Sympathy, Opacity and Palatalization in English

Abstract

This paper examines Palatalization in English to discuss the issue of opacity. The paper shows that English Palatalization involves opacity and thus poses challenge to mainstream Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993). In derivational terms, Palatalization in English requires intermediate representations, neither input nor output. The intermediate representations cannot be directly managed by output-oriented Optimality Theory (OT). This paper argues that McCarthy's (1997) Sympathy Theory, which assumes a constraint termed selector and a constraint regulating the relation between a failed, sympathetic candidate and an optimal candiate, is the most successful theory available to settle the opacity problem observed in English Palatalization.