Phonological regularity depending on the final syllable of verb stem in Korean word formation

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the existence of the phonological regularity when a verb participates in Korean word formation. The noun suffix -i (-이) exhibits the regularity on associating to verb stems when its final syllable is an open syllable rather than a closed syllable, without the need for additional elements. This phonological regularity is further found in verb-containing compound nouns and onomatopoeia. Given this regularity, we can explore the role of -eum (-음) in compound nouns structured as ‘verb + -eum + noun’. This study indicate that the role of -eum is to eliminate the problem caused by the phonological regularity, and its selection among other potential intervening elements can be attributed to its economic advantage of minimizing syllable count in the compound noun.