• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.1043-1065
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• 2011

This study investigates i-umlaut which occurred in the period of pre Old English (OE) in two aspects: what motivates i-umlaut in OE and how the phenomenon can be analyzed within the framework of OT. Unlike root-controlled vowel harmony, i-umlaut in OE is triggered by the suffixal i or j in the unstressed syllable whereby a stressed root vowel becomes fronted or raised. In this study, it is proposed that i-umlaut in OE is driven by the weak trigger i or j to improve its poor perception: I-umlaut improves the poor perceptibility of the weak trigger by extending its feature-either [-back] or [-low]-onto the vowel in the stressed syllable. This study provides an OT-theoretic analysis utilizing the licensing account to vowel harmony proposed by Walker (2004, 2005). The licensing constraints, IDENT-IO(F) and the locally conjoined constraints are proposed and their interaction correctly captures the pattern of i-umlaut in OE. Also, it is shown that the licensing account proposed in this paper is superior to the previous analyses as well as the nonlicensing approaches in that it can provide a perceptual motivation couched in i-umlaut in OE.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.459-474
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• 2009

The Journal of English Language and Literature. The purpose of this study is to provide an optimality theoretic approach to NPIs (Negative Polarity Items) in English and Korean by proposing three universal constraints. The constraints are C-command Condition (CCC): NPI must be c-commanded by a constituent with negative meaning; Locality Condition (LOC): NPI must be bound in the local domain; Subjacency: NPI licensing must satisfy Subjacency Condition (SBJ); Previous analyses have shown that these three constraints control NPIs in one way or another. This study attempts to demonstrate that NPIs in both English and Korean languages can be nicely accounted for by setting a different constraint hierarchy for the two independent languages. That is, by slightly changing the constraint hierarchy, distributional differences of NPIs in both languages can be accounted straightforwardly within the framework of Optimality Theory.

• Language and Information
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2012

In accounting for the so-called copy raising (CR) in English, the movement perspective has assumed that the embedded subject of the CR verb's sentential complement is raised to the matrix subject, leaving behind its pronominal copy. This kind of movement-based analysis raises both empirical and analytical issues, when considering variations in the pronominal copy constraint. This paper investigates the actual uses of the construction, using online-available corpora. Based on this corpus search, we classify two different types of copy raising predicates (genuine and perception), and discuss their grammatical properties in detail. We suggest that the simple copying rule couched upon movement operations is not enough to capture great variations in the uses of the construction, and show that interpretive constraints, e.g., perceptual characterization condition, play an important role in licensing the construction.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.264-287
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• 2004

The minimum royalty should have two objectives. One is to guarantee the minimum license payment and the other is to screen the eligible licensee to prevent the licensee`s strategic behavior. In the licensing contract for public-to-private technology transfer, the latter plays more important role than the former in viewpoint of the successful technology transfer and commercialization. However, the minimum royalty falls into a dilemma to increasing the risk on the part of licensee in case of failure in technology transfer and commercialization. In our study, ex-post option contract will be suggested as a risk sharing mechanism to overcome above dilemma. The ex-post option contract means the contract which the licensee has the option whether to go or not at the time of manufacturing stage. To proof the usefulness of ex-post option contract, it is shown in the study that expected utility of a licensor and a licensee can increase with a certain constraint, which depends on degree of uncertainty and licensee`s risk aversion, after introducing the ex-post option contract. In spite of this constraint, the usefulness of ex-post option contract may be highly appreciated because its constraint is quite normal case in the real world.