Chapter One Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Literature review 1
1.2.1 Intonational phonology 1
1.2.2 Prosodic phonology 3
1.2.2.1 Syntax-phonology mapping 3
1.2.2.2 Prosodic domains 4
1.2.2.3 Properties of prosodic structure 5
1.2.3 Focus 6
1.2.3.1 Focus from three different angles 7
1.2.3.2 Focus in phonetic approach 8
1.2.3.3 Focus in phonological approach 10
1.3 Significance of the research 14
1.4 Basic concepts in this study 16
1.4.1 Definition of focus 16
1.4.2 Nuclear accent and pre-nuclear accent 19
1.4.3 Relative prominence 20
1.5 Outline of this research 20
Chapter Two Methodology 23
2.1 Background and claims 23
2.2 Design of acoustic experiment 24
2.2.1 Materials selection 24
2.2.2 Syntactic structure of target sentence 25
2.2.2.1 Unmarked structure 25
2.2.2.2 Lian...dou structure 27
2.2.2.3 Shi...de structure 28
2.2.3 Focus identification 29
2.2.3.1 Focus in unmarked structure 29
2.2.3.2 Focus conditions in the lian...dou structure 34
2.2.3.3 Focus conditions in the shi...de structure 38
2.3 Recording procedure 40
2.4 Data processing 41
2.4.1 Data annotation 41
2.4.2 Data extraction 42
2.5 Measurement of parameters 42
2.5.1 Measurement of F0 42
2.5.2 Measurement of Duration 43
2.6 Perceptual experiment 43
2.6.1 Aim of the perceptual experiment 43
2.6.2 Stimuli selection 44
2.6.3 Procedure 46
Chapter Three Phonetic Realization of Accent Patterns in Unmarked Structure 48
3.1 Introduction 48
3.2 Phonetic realization of constituents in four information categories in unmarked structure 51
3.2.1 F0 contour of tonel utterances in four information categories 52
3.2.1.1 Overall F0 contour 53
3.2.1.2 Statistical analysis 56
3.2.2 F0 contour of tone2 utterances in four information categories 58
3.2.2.1 Overall F0 contour 59
3.2.2.2 Statistical analysis 61
3.2.3 F0 contour of tone4 utterances in four information categories 63
3.2.3.1 Overall F0 contour 64
3.2.3.2 Statistical analysis 65
3.2.4 Durational patterns of constituents in four information categories 66
3.2.4.1 Duration of subject constituents 68
3.2.4.2 Duration of object constituents 70
3.2.5 Summary 72
3.3 Phonetic realization of double rheme focuses 73
3.3.1 F0 contour of tone2 utterances in double rheme focuses 73
3.3.2 F0 contour of tone4 utterances in double rheme focuses 77
3.3.3 Duration patterns of words in double rheme focuses 79
3.3.3.1 Duration patterns of subject constituents 79
3.3.3.2 Duration patterns of object constituents 81
3.3.4 Summary 83
3.4 Phonetic realization of multiple rheme focuses 84
3.4.1 F0 patterns of rheme focus on"S+Ad+O"and"S+V+O" 86
3.4.2 F0 patterns of rheme focus on"Ad+V+O"and"S+Ad+V" 88
3.4.3 Summary 90
3.5 Accent and phrasing 90
3.5.1 Duration of pauses 90
3.5.2 Lengthening 93
3.5.3 Prosodic labeling 94
3.6 Discussion 95
Chapter Four Accent Patterns in 'lian...dou' and 'shi...de' Constructions 97
4.1 Introduction 97
4.2 Co-existences and conflicts of syntax-marked focus and information induced focus in 'lian+S+dou+V+O+Le' and 'Shi+S+V+O+De' constructions 103
4.2.1 Phonetic realization of syntax-marked focus 104
4.2.1.1 Overall F0 contour of syntax-marked focus 105
4.2.1.2 Durational lengthening of syntax-marked focus 111
4.2.1.3 Summary 113
4.2.2 Addition of the syntax-marked focus with the rheme focus on the same constituent 114
4.2.2.1 Overall F0 contour of additive focus 116
4.2.2.2 Durational lengthening induced by additive focus 120
4.2.2.3 Summary 121
4.2.3 Co-existence of two different kinds of focuses on different constituents 122
4.2.3.1 Overall F0 contour of two different kinds of focuses 123
4.2.3.2 Durational lengthening of two different kinds of focuses 127
4.2.3.3 Summary 13l 131
4.2.4 Interaction of addition of syntax-marked focus and rheme focus with rheme focus 131
4.2.4.1 Overall F0 patterns 133
4.2.4.2 Duration patterns 136
4.2.4.3 Summary 139
4.2.5 Prosodic phrasing of the 'lian+S+dou+V+O+Le' construction 140
4.2.5.1 Durational distribution of pauses 141
4.2.5.2 Lengthening 141
4.2.5.3 Prosodic boundary labeling 143
4.2.5.4 Summary 144
4.3 Co-existence and conflict of syntax-marked focus and information induced focus in 'S+lian+O+dou+V+le' constructions 144
4.3.1 F0 contour of rhematic focus constituent after lian-marked focus 146
4.3.2 F0 contour of rhematic focus constituent before lian-marked focus 148
4.3.3 F0 contour of rhematic focus and addition of lian-marked focus and rhematic focus in one sentence 150
4.3.4 Mean duration among the words in various focus conditions 151
4.3.4.1 Duration patterns of subject constituents 151
4.3.4.2 Duration patterns of object constituents 153
4.3.5 Summary 155
4.4 Discussion 155
Chapter Five Phonological Representation of Accent Patterns in SC 158
5.1 Introduction 158
5.2 Phonological structure of intonation 162
5.2.1 The IPO theory of intonational structure 163
5.2.1.1 Basic assumptions of IPO 163
5.2.1.2 Phonetic realization 164
5.2.2 Pierrehumbert's model of tonal structure 164
5.2.2.1 The original model 165
5.2.2.2 Pitch accents 165
5.2.2.3 Phrase accents 166
5.2.2.4 Boundary tones 166
5.2.2.5 Framework 166
5.2.2.6 Modifications to the original framework 167
5.2.3 ToBI labeling system 168
5.2.3.1 Tiers in ToBI 168
5.2.3.2 Accent inventory in ToBI 169
5.2.4 IViE labeling system 170
5.2.4.1 Tiers in IViE 170
5.2.4.2 Accent inventory in IViE 171
5.2.5 Ladd's notation of tonal structure 172
5.2.5.1 Types of pitch accents 173
5.2.5.2 Post-nuclear accents 174
5.2.6 Gussenhoven's representation of tonal structure 175
5.2.6.1 Nuclear contours and boundary tones 176
5.2.6.2 Pre-nuclear pitch accents 176
5.2.6.3 Onsets 177
5.2.6.4 Expanding the tonal grammar 178
5.3 Intonation structure of SC 179
5.3.1 Autosegmetal representation of tone 180
5.3.2 Phonological pattern of intonation structure in SC 182
5.3.2.1 Types of phonological events 182
5.3.2.2 Phonological pattern of accents 187
5.3.3 Hierarchical structure of accents 187
5.3.4 Underlying causes for restricting the distribution of accents 189
5.3.4.1 Focus without accents 190
5.3.4.2 Accents without focus 190
5.3.4.3 A metrical account of accent distribution 191
5.4 Discussion 193
Chapter Six OT Analysis of Tonal Structure 194
6.1 Introduction 194
6.2 Grammatical model of OT 195
6.3 Constraints in the analysis 196
6.3.1 Markedness constraints 196
6.3.2 Faithfulness constraints 197
6.3.3 Association constraints 197
6.3.4 Alignment constraints 198
6.4 OT analysis of accent patterns 198
6.4.1 Generation of H* tone 199
6.4.2 Generation of L* tone 200
6.4.3 Generation of LH* tone 202
6.4.4 Generation of H*L tone 203
6.5 OT analysis of accent distributions 205
6.5.1 Accent on subject position 205
6.5.2 Accent on object position 207
6.5.3 Accents on subject and object positions 208
6.6 OT analysis of prosodic phrasing 210
6.7 Discussion 211
Chapter Seven Concluding Remarks 213
7.1 Major findings 213
7.2 The cross-linguistic perspective 216
7.3 Suggestions for future research 218
Bibliography 220
Appendix Sample Sentences 233