Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Revisiting the Variable Deletion of Labiovelar Glide (w)

本论文采用三种不同的研究方法，考察首尔韩语中的(W)-删除是如何随着语言和社会因素的变化而变化的，以及它是如何随着时间的推移而演变的。该项目的第一部分通过将2015年收集的自发语音数据与20世纪90年代以来的数据进行比较，研究(W)删除模式是如何变化的。其次，它提供了一个模型，在这个模型中，语音规则在失去语音条件作用后会改变其形状。该项目的第三部分探讨了参与首尔韩语(W)删除模式变化的说话者使用的不同舌形。声学数据将通过社会语言学访谈收集，参与者被要求谈论他们感到舒服的话题。参与者包括来自不同年龄、社会阶层和性别的以首尔为母语的人。将这些数据与汉城韩语早期关于(W)-缺失的研究结果进行比较，将揭示(W)-缺失模式是如何随着时间的推移而演变的。发音数据将从不同年龄段的以首尔为母语的人那里获得，使用超声波舌头成像。这个项目将对韩国首尔正在发生的声音变化以及影响这些变化的因素做出重要的贡献。该项目的发现还将为语音过程的进化提供新的线索，这将为语言变化的原理以及人类认知过程和社会互动之间的相互作用提供信息。最后，该项目中的社会发音数据具有很大的潜力来回答我们用声学和听觉研究无法回答的问题。将发音数据与声学数据联系起来，将为社会语言学研究语言变异和变化提供一条新的途径。

This dissertation project investigates how (w)-deletion in Seoul Korean varies according to linguistic and social factors and how it has evolved over time, using three different approaches. The first part of the project examines how the (w)-deletion patterns have changed by comparing spontaneous speech data collected in 2015 with data from 1990s. Second, it provides a model where a phonological rule changes its shape after losing a phonological conditioning. The third part of the project explores different tongue configurations used by speakers participating in the change in the (w)-deletion patterns in Seoul Korean. The acoustic data will be gathered through sociolinguistic interviews in which participants are asked to talk about topics they feel comfortable with. Participants include native Seoul speakers from different groups of age, social class and gender. A comparison will be made between these data with those from earlier studies on (w)-deletion in Seoul Korean which will reveal how the (w)-deletion patterns have evolved over time. The articulatory data will be obtained from native Seoul speakers in different age groups using ultrasound tongue imaging. This project will contribute important knowledge about ongoing sound changes taking place in Seoul Korean and what factors influence these changes. Discoveries from this project will also shed new light on the evolution of phonological processes, which will inform the principles of linguistic change as well as the interaction between human cognitive processes and social interactions. Lastly, the socio-articulatory data in the project have great potential to answer questions that we have not been able to answer with acoustic and auditory studies. Linking articulatory data with acoustic data will provide a new avenue of sociolinguistic research in studying language variation and change.