On the sources of opacity in OT: Coda processes in German

Optimality Theory (OT) is built on output constraints. These constraints impose conflicting demands on candidates and are all violable, with precedence regulated by universal and languageparticular ranking specifications (see Prince & Smolensky 1993). As a result, constraints are minimally violated in winning candidates. An output-oriented theory of this kind needs to pay special attention to patterns of phonological opacity, arising out of generalizations that apparently need to be stated at some non-surface level of representation. Opacity constituted a central object of study in traditional generative phonology. In terms of the relevant portions of Kiparsky's (1973, 79) definition in (1) that formed the basis of most subsequent work on the topic, two different types of opacity can be distinguished.