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

feature ordering, for there is empirical evidence that similar-looking inventories
can indeed have different contrastive specifications.
I conclude, then, that the SDA applied to features ordered into a
contrastive hierarchy must be the basis of any theory of phonological contrast.
Another issue in the determination of contrast involves the syntagmatic
dimension, the extent to which contrast is evaluated globally over an inventory
or is tied to particular positions. From a logical point of view there is no way to
decide this question. I will argue in §7.5 that there are practical constraints that
limit the degree to which contrasts can be tied to particular syntagmatic contexts;
but where these constraints do not hold, there is evidence for contrasts limited to
certain positions.
An issue orthogonal to the evaluation of contrast is the question of
whether features are equipollent or privative. This issue has important
implications for the identification of contrasts and the scope of a contrast. Also
orthogonal to contrastive specification is whether redundant features are entirely
absent from the phonology.
A study of the logical problem of contrast can take us only so far. The
important question, from the point of view of phonology, is what role, if any,
contrastive specifications actually play in phonological theory, and the extent to
which a theory of contrastive specifications helps to illuminate phonological
phenomena. In the next chapter we will find some preliminary answers to these
questions in the work of some major figures in the formative years of
phonological theory.
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