Re: THEORY: phonemes and Optimality Theory tutorial

On Sat, 11 Nov 2000, And Rosta wrote:

> * The structural/prosodic/syntagmatic properties of segments are
>   not treated as defining features of phonemes, despite the fact
>   that different structural/prosodic/syntagmatic positions support
>   different sets of contrasts. In other words, if you wanted to
>   insist on defining contrastive *segments*, there should be
>   separate inventories of such contrastive segments for each
>   separate structural/prosodic/syntagmatic position.
It may be the disordered state of my brain, but I can't make heads or
tails of this.  Can you unpack it a bit, preferably with examples?

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter