The interplay of left- and right-branching effects: A phonotactic analysis of Korean syllable structure

Korean is known for its left-branching syllable structure, which distinguishes it from many of the world's languages. Among the types of evidence that have been adduced in support of this claim, one is conspicuously absent, viz., phonotactic structure. The phonotactic argument leads us to expect stronger constraints in the body (CV) than in the rime (VC) domain. This hypothesis is subjected to a detailed statistical test which takes into account relative constraints at the surface as well as the underlying level. Our results do not bear out the prediction. What we observe instead is a branching direction neutrality with a largely equal distribution of phonotactic constraints across the body and the rime domain. Rather than interpreting this finding as evidence for an insensitivity of Korean phonotactics to syllable structure, we suggest that the branching direction neutrality represents a compromise between left-branching and right-branching effects which are of similar strength. The left-branching bias is a language-particular effect which may also be found at other levels of linguistic structure (notably, syntax), whereas the right-branching bias is argued to emanate from the sequential nature of speech and therefore to be universal in nature.