• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-19
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• 2007

The present study investigates the so-called frequency inheritance effect in word production. According to some earlier studies (e.g. Jescheniak & Levelt, 1994), retrieval of a low-frequency homophone benefits from its high-frequency homophone twin, and more specifically word-retrieval RT is determined by the frequency of the phonological form of the word (sum of homophone frequencies) rather than the frequency of the specific word. This result, however, has been challenged by later studies (e.g. Caramazza et al., 2001) and one possible resolution is that languages differ in the extent to which the inheritance effect occurs. Two experiments are reported to test whether the frequency inheritance effect depends on the target language, namely, if a language such as Korean with relatively many homophones tend not to show frequency inheritance, which is compared with the language with fewer homophones such as Dutch and German (Jescheniak & Levelt, 1994; Jescheniak et al., 2003). Experiment 1 was picture naming, and Experiment 2 used an English-to-Korean translation task. In both experiments, the homophones were actually slower than the low-frequency controls, suggesting that there was no evidence for the inheritance effect. These results imply that the issue of whether specific word or homophone frequency determines production can be properly assessed by taking into account the language-specific nature of the lexicon such as the percentage of the homophone words in that language.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.7
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• pp.11-30
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• 2005

Historical origins of both personal names and place names in Korea are reviewed. It is shown that names of native origin have been largely replaced by those of Sino-Korean names. Some statistics are given on the basis of the 2000 census data in South Korea. A unique method of naming personal names which contain a generation marker called hangnyol is reviewed. This enables the person to figure out one's position and others in the family tree up to as many as ten generations without going consulting the book of genealogy. While this practice had a role to play in a vertically structured society where seniority is important, it is less practiced as the society is becoming more egalitarian, so that native names, not writable in Chinese characters, are on the rise. In this global age, a person is not just a member of his family or clan, s/he is also a member of the international community. The author proposes several things that should be considered in naming to fit the modern global age: euphony of names, ambiguity, possible bad connotations when Romanized, unintended homophones with comic meanings, etc.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.34
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• pp.307-330
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• 2014

To avoid calamities, the Chinese use different euphemisms in various fields of occupation and region. There are a lot of linguistic taboos concerned with Xieyin that shows the special characteristic of chinese characters. If two characters are homophones and one of them is considered offensive or misfortune, the Chinese prefer to substitute another expression for them in the actual conversations. These substitutes are called euphemisms. As an combined expression of psychological insecurity and language, euphemisms were not only used in the past, but also now they are still in common use. Although some of the chinese euphemisms are not used anymore nowadays, some of them are still used. There are a large number of chinese euphemisms in common use, but some special ones are used in particular fields only. This article focused on the linguistic taboos in some special fields like different regions, occupations and some others related with calamities, and tried to make a distinction from other previous studies. Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture. The study of chinese linguistic taboos and euphemisms is expected to be some help to understand the chinese customs and linguistic features.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.8
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• pp.313-329
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• 2006

In some American English dialects, the vowels /a:/ or /c:/ have been replaced with /a:/, as in caught /ka:t/ dog /da:g/ that were pronounced in /kc:t/, and /dc:g/ previously. General American does not have /a:/ in its vowel system. But in East American and Western Pensylvania, cot and caught are homophones, /ka:t/, and similarly with other pairs such as collar vs. caller, stock vs. stalk, don vs. down, knotty vs. naughty. The use of /a/ or /c/ is quite unstable, and is a well-known diagnostic for distinguishing the northern speech area of the United States from the midland and southern area. For an increasing number of Americans, however, entirely lack the opposition between /a/ and /c/, merging to /a/, referring to 'both' of the vowels of lot. This paper investigates the use of /b:/ in American dialects and its relationship with /a:/, /c:/ in AE, and with short /a/ in RP. Examining the isoglosses of the use of /a:/ in various databases of the phonological atlas of North America, this paper discusses the use, position, and trend of merger to /a:/ from the vowels of /a:/ and /c:/ in Current American English.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.391-406
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• 2013

Most of mathematical terms in Korean are Sino-Korean words. It is necessary to find the efficient ways to teach Sino-Korean mathematical terms to mathematics teachers and students who dot not know Chinese characters well and use only Korean alphabet in mathematics. Especially, we have to avoid the inappropriate Sino-Korean words which can cause misconceptions and can distinguish homophones by Korean alphabet. We may use native Korean terms to do that and the national curriculum can play an important role. In this paper, we investigate the way of improving mathematics terms in Korea with concrete examples.