Table of Contents
Acknowledgement.........................................................................................................i
Abstract........................................................................................................................ ii
摘要
iii
Table of contents......................................................................................................... iv
1. Introduction............................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Objective..........................................................................................................1
1.2 Ambiguity detection..........................................................................................3
1.3 Definition of ambiguity.................................................................................... 3
1.3.1 Lexical ambiguity....................................................................................... 4
1.3.2 Structural ambiguity.....................................................................................5
1.4 Structure of the thesis....................................................................................... 8
2. Literature Review................................................................................................... 9
2.1 Prosodic phonology......................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 Prosodic hierarchy...................................................................................... 9
2.1.1.1 Syllable, foot and phonological word................................................... 10
2.1.1.2 Clitics.................................................................................................... 13
2.1.1.3 Clitic group...........................................................................................16
2.1.1.4 Phonological phrase.............................................................................. 19
2.1.1.5 Intonational phrase............................................................................. 26
2.1.2 Organization of prosodic structure..........................................................27
2.1.2.1 Stress clash......................................................................................... 28
2.1.2.2 Eurhythmic rule................................................................................. 29
2.1.2.3 Stress-timing vs. syllable-timing........................................................31
2.1.3 Syntax and phonology interaction...........................................................33
2.2 Prosodic disambiguation.............................................................................. 35
2.2.1 Previous studies and preliminary findings............................................... 35
2.2.2 Disambiguation strategies........................................................................ 36
2.2.2.1 Intonational phrasing......................................................................... 37
2.1.2.2 Accent placement..............................................................................38
2.2.2.3 Pause insertion and lengthening..........................................................40
2.2.2.4 Pitch reset........................................................................................... 41
2.2.3 Examples of prosodic disambiguationdevices in Italian.......................... 42
2.2.4 Examples of prosodic disambiguationdevices in Chinese....................... 45
2.2.5 Different approaches in accounting fordisambiguation........................... 48
2.2.5.1 Syntactic approach............................................................................. 51
2.2 .5.2 Prosodic approach............................................................................... 52
3. Methodology.........................................................................................................55
3.1 ToBI Annotation System.................................................................................55
3.1.1 ToBI for Italian.......................................................................................... 57
3.1.2 ToBI for Mandarin................................................................................... 58
3.2 Assumptions and research questions........................................................... 60
3.3 Production experiment................................................................................... 62
3.3.1 Chinese...................................................................................................... 64
3.3.1.1 Experiment procedure...........................................................................65
3.3.1.2 A preview of the varioussyntactic ambiguities.....................................66
3.3.1.2.1 Pro-drop ambiguity..........................................................................70
3.3.1.2.2 Polysemous de................................................................................ 73
3.3.1.2.3 Modifier grouping ambiguity.......................................................... 76
3.3.1.2.4 Attachment ambiguity......................................................................77
3.3.1.3 The role of intonational phrasing in prosodic disambiguation.............78
3.3.2 Italian.........................................................................................................81
3.3.2.1 Experiment procedure...........................................................................82
3.3.2.2 A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities...................................85
3.3.2.2.1 Pro-drop ambiguity..........................................................................86
3.32.2.2 Modifier grouping ambiguity.......................................................... 90
3.3.2.2.3 Attachment ambiguity......................................................................91
3.3.2.2.4 Relative clause ambiguity................................................................94
3.3.2.2.5 Homographic ambiguity................................................................. 96
3.3.2.3 Salience of accent placement................................................................98
3.3.2.4 Universality of semantic ambiguity.................................................... 100
3.4 Perception experiment.................................................................................101
3.4.1 Experiment procedure............................................................................ 102
3.4.2 Discussion................................................................................................104
3.4.2.1 Better prediction by the prosodic approach.........................................106
3.4.2.2 The preferred reading effect................................................................ 106
3.4.2.3 Peculiarity of two toneless suffixes and how it is reflected in
prosody..............................................................................................110
3.4.2.4 Parenthetical expressions as an intonational phrase?.........................112
3.5 General discussion........................................................................................114
4. Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 119
4.1 Summary......................................................................................................119
4.2 Significance..................................................................................................127
4.3 Limitations and future perspectives.............................................................. 127
A pp en d ices................................................................................................................
Appendix I..............................................................................................................129
Appendix II............................................................................................................ 131
Appendix III...........................................................................................................143
Appendix IV............................................................................................................. 145
Appendix V.............................................................................................................153
Appendix VI............................................................................................................. 154
Appendix VII......................................................................................................... 156
Bibliography...........................................................................................................157
List of Figures..........................................................................................................
Figure 2.1 Pitch reset..............................................................................................42
Figure 2.2 Major intonation group..........................................................................42
Figure 3.1 ToBI transcription of the English sentence I f he can, then there’s no
argument about it..................................................................................................... 57
Figure 3.2 ToBIt transcription of the Italian sentence No, no, niente. Disse. Un lieve
capogiro......................................................................................................................58
Figure 3.3 M ToBI transcription of the Mandarin sentence Weili mailarou
59
Figure 3.4 The wave form of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III.................. 83
Figure 3.5 Annotation example of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III...........83
Figure 3.6 Percentage of correct responses according to ambiguity types................110
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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.................................................................................................53
Table 2.2 Italian examples of different types of ambiguous sentences..................... 54
Table 3.1 Chinese ambiguity based on Nespor and Vogel’s ten relation types..........64
Table 3.2 Performance of the Chinese informants at real or potential I boundaries...68
Table 3.3 Performance of the Italian informants at intermediate and intonational
phrase boundaries.....................................................................................................84
Table 3.4 Percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning.................... 105