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http://dx.doi.org/10.17703/IJACT.2019.7.2.137

An OT Analysis of Chinese Transliterations of English Place Names

Liang, Ce (Daejin University (R.O.K.))

Publication Information

International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology / v.7, no.2, 2019 , pp. 137-143 More about this Journal

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of the Chinese transliterations of English place names in the Optimality Theory (OT) [1]. Three groups of monosyllabic, disyllabic and multisyllabic English place names are analyzed to represent the hierarchical ranking of both Markedness and Faithfulness constraints in terms of sound epenthesis, which is one of the most important repair strategies named the Preservation Principle [2] devised to "preserve" every source segment (or sound) of the target place names. By doing so, this paper tries to answer the question of why sound epenthesis takes place in transliterating words between languages. With the help of the established ranking of the relevant constraints, this paper explains the process of sound epenthesis formally.

Keywords

transliteration; Optimality Theory (OT); epenthesis; English place names;

Citations & Related Records

Reference

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