Counter-Feeding Opacity as a Chain Shift Effect

This article argues that counter-feeding opacity can be understood as a chain shift mapping and provides an account of chain shifts using contrast preservation theory (Lubowicz 2003). A case is examined that involves interaction between palatalization and spirantization in Polish (Rubach 1984). The central idea is that there exist constraints on contrast that can compel a phonological process. The key implication is that push shifts are admitted, unlike in previous approaches to opacity in OT (i.e., local conjunction, ternary scales, sympathy theory etc.).The definitive version of this paper was published in WCCFL 22: Proceedings of the 22nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (2003) and is available at http://www.cascadilla.com/wccfl22.htm