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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2008
Perhaps the most important insight in phonological theory since the introduction of the concept of the phoneme has been the role that distinctive features play in phonological theory (Jakobson et al. 1952). Most research since Jakobson's early formulation has focused on the segmental properties of these features without reference to their hierarchical organisation. Recent research, however, has shed considerable light on this latter aspect of the phoneme as a phonological unit. In his seminal article ‘The geometry of phonological features’, for example, Clements (1985), building on earlier work of scholars such as Goldsmith (1976), argues that features are not ‘bundles’ in Bloomfield's sense, but are, in fact, organised into phonological trees with each branch corresponding to what has been called a tier. An overview of the current state of feature geometry can be found in Clements & Hume (forthcoming) and Kenstowicz (1994).