The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 14(2). The purpose of this study is to reconsider the existing views on concord of appellation term with a final ending. In general, it has been considered that there is a consistent system to accord 'the object not expressed with pronoun' with 'hashowsheo' form, 'geudui' with 'hayassheo' form, and 'neo' with 'hara' form. There are, however, many examples from actual use which cannot be explained in this framework. Here, the concord of appellation term with final ending in middle Korean is classified into 'conforming model on rule' and 'strategic model of speaker'. The former is sub-classified into 'authoritative type' and 'bonding type', the latter 'appellation type' and 'final ending type'. Considering the fact that the appellation term and the final ending are related to the honorific system, such features as dialogue, personal feelings between interlocutors among others should be included in an analysis. It has been understood that some pronouns are used only with some appellations according to previous research regardless of these facts. The basic approach of this study is to provide an analysis distinctive from prevailing explanations.

This study attempts to analyze the honorific system in Middle Age Korean through a sociolinguistic approach. Although this area has been researched from many viewpoints so that mentioning the status or necessity of the honorary hierarchy in Korean is unnecessary, it is not an exaggeration to state that there has not been any previous research to explain it from a sociolinguistic perspective. The reason is that it is difficult to explain the speaking environment and the relationship to listeners dearly because the language data in the fifteenth century exist in the form of literature. Considering the aspects of use or characteristics of the honor hierarchy, in roost cases a sociolinguistic perspective is necessary and should be applied to Middle Age Korean. This study defines the honorific system in Middle Age Korean as an 'absolute honor hierarchy' as opposed to a 'relative honor hierarchy' and aims to show the reason why there was a 'language step change' at that time. Furthermore, the importance of the 'solidarity' relationship in the real situation of society where the principle of 'power' dominated was explored.

Yong Heo. 2000. The Sound of `ㅇ` in Middle Korean Revisited. Studies in Modern Grammar 20, 1-22. In this paper I discuss the sound of `ㅇ` in Middle Korean. It has been assumed that this orthography is pronounced in two ways. One is zero when it appears in word-initial position, and the other is a consonant like [fi] when it appears in other positions such as `놀애(song)`. It has been taken for granted that/ㄹ/ in this word is realized as [l] rather than [r]. Since Korean liquid is realized as [r] between two vowels and is realized as [l] either before a consonant or at the end of a word, there is no way to interpret the sound as a consonant. In addition there is an apparent historical evidence that this was a consonant in an earlier period. However, I claim that this orthography represents an empty onset which has phonological position with no segmental content. We can see that some similar examples are found from the languages of Seri and French. We also see that the sound of `ㄹ` in the preceding syllable is realized as [l] since it is followed by a licensed empty nucleus which makes the preceding consonant unreleased.