The Geometry and Features of Tone

In The Geometry and Features of Tone, linguists will benefit from the theory presented as well as from its practical application to four case studies. First published in 1999, this book has not lost its relevance; it will stimulate the seasoned linguist and provide valuable instruction to students of phonology and tone.

The Geometry and Features of Tone describes Register Tier Theory (RTT). Couched within the broader theories of autosegmental phonology and feature geometry, RTT is a model for representing tone phonologically:

• what features are involved,




• how the features relate to tone-bearing units, and




• how the features interact with one another.

Following brief introductions to autosegmental phonology and lexical phonology, as well as following a relatively abstract treatment of RTT, case studies are presented of diverse types of register phenomena. The final chapter critiques a number of alternative proposals.

No substantive changes were made in this edition, but typographical errors have been corrected.