ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses and exemplifies four possible types of rule interaction: feeding, counterfeeding, bleeding and counterbleeding. It establishes that counterfeeding and counterbleeding lead to opaque phonological surface forms. These contradict some phonological rule of the language, either by showing the effect of the rule where there is no longer any context for it (counterbleeding), or by not showing the effect where the context is present (counterfeeding). The chapter shows that OT cannot account for opaque forms if markedness constraints are there to say something about surface forms. In response to the inherently 'transparent' nature of OT constraints, it briefly reviews two solutions: Stratal Optimality Theory (OT) and OT with chains of intermediate forms connecting inputs to outputs. The chapter illustrates two ways in which OT allows us to describe counterfeeding and counterbleeding opacity. It draws an attention to the notion of opacity.