속도와 리듬에 따른 말소리의 변동

Abstract

The purpose of this short paper is to show by way of some concrete examples from Korean that a precise phonetic observation and analysis of actual language material is essential for any serious linguistic studies, particularly in the field of phonetics and phonology. 1t is very likely that phonological studies, no matter how elegant and neat they may look, may turn out to be worthless, if the underlying material used in the analysis is phonetically untenable, because an analysis based on the material which is either irrelavant or inaccurately observed, is bound to nullify the result. In Korean, it is taken for granted, for instance, that the Korean lenis plosive consonants are always voiced intervocalically. But some data from the Laryngographical experiment show that intervocalic lenis plosives are not always voiced; they become voiced only in certain contexts as conditioned by such prosodic features as stress, rhythm and tempo. 1t is clear, therefore, that unless such basic features have been fully accounted for on the phonetic level, not even a study of intervocalic behaviour of Korean lenis plosives can claim completion, not to mention a complete description of Korean phonology.