Truncation in Korean Cyber Communication

The aim of the research work is to deliver a consistent patterns of truncation in the internet communication and the factors that initiate the truncation based on the Optimality Theory suggested by McCarthy and Prince 1995, McCarthy 2008. The tasks of the research are to review the types of truncation in Korean language, to make a detailed analysis of the overall processes of truncation based on analytical tool - the Optimality Theory. Truncated forms in Korean language are mainly observed in the Internet communication, but not in regular communication. There are three main types of truncation in the internet communication. This paper examines the patterns of truncation in internet communication and suggests the major factors triggering truncation and desyllabification. To this end, we employ the basic framework of Optimality Theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995, McCarthy 2008) as our tool of analysis. During the discussion, we invoke several major constrains and show how they interact to represent the surface realization of those new forms. First of all, two major constraints, Truncate-Weak and Recoveralility, indicate that morpho-phonologically weak elements can be truncated only if the original form or meaning can be recovered from the truncated ones. Beside these, the markedness constraints, *Off-glide, *CC, *VV, and *VhV, interact with the faithfulness constraints, such as Max-Initial and Max-σ, in which the markedness constraints are ranked higher than the faithfulness constraints. In any morphological changes the main constraint is RECOVERABILITY. It is also shown that the same analytical method applies to the truncation in English loanwords as well.

truncation, Korean, internet communication, Optimality Theory