| ROA: | 347 |
|---|---|
| Title: | On the sources of opacity in OT: Coda processes in German |
| Authors: | Junko Ito, Armin Mester |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 30 |
| Abstract: | On the sources of opacity in OT: Coda processes in German Junko Ito & Armin Mester University of California, Santa Cruz Phonological opacity poses a well-known problem for the standard version of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993) making use only of elementary markedness constraints and faithfulness constraints. A number of remedies have been proposed in the literature, most notably, Sympathy Theory (McCarthy 1998) and level-ordered OT (Kiparsky 1998). This paper takes a different approach and starts out with two questions regarding opacity: Which elements of current OT-architecture can in principle give rise to opaque output patterns? To what extent do the patterns of opacity derivable in this way cover the empirically existing patterns? Extending the proposal by Lubowicz 1998 on constraints locally conjoining markedness and faithfulness (M&F constraints) as sources of the derived environment syndrome, we show that M&F constraints are also responsible for certain types of opaque output patterns. As its empirical basis, this paper studies the ways in which a group of coda conditions play out in the phonology of German, giving rise to processes whose interaction is opaque in various ways. Sympathy-based analyses turn out to be associated with unappealing stipulations and otherwise unmotivated rankings. The opacity is shown to arise, rather, in a very natural and simple way out of specific conjunctions of markedness and faithfulness constraints that are otherwise operative in German phonology. A discussion of further theoretical ramifications concerning opacity and M&F-conjunctions concludes the paper. |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |