuel J.. 1983. CV phonology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Stuart. 1989. On a non-argument for the rhyme. Journal of Linguistics 25:211–217.Google Scholar
Deese, James, and Hulse, Stewart. 1967. The psychology of learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L. 1973. Transformational grammar asa theory of language acquisition: A study in the empirical, conceptual, and methodological foundations of contemporary linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L. 1992. A “pause-break” task for eliciting syllable boundary judgements from literate and illiterate speakers: Preliminary results for five diverse languages. Language and Speech 35:219–235.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L. 1997. Testing phonological universale in the laboratory. In Certamen Phonologicum III: Papers from the Third Cortona Phonology Meeting, April, 1996, ed. Bertinetto, Pier M., Gaeta, Livio, Jetchev, Georgi, and Michaels, David, 45–65. Torino: Rosenberg and Sellier.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., Cho, Sook W., and Wang, H. Samuel. 1991. A cross-linguistic experimental investigation of syllable structure: Some preliminary results. In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 3, 110–113. Université de Provence.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., Dow, Maureen L., and Nearey, Terranee M.. 1987. Experimental evidence for phonological units. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2, 249–252. Tallin, Estonia.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., and Nearey, Terranee M.. 1986. Experimental phonology at the University of Alberta. In Experimental phonology, ed. Ohala, John J. and Jaeger, Jeri J., 187–209. Orlando: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., and Nearey, Terranee M.. 1994. Sound similarity judgments and segment prominence: A cross-linguistic study. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, 351–354. Yokohama.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., and Wang, H. Samuel. 1995. Concept formation as a tool for the investigation of phonological units. In Proceedings of the XHIth International Conference of Phonetic Sciences 3, 362–365. KTH and Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., Wang, H. Samuel, and Tsay, Jane. To appear. The syllable in Taiwanese: Making sense of conflicting sources of evidence. Journal of Chinese Linguistics.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., and Wiebe, Grace E.. 1994. Syllable, mora or segment? Evidence from global sound similarity judgements in Japanese. In Proceedings of the 1994 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, ed. Koskinen, Päivi, 155–163. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Derwing, B.L., and Yoon, Yeo B.. 1999. The effect of orthographic knowledge on syllable segmentation: A cross-linguistic study. In Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 99), 93–96. Linguistics Department, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Derwing, Bruce L., Yoon, Yeo B., and Cho, Sook W.. 1993. The organization of the Korean syllable: Experimental evidence. In Japanese and Korean Linguistics 2, ed. Clancy, Patricia M., 223–238. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Dominowski, Roger L. 1970. Concept attainment. In Learning: Interactions, ed. Marx, Melvin H., 152–191. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dow, Maureen L. 1987. On the psychological reality of sub-syllabic units. Doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Ehri, Linnea C., and Wilce, Lee S.. 1980. The influence of orthography on readers’ conceptualization of the phonemic structure of words. Applied Psycholinguistics 1:371–385.Google Scholar
Fox, Barbara, and Routh, Donald K.. 1975. Analyzing spoken language into words, syllables, and phonemes: A developmental study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 4:331–342.Google Scholar
Fromkin, Victoria, 1971. The non-anomalous nature of anomalous utterances. Language 47:27–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fudge, Eric. 1987. Branching structure within the syllable. Journal of Linguistics 23: 359–377.Google Scholar
Gim, Cha G. 1987. A study on syllable structure and some processes in its nucleus in Korean. Mal (Speech) 12:25–69. Korean Language Institute, Yonsei University.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H., and Jenkins, James J.. 1964. Studies in the psychological correlates of the sound system of American English I and II. Word 20:157–177.Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce. 1989. Compensatory lengthening in moraic phonology. Linguistic Inquiry 20:253–306.Google Scholar
Hyman, Larry M. 1985. A theory of phonological weight. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Jaeger, Jeri J. 1980. Categorization in phonology: An experimental approach. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Jaeger, Jeri J. 1986. Concept formation as a tool for linguistic research. In Experimental phonology, ed. Ohala, John J. and Jaeger, Jeri J., 211–237. Orlando: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jaeger, Jeri J., and Ohala, John J.. 1984. On the structure of phonetic categories. In Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting, Berkeley Linguistics Society, 15–26. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Kahn, Daniel. 1976. Syllable-based generalizations in English phonology. Doctoral dissertation, MIT. Reproduced by the Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Kang, Yong S. 1991. Phonology of consonant-vowel interaction: with special reference to Korean and dependency phonology. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Kaye, Jonathan. 1989. Phonology: A cognitive view. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kubozono, Haruo. 1989. The mora and syllable structure in Japanese: Evidence from speech errors. Language and Speech 32:249–278.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George 1982. Categories: An essay in cognitive linguistics. In Linguistics in the morning calm, ed. The Linguistic Society of Korea, 139–193. Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar
Lee, Key S. 1993. Umcelkucowa umwunwonli (Syllable structure and phonological principles). Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar
Lee, Sang O. 1992. Graphical ingenuity in the Korean writing system. Paper presented at the Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Liberman, Isabelle Y., Shankweiler, Donald, Fischer, F. William, and Carter, Bonnie. 1974. Explicit syllable and phoneme segmentation in the young child. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 18:201–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddieson, Ian. 1992. The structure of segment sequences. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (Addendum), 1–4. Edmonton: University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Miller, George A., and Nicely, Patricia. 1955. An analysis of some perceptual confusions among some English consonants. Journal ofthe Acoustical Society of America 27:338–352.Google Scholar
Minagawa-Kawai, Yasuyo. 1999. Preciseness of temporal compensation in Japanese mora timing. In Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 99), 365–368. Linguistics Department, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Nelson, Douglas L., and Nelson, Louise D.. 1970. Rated acoustic (articulatory) similarity for word pairs varying in number and ordinal position of common letters. Psychonomie Science 19:81–82.Google Scholar
Ohala, John J. 1986. Consumer’s guide to evidence in phonology. Phonology Yearbook 3:3–26.Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet, and Nair, Rami. 1995. Word games and syllable structure. Language and Speech 38:77–114.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl R. 1959. The logic of scientific discovery. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Read, Charles F., Zhang, Yun-Fei, Nie, Hong-Yin, and Ding, Bao-Qing. 1986. The ability to manipulate speech sounds depends on knowing alphabetic writing. Cognition 24:31–44.Google Scholar
Rosch, Eleanor. 1973. On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. In Cognitive development and the acquisition of language, ed. Moore, Timothy E., 111–144. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. Writing systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elisabeth O. 1982. Syllables. In The structure of phonological representations (Part II), ed. van der Hulst, Harry and Smith, Norval, 337–383. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca. 1983. The structure of spoken syllables: Evidence from novel word games. Cognition 15:49–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treiman, Rebecca. 1985. Onsets and rimes as units of spoken syllables: Evidence from children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 39:161–181.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca, 1988. Distributional constraints and syllable structure in English. Journal of Phonetics 16:221–229.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca. 1992. The role of intrasyllabic units in learning to read and spell. In Reading acquisition, ed. Gough, Philip B., Ehri, Linnea C., and Treiman, Rebecca, 153–198. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca, and Breaux, Anna M.. 1982. Common phoneme and overall similarity relations among spoken syllables: Their use by children and adults. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 2:569–598.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca, and Danis, Catalina. 1988. Short-term memory errors for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables. Journal of Experimental Psychology 14:145–152.Google Scholar
Treiman, Rebecca, and Kessler, Brett. 1995. In defense of an onset-rime syllable structure for English. language and Speech 38:127–142.Google Scholar
Vitz, Paul C., and Winkler, Brenda S.. 1973. Predicting the judged similarity of sound of English words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 12:373–388.Google Scholar
Wang, H. Samuel, and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1986. More on English vowel shift: the back vowel question. Phonology Yearbook 3:99–116.Google Scholar
Wang, H. Samuel, and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1993. Is Taiwanese a “body” language? In Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, ed. Dyck, Carrie, 679–694. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Wickelgren, Wayne A. 1966. Distinctive features and errors in short-term memory for English consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 39:388–398.Google Scholar
Wiebe, Grace E., and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1994. A forced-choice word-blending task for testing intra-syllabic break points in English, Korean and Taiwanese. In The Twenty-first LACUS Forum, ed. Powell, Mava J., 142–152.Google Scholar
Yoon, Yeo B. 1994. CV as a phonological unit in Korean. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing 2, 483–486. Yokohama, Japan.Google Scholar
Yoon, Yeo B. 1995. Experimental studies of the syllable and the segment in Korean. Doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta.Google Scholar
Yoon, Yeo B., and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1994. Sound similarity judgements for Korean words by Korean and English speakers. In Proceedings of the 1994 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, ed. Koskinen, Päivi, 657–666. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Yoon, Yeo B., and Derwing, Bruce L.. 1995. Syllable saliency in the perception of Korean words. Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 2, 602–605. KTH and Stockholm University.Google Scholar