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Lee, Sechang. 2011. A Study of Feature Economy on First Consonant Shift in the Germanic Obstruent System. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 36-1, 195-213. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective on the First Consonant Shift, typically called Grimm's Law by revisiting previous important approaches in the literature. I claim that the sound change in question is motivated not by any ‘illegal category’ in the sense of Lass and Anderson(1975) but by the tendency to maximize the use of certain distinctive feature in the obstruent system as a whole. It will be shown that each set of shifts is driven by universal constraints requiring symmetrical and economical organization of the whole obstruent system in terms of relevant features. In other words, the assumption presented in this paper constitutes a departure from the standard type of previous analyses in that each set of shifts is not triggered by a markedness constraints of any individual segments but by a markedness constraint of the obstruent system per se requiring symmetry and economy. It will be claimed that there were local re-ranking of two faithfulness constraints during each period of the First Consonant Shift. In a nutshell, the consonant is characterized as a process of system-internal adjustments which constantly tries to fill in the gaps in the system. (Sookmyung Women's University)