The full vs. partial reduplication in Korean sālsal and sălɨlɨ: A case for over- and under-application

The reduplication in Kor. sālsal and sălɨlɨ ‘gently’ presents interesting phonological problems in 1) what should be the underlying base, *sal or salɨ? and 2) how the length alternation should be explained. In this paper I first present a serial analysis in which these examples are explained as cases of overand under-application, and then examine how it compares with a similar analysis in recent frameworks, e.g. the Correspondence Theory of McCarthy and Prince (1995), transderivational identity of Benua (1997) and the Stratal/ LPM-OT of Kiparsky (2000). The main conclusion drawn is that Wilbur’s (1973) Identity Constraint, which facilitates explanation of the reduplicative identity in languages but causes all kinds of problems for traditional rule ordering, can be better understood if we take into account the rule persistency and productivity, as envisioned by Chafe (1968) and Chen (1972).