Interface between Phonological Timing and Phonetic Duration in Korean

Abstract

This paper has two main goals. One is to reexamine the representation of the underlying phonation contrasts in Korean consonants. The other is to show that there is a systematic relationship between abstract phonological notions such as timing and featural structures, and more concrete, quantifiable phonetic events such as closure duration. Instead of assuming a standard three-way underlying phonation contrast (plain, tense and aspirated), I propose that Korean tense consonants are underlyingly geminated plain segments and that the feature [constricted glottis] is redundantly specified. Geminate analyses of tense consonants have been generally rejected on the grounds that Korean has a syllable structure constraint prohibiting multiple consonants in the onset position. However, I argue that word-initial tense consonants lose one timing slot due to Stray Erasure, while intervocalic tense consonants keep both timing slots during the derivation. The application of Stray Erasure is supported by the results of acoustic and perceptual experiments. The phonological arguments and the results of phonetic experiments presented in this paper demonstrate that quantity and tension in the phonological structure are systematically reflected in their acoustic measurements and the listeners' perception.