A phonological study and historical view on IC clusters in English

영어 lC 자음군에 관한 역사적 조명과 음운적 고찰

The purpose of this study is to investigate /l/-deletion in lC clusters which are composed of a lateral followed by consonants at syllable-final position in English. For this, I have analyzed /l/-deletion in words depending on conditions and theoretical analyses such as Sonority Sequencing Generalization, Cluster Simplification, Complex sounds and merger, and Feature Geometry, but they didn't offer a very satisfactory explanation to the phenomenon. Therefore, I adopted a historical approach in order to determine the cause and origin of /l/-deletion in lC clusters, and then as a phonological analysis tool, I relied on the constraints and their ranking in Optimal Theory framework for explaining /l/-deletion in the clusters more consistently. As a result, I can explain the phenomenon more explicitly than from the above mentioned analyses.