Index: solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/highlight/HighlighterTest.java
===================================================================
--- solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/highlight/HighlighterTest.java	(revision 1399152)
+++ solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/highlight/HighlighterTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -150,6 +150,25 @@
             "//arr[@name='tv_text']/str[.=' <em>long</em> fragments.']"
             );
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testTermVectorWithoutOffsetsHighlight() {
+
+    HashMap<String,String> args = new HashMap<String, String>();
+    args.put("hl", "true");
+    args.put("hl.fl", "tv_no_off_text");
+
+    TestHarness.LocalRequestFactory sumLRF = h.getRequestFactory("standard", 0, 200, args);
+
+    assertU(adoc("tv_no_off_text", "Crackerjack Cameron", "id", "1"));
+    assertU(commit());
+    assertU(optimize());
+
+    assertQ("Fields with term vectors switched on but no offsets should be correctly highlighted",
+            sumLRF.makeRequest("tv_no_off_text:cameron"),
+            "//arr[@name='tv_no_off_text']/str[.='Crackerjack <em>Cameron</em>']");
+
+  }
   
   @Test
   public void testTermOffsetsTokenStream() throws Exception {
Index: solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/schema.xml
===================================================================
--- solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/schema.xml	(revision 1399152)
+++ solr/core/src/test-files/solr/collection1/conf/schema.xml	(working copy)
@@ -649,6 +649,8 @@
       termVectors="true" termPositions="true" termOffsets="true"/>
    <dynamicField name="tv_mv_*"  type="text" indexed="true"  stored="true" multiValued="true"
       termVectors="true" termPositions="true" termOffsets="true"/>
+   <dynamicField name="tv_no_off_*" type="text" indexed="true" stored="true"
+      termVectors="true" termPositions="true"/>
 
    <dynamicField name="*_p"  type="xyd" indexed="true"  stored="true" multiValued="false"/>
 
Index: solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java
===================================================================
--- solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java	(revision 1399152)
+++ solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/highlight/DefaultSolrHighlighter.java	(working copy)
@@ -16,18 +16,6 @@
  */
 package org.apache.solr.highlight;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.StringReader;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.Collections;
-import java.util.Comparator;
-import java.util.HashSet;
-import java.util.LinkedList;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.ListIterator;
-import java.util.Set;
-
-
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.CachingTokenFilter;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenFilter;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenStream;
@@ -38,19 +26,16 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.index.StoredDocument;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.highlight.*;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.BoundaryScanner;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.FastVectorHighlighter;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.FieldQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.FragListBuilder;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.FragmentsBuilder;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.highlight.Formatter;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.vectorhighlight.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.AttributeSource.State;
 import org.apache.solr.common.SolrException;
 import org.apache.solr.common.params.HighlightParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.params.SolrParams;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.SimpleOrderedMap;
-import org.apache.solr.core.SolrConfig;
 import org.apache.solr.core.PluginInfo;
+import org.apache.solr.core.SolrConfig;
 import org.apache.solr.core.SolrCore;
 import org.apache.solr.request.SolrQueryRequest;
 import org.apache.solr.schema.IndexSchema;
@@ -62,6 +47,10 @@
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.util.*;
+
 /**
  * 
  * @since solr 1.3
@@ -462,15 +451,10 @@
     List<TextFragment> frags = new ArrayList<TextFragment>();
 
     TermOffsetsTokenStream tots = null; // to be non-null iff we're using TermOffsets optimization
-    try {
-        TokenStream tvStream = TokenSources.getTokenStream(searcher.getIndexReader(), docId, fieldName);
-        if (tvStream != null) {
-          tots = new TermOffsetsTokenStream(tvStream);
-        }
+    TokenStream tvStream = TokenSources.getTokenStreamWithOffsets(searcher.getIndexReader(), docId, fieldName);
+    if (tvStream != null) {
+      tots = new TermOffsetsTokenStream(tvStream);
     }
-    catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
-      // No problem. But we can't use TermOffsets optimization.
-    }
 
     for (int j = 0; j < docTexts.length; j++) {
       if( tots != null ) {
Index: lucene/CHANGES.txt
===================================================================
--- lucene/CHANGES.txt	(revision 1399152)
+++ lucene/CHANGES.txt	(working copy)
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@
 * LUCENE-4399: Deprecated AppendingCodec. Lucene's term dictionaries
   no longer seek when writing.  (Adrien Grand, Robert Muir)
 
+* LUCENE-4479: Rename TokenStream.getTokenStream(IndexReader, int, String)
+  to TokenStream.getTokenStreamWithOffsets, and return null on failure
+  rather than throwing IllegalArgumentException.  (Alan Woodward)
+
 Bug Fixes
 
 * LUCENE-1822: BaseFragListBuilder hard-coded 6 char margin is too naive.
@@ -60,6 +64,9 @@
 * LUCENE-4485: When CheckIndex terms, terms/docs pairs and tokens,
   these counts now all exclude deleted documents.  (Mike McCandless)
 
+* LUCENE-4479: Highlighter works correctly for fields with term vector
+  positions, but no offsets.  (Alan Woodward)
+
 Optimizations
 
 * LUCENE-4443: BlockPostingsFormat no longer writes unnecessary offsets 
Index: lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSourcesTest.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSourcesTest.java	(revision 1399152)
+++ lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSourcesTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -17,8 +17,6 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import java.io.IOException;
-
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Token;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenStream;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.tokenattributes.CharTermAttribute;
@@ -42,6 +40,8 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+
 // LUCENE-2874
 public class TokenSourcesTest extends LuceneTestCase {
   private static final String FIELD = "text";
@@ -260,4 +260,40 @@
     }
   }
 
+  public void testTermVectorWithoutOffsetsThrowsException()
+      throws IOException, InvalidTokenOffsetsException {
+    final String TEXT = "the fox did not jump";
+    final Directory directory = newDirectory();
+    final IndexWriter indexWriter = new IndexWriter(directory,
+        newIndexWriterConfig(TEST_VERSION_CURRENT, null));
+    try {
+      final Document document = new Document();
+      FieldType customType = new FieldType(TextField.TYPE_NOT_STORED);
+      customType.setStoreTermVectors(true);
+      customType.setStoreTermVectorOffsets(false);
+      customType.setStoreTermVectorPositions(true);
+      document.add(new Field(FIELD, new OverlappingTokenStream(), customType));
+      indexWriter.addDocument(document);
+    } finally {
+      indexWriter.close();
+    }
+    final IndexReader indexReader = DirectoryReader.open(directory);
+    try {
+      assertEquals(1, indexReader.numDocs());
+      final TokenStream tokenStream = TokenSources
+          .getTokenStream(
+              indexReader.getTermVector(0, FIELD),
+              false);
+      fail("TokenSources.getTokenStream should throw IllegalArgumentException if term vector has no offsets");
+    }
+    catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
+      // expected
+    }
+    finally {
+      indexReader.close();
+      directory.close();
+    }
+  }
+
+
 }
Index: lucene/highlighter/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSources.java
===================================================================
--- lucene/highlighter/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSources.java	(revision 1399152)
+++ lucene/highlighter/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/highlight/TokenSources.java	(working copy)
@@ -121,14 +121,10 @@
     return getTokenStream(vector, false);
   }
 
-  private static boolean hasPositions(Terms vector) throws IOException {
-    return vector.hasPositions();
-  }
-
   /**
-   * Low level api. Returns a token stream or null if no offset info available
-   * in index. This can be used to feed the highlighter with a pre-parsed token
-   * stream
+   * Low level api. Returns a token stream generated from a {@link Terms}. This
+   * can be used to feed the highlighter with a pre-parsed token
+   * stream.  The {@link Terms} must have offsets available.
    * 
    * In my tests the speeds to recreate 1000 token streams using this method
    * are: - with TermVector offset only data stored - 420 milliseconds - with
@@ -149,11 +145,18 @@
    * @param tokenPositionsGuaranteedContiguous true if the token position
    *        numbers have no overlaps or gaps. If looking to eek out the last
    *        drops of performance, set to true. If in doubt, set to false.
+   *
+   * @throws IllegalArgumentException if no offsets are available
    */
   public static TokenStream getTokenStream(Terms tpv,
       boolean tokenPositionsGuaranteedContiguous) 
   throws IOException {
-    if (!tokenPositionsGuaranteedContiguous && hasPositions(tpv)) {
+
+    if (!tpv.hasOffsets()) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot create TokenStream from Terms without offsets");
+    }
+
+    if (!tokenPositionsGuaranteedContiguous && tpv.hasPositions()) {
       return new TokenStreamFromTermPositionVector(tpv);
     }
 
@@ -261,24 +264,31 @@
     return new StoredTokenStream(tokensInOriginalOrder);
   }
 
-  public static TokenStream getTokenStream(IndexReader reader, int docId,
-      String field) throws IOException {
+  /**
+   * Returns a {@link TokenStream} with positions and offsets constructed from
+   * field termvectors.  If the field has no termvectors, or positions or offsets
+   * are not included in the termvector, return null.
+   * @param reader the {@link IndexReader} to retrieve term vectors from
+   * @param docId the document to retrieve termvectors for
+   * @param field the field to retrieve termvectors for
+   * @return a {@link TokenStream}, or null if positions and offsets are not available
+   * @throws IOException
+   */
+  public static TokenStream getTokenStreamWithOffsets(IndexReader reader, int docId,
+                                                      String field) throws IOException {
 
     Fields vectors = reader.getTermVectors(docId);
     if (vectors == null) {
-      throw new IllegalArgumentException(field + " in doc #" + docId
-          + "does not have any term position data stored");
+      return null;
     }
 
     Terms vector = vectors.terms(field);
     if (vector == null) {
-      throw new IllegalArgumentException(field + " in doc #" + docId
-          + "does not have any term position data stored");
+      return null;
     }
 
-    if (!hasPositions(vector)) {
-      throw new IllegalArgumentException(field + " in doc #" + docId
-          + "does not have any term position data stored");
+    if (!vector.hasPositions() || !vector.hasOffsets()) {
+      return null;
     }
     
     return getTokenStream(vector);