Tsai, Ya Ching. / Thesis submitted in: December 2008. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-160). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; includes Chinese characters. / Acknowledgement --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Table of contents --- p.iv / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Objective --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Ambiguity detection --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Definition of ambiguity --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- Lexical ambiguity --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Structural ambiguity --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of the thesis --- p.8 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Prosodic phonology --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Prosodic hierarchy --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- "Syllable, foot and phonological word" --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Clitics --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Clitic group --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.1.4 --- Phonological phrase --- p.19 / Chapter 2.1.1.5 --- Intonational phrase --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Organization of prosodic structure --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Stress clash --- p.28 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Eurhythmic rule --- p.29 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Stress-timing vs. syllable-timing --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Syntax and phonology interaction --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2 --- Prosodic disambiguation --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Previous studies and preliminary findings --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Disambiguation strategies --- p.36 / Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Intonational phrasing --- p.37 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Accent placement --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- Pause insertion and lengthening --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.2.4 --- Pitch reset --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Italian --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Chinese --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Different approaches in accounting for disambiguation --- p.48 / Chapter 2.2.5.1 --- Syntactic approach --- p.51 / Chapter 2.2.5.2 --- Prosodic approach --- p.52 / Chapter 3. --- Methodology --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1 --- ToBI Annotation System --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- ToBI for Italian --- p.57 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- ToBI for Mandarin --- p.58 / Chapter 3.2 --- Assumptions and research questions --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3 --- Production experiment --- p.62 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Chinese --- p.64 / Chapter 3.3.1.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3.1.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.70 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.2 --- Polysemous de --- p.73 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.3 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.76 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.4 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.77 / Chapter 3.3.1.3 --- The role of intonational phrasing in prosodic disambiguation --- p.78 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Italian --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3.2.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.82 / Chapter 3.3.2.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.85 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.86 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.2 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.90 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.3 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.91 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.4 --- Relative clause ambiguity --- p.94 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.5 --- Homographic ambiguity --- p.96 / Chapter 3.3.2.3 --- Salience of accent placement --- p.98 / Chapter 3.3.2.4 --- Universality of semantic ambiguity --- p.100 / Chapter 3.4 --- Perception experiment --- p.101 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.102 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Discussion --- p.104 / Chapter 3.4.2.1 --- Better prediction by the prosodic approach --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.2 --- The preferred reading effect --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.3 --- Peculiarity of two toneless suffixes and how it is reflected in prosody --- p.110 / Chapter 3.4.2.4 --- Parenthetical expressions as an intonational phrase? --- p.112 / Chapter 3.5 --- General discussion --- p.114 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.119 / Chapter 4.1 --- Summary --- p.119 / Chapter 4.2 --- Significance --- p.127 / Chapter 4.3 --- Limitations and future perspectives --- p.127 / Appendices / Appendix I --- p.129 / Appendix II --- p.131 / Appendix III --- p.143 / Appendix IV --- p.145 / Appendix V --- p.153 / Appendix VI --- p.154 / Appendix VII --- p.156 / Bibliography --- p.157 / List of Figures / Figure 2.1 Pitch reset --- p.42 / Figure 2.2 Major intonation group --- p.42 / "Figure 3.1 ToBI transcription of the English sentence If he can, then there´ةs no argument about it" --- p.57 / "Figure 3.2 ToBIt transcription of the Italian sentence No, no, niente. Disse. Un lieve capogiro" --- p.58 / Figure 3.3 M一ToBI transcription of the Mandarin sentence Weili mailarou --- p.59 / Figure 3.4 The wave form of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.5 Annotation example of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.6 Percentage of correct responses according to ambiguity types --- p.110 / List of Tables / Table 2.1 Relations between the syntactic and prosodic structures of ambiguous sentences & percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning of ambiguous sentences --- p.53 / Table 2.2 Italian examples of different types of ambiguous sentences --- p.54 / Table 3.1 Chinese ambiguity based on Nespor and Vogel´ةs ten relation types --- p.64 / Table 3.2 Performance of the Chinese informants at real or potential I boundaries --- p.68 / Table 3.3 Performance of the Italian informants at intermediate and intonational phrase boundaries --- p.84 / Table 3.4 Percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning --- p.105