The contrastive hierarchy in phonology 2009 Dresher.pdf - CUNY ...

the postlexical or phonetic components where this limitation does not obtain. If a
post-phonological rule that refers to redundant features is incorrectly assigned to
the phonological component, we will create an apparent counterexample to the
Contrastivist Hypothesis that will disappear once the rule is reassigned to its
correct component.
That said, not all counterexamples to the Contrastivist Hypothesis can be
resolved in these ways, and we are left with real counterexamples that have to be
accounted for. Hall (2007) presents one class of cases of this kind, and proposes
in response a slight modification of the Contrastivist Hypothesis.
7.9.3. ‘Prophylactic’ features (Hall 2007)
Yowlumne Yokuts provides a real counterexample to the Contrastivist
Hypothesis. We have seen that the underlying vowel system of Yowlumne is
specified by two contrastive features, repeated here in more detail as (7.60).
(7.60) Yowlumne underlying vowels
-round +round
i i˘ u u˘ +high
a a˘ o o˘ –high
In lexical (underlying) forms, Yowlumne has a symmetrical vowel system
where each short vowel has a long counterpart. Underlying long high vowels,
however, are not pronounced as such, but are lowered. /u:/ lowers to /o:/, as
expected, but lowered /i:/ comes out as [e:], not as [a:]. Inspection of (7.60)
reveals that the allophone [e:] cannot be accommodated with the two features
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