Coda Cluster Simplification and Its Interactions with Other Coda Processes in Korean

This paper offers an optimality theoretic analysis of Coda Cluster Simplification (CCS) in Korean. I show that the pattern of CCS is well explained through examining its interactions with other coda processes, which, I claim, are captured by a single constraint hierarchy.

First, an analysis of the interaction between CCS and Neutralization is developed, which explains the simplification of a majority of the clusters.

Secondly, the pattern of the rest of the clusters and the dialectal variation exhibited by them are accounted for by an interplay of two additional constraints both of which pertain to the syllable structure i.e., ALIGN-R and CODASON.

Thirdly, the ‘following consonant effect’, by which the simplification pattern is affected by the consonant following a cluster, is accounted for in terms of an interaction between CCS and Assimilation.