Overapplication opacity in phonological acquisition

Abstract

Phonological opacity is a challenge for parallel OT, which does not allow for intermediate levels of representation. Several modifications of the theory have been proposed over the years to incorporate opacity, all of them falling short of accounting for spontaneous opacity effects in developing grammars. In this paper I demonstrate that if certain independently motivated adjustments are made to the recent OT-based theory of opacity called Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (OT-CC, see McCarthy 2007), it can successfully deal with spontaneous opacity effects.

Keywords

• phonology
• opacity
• acquisition
• Optimality Theory
• Candidate Chains