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

. Features that make each other logically redundant
i. [high] and [ATR] [high] > [ATR]
c. Reduced feature set d. Contrastive specifications
i y u i y u
high + + + + + +
back – – + – +
round – + + – +
Like the pairwise method, the procedure begins with full specification
(8.37a) (some features not shown). 14 The features [high] and [ATR] make each
other logically redundant (8.37b), a problem for the Pairwise Algorithm. In
Calabrese’s procedure, such feature pairs fall under clause (ii) of (8.36), whereby
the feature higher in the hierarchy, in this case [high], renders the lower
one,[ATR], noncontrastive. This effectively reduces the set of potentially
contrastive features to those in (8.37c). Now clause (i) of (8.36) enacts the
Pairwise Algorithm, resulting in the familiar pairwise contrastive pattern of
(8.38d), where /y/ is the middle phoneme that forms a minimal pair with each of
the others.
This procedure for arriving at contrastive specifications is open to many of
the objections raised in Chapter 2 against versions of the pairwise method: it fails
the Distinctness Condition, and it uses both feature ordering and pairwise
14 Unlike the Pairwise Algorithm, Calabrese begins by designating all feature values as
contrastive. Thus, his procedure technically assigns noncontrastive values.
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