A Comparative Study Of English And Japanese Core Syllable Structures Under The Framework Of Optimality Theory

All the available researches concerning the comparison of English and Japanese syllable structures now are just confined to the formal distribution. Little attention is paid from a theoretical perspective. This thesis just fills this gap, which is a study of the similarities and the differences of English and Japanese core syllable structures under the framework of OT (Optimality Theory); what's more the further comparisons of onsets, peaks and codas are also completed under the framework of OT.This thesis takes core syllables of both English and Japanese as the research objects to elaborate their similarities and differences, with detailed comparisons of their corresponding constituents:onsets, peaks and codas. All the analyzing and comparing processes are completed under the framework of OT. OT, a nonderivational theory, combines the universality and uniqueness of language, which ranks the universal constraints in a hierarchy according to the uniqueness of different languages. We can get a clear picture about the similarities and the differences of English and Japanese core syllable structures from their different constraint hierarchies. In the thesis, the author first establishes the constraint hierarchies, and according to the hierarchies, generalizes the similarities and the differences respectively.Being theoretical-oriented, the thesis just enriches the comparative study of English and Japanese syllable structures; on the other hand, this thesis can help the learners get the nature of these two languages, for from OT's perspective, differences among languages result from different rankings of the universal constraints. What's more, this thesis can also inspire the learners to investigate other languages.The author hopes that this study can stimulate further researches in the comparative study of all English and Japanese syllable structures. Moreover, this study can also contribute to the comparative researches on other languages.