Edge-Integrity and the Syllable Structure in Korean

The so-called overapplication of Coda Neutralization in Korean, the occurrence of a neutralized consonant in a non-neutralizing environment, is often considered as evidence for serial derivation. In this paper I propose that the neutralization effect at surface is not a result of a phonological process at an intermediate level in serial derivation, but due to a constraint requiring the integrity of the morphological constituent: EDGE-INTEGRITY. It is argued that this is not reducible to an alignment constraint, but a genuine faithfulness constraint on the edge of a morphological constituent. The putative opacity related with the coda neutralization is shown to be an epiphenomenon arising from the ambisyllabic representation of a consonant at a morphological juncture, satisfying both EDGE-INTEGRITY and syllabic conditions. Consonant Copy in the Jeju dialect provides further evidence for EDGE-INTEGRITY, the only difference being that the conflict between syllabic conditions and EDGE-INTEGRITY is resolved by insertion of a copied consonant.