Chapter One Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Literature review1.2.1 Intonationalphonology1.2.2 Prosodic phonology1.2.2.1 Syntax-phonology mapping1.2.2.2 Prosodic domair1.2.2.3 Properties of prosodic structure1.2.3 Focus1.2.3.1 Focus from three different angles1.2.3.2 Focus in phonetic approach1.2.3.3 Focus in phonological approach1.3 Significance oftheresearch1.4 Basic concepts in this study1.4.1 Definition of focus1.4.2 Nuclear accent and pre-nuclear accent1.4.3 Relative prominence1.50utlineofthisresearchChapter Two Methodology I2.1 Background and claims2.2 Design of acoustic experiment2.2.1 Materials selection2.2.2 Syntactic structure of target sentence2.2.2.1 Unmarked structure2.2.2.2 Lian...dou structure2.2.2.3 Shi...de structure2.2.3 Focus identification2.2.3.1 Focus in unmarked structure2.2.3.2 Focus conditior in the lian...dou structure2.2.3.3 Focus conditior in the shi...de structure2.3 Recording procedure2.4 Data processing2.4.1 Data annotation2.4.2 Data extraction2.5 Measurement of parameter2.5.1 Measurement of Fo2.5.2 Measurement of Duration2.6 Perceptual experiment2.6.1 Aim of the perceptual experiment2.6.2 Stimuli selection2.6.3 ProcedureChapter Three Phonetic Realization of Accent Patterr in Unmarked Structure3.1 Introduction3.2 Phonetic realization of cortituents in four information categories in unmarked structure3.2.1 F0 contour oftonel utterances in four information categories3.2.1.1 Overall Fo contour3.2.1.2 Statistical analysis3.2.2 F0 contour of tone2 utterances in four information categories3.2.2.1 Overall Fo contour3.2.2.2 Statistical analysis3.2.3 F0 contour of tone4 utterances in four information categories3.2.3.1 Overall Fo contour3.2.3.2 Statistical analysis3.2.4 Durational patterr of cortituents in four information categories3.2.4.1 Duration of subject cortituents3.2.4.2 Duration of object cortituents3.2.5 Summary3.3 Phonetic realization of double rheme focuses3.3.1 F0 contour of tone2 utterances in double rheme focuses3.3.2 F0 contour of tone4 utterances in double rheme focuses3.3.3 Duration patterr of wordsin double rheme focuses3.3.3.1 Duration patterr of subject cortituents3.3.3.2 Duration patterr of object cortituents3.3.4 Summary3.4 Phonetic realization of multiple rheme focuses3.4.1 F0 patterr ofrheme focus on "��S+Ad+O"�� and "��S+V+O"��3.4.2 F0 pattems ofrheme focus on "��Ad+V+O"��and"��S+Ad+V"��3.4.3 Summary3.5 Accent andphrasing3.5.1 Duration of pauses3.5.2 Lengthening3.5.3 Prosodic labeling3.6 DiscussionChapter Four Accent Patterr in 'lian...dou' and 'shi...de'Cortructior4.1 Introduction4.2 Co-existences and conflicts of syntax-marked focusand information induced focus in 'lian+S+dou+V+O+Le'and 'Shi+S+V+O+De' cortructior I4.2.1 Phonetic realization of syntax-marked focus4.2.1.1 Overall F0 contour of syntax-marked focus4.2.1.2 Durational lengthening of syntax-marked focus4.2.1.3 Summary4.2.2 Addition of the syntax-marked focus with the theme focus on the same cortituent4.2.2.1 Overall F0 contour of additive focus4.2.2.2 Durational lengthening induced by additive focus4.2.2.3 Summary4.2.3 Co-existence of two different kinds of focuses on different cortituents4.2.3.1 Overall F0 contour of two different kinds of focuses4.2.3.2 Durational lengthening of two different kinds of focuses4.2.3.3 Summary4.2.4 Interaction of addition of syntax-marked focus and rheme focus with rheme focus4.2.4.1 Overall Fo patterr4.2.4.2 Duration patterr4.2.4.3 Summary4.2.5 Prosodic phrasing of the 'lian+S+dou+V+O+Le' cortruction4.2.5.1 Durational distribution of pauses4.2.5.2 Lengthening4.2.5.3 Prosodic boundary labeling4.2.5.4 Summary4.3 Co-existence and conflict of syntax-marked focus and induced focus in 'S+l~V+le' cortructior4.3.1 Fo contour of rhematic focus cortituent after lian-marked focus4.3.2 F0 contour of rhematic focus cortituent before lian-marked focus4.3.3 Fo contour of rhematic focus and addition of lian-marked focus and rhematic focus in one sentence4.3.4 Mean duration among the words in various focus conditior4.3.4.1 Duration patterr of subject cortituents4.3.4.2 Duration patterr of object cortituents4.3.5 Summary4.4 DiscussionChapter Five Phonological Representation of Accent Patterr in SC5.1 Introduction5.2 Phonological structure of intonation5.2.1 The IPO theory of intonational structure5.2.1.1 Basic assumptior of IPO5.2.1.2 Phonetic realization5.2.2 Pierrehumbert's model of tonal structure5.2.2.1 The original model5.2.2.2 Pitch accents5.2.2.3 Phrase accents5.2.2.4 Boundary tones5.2.2.5 Framework5.2.2.6 Modificatior to the original framework5.2.3 ToBI labeling system5.2.3.1 Tier inToBI5.2.3.2 Accent inventory in ToBI5.2.4 IViE labeling system5.2.4.1 Tier inlViE5.2.4.2 Accent inventory in IViE5.2.5 Ladd's notation of tonal structure5.2.5.1 Types of pitch accents5.2.5.2 Post-nuclear accents5.2.6 Gussenhoven's representation of tonalstructure5.2.6.1 Nuclear contour and boundary tones5.2.6.2 Pre-nuclear pitch accents5.2.6.3 Orets5.2.6.4 Expanding the tonal grammar5.3 Intonation structure of SC5.3.1 Autosegmetal representation of tone5.3.2 Phonological pattern of intonation structure in SC5.3.2.1 Types of phonological events5.3.2.2 Phonological pattern of accents5.3.3 Hierarchical structure of accents5.3.4 Underlying causes for restricting the distribution of accents5.3.4.1 Focus without accents5.3.4.2 Accents without focus5.3.4.3 A metrical account of accent distribution5.4 DiscussionChapter Six OTAnalysis of Tonal Structure6.1 Introduction6.2 Grammatical model of OT6.3 Cortraints in the analysis6.3.1 Markedness cortraints6.3.2 Faithfulness cortraints6.3.3 Association cortraints6.3.4 Alignment cortraints6.4 OT analysis of accent patterr6.4.1 GenerationofH* tone6.4.2 Generation of L* tone6.4.3 Generation of LH* tone6.4.4 Generation of H*L tone6.5 OT analysis of accent distributior6.5.1 Accent on subject position6.5.2 Accent on object position6.5.3 Accents on subject and object positior6.6 OT analysisofprosodicphrasing6.7 Discussion Chapter Seven Concluding Remarks7.1 Major findings7.2 The cross-linguisticperpective7.3 Suggestior for future researchBibliographyAppendix Sample Sentences