Research
Here you can learn more about my projects.
Compound tensification in Korean - Bridging phonology, phonetics, and morphology
This dissertation project investigates the phonetic realization of sai-sios, or compound tensification, a morpho-phonological process in Korean. Compound tensification transforms a plain obstruent in the initial position of the second noun within a noun + noun compound into a tense obstruent. This phenomenon is particularly interesting due to its unpredictable occurrence and the variability it introduces in pronunciation. Using corpus data, I explored how compound tensification manifests in natural speech and whether the tense stops resulting from it are categorically distinct from both underlying plain and tense stops, as posited in traditional analyses. Currently, I am preparing results from a production experiment for publication and conducting a perception experiment to probe these findings further.
The prosodic patterns in English production by L1 speakers and Korean L2 speakers of English
I examined the prosodic patterns of Korean L2 English speakers compared to English L1 speakers. Given the prosodic differences between Korean and English, I anticipated that unique patterns in L2 speech would emerge due to L1 influence. Specifically, I hypothesized that Korean L2 speakers would exhibit stronger boundary effects, reflecting the prominence of phrase edges in Korean prosody. This hypothesis was supported by findings showing that L2 speakers are more consistently influenced by boundary effects, suggesting that specific prosodic features of L1 shape L2 speech production. These insights contribute to our understanding of why L2 speech systematically differs from L1 speech.