Table of Contents i
Acknowledgements vii
Abstract ix
Chapter 1 General Introduction 1
1.0. Introduction 1
1.1. Cogtse Rgyalrong and Rgyalrongic Languages 3
1.2. Prosody 6
1.2.1. Intonation Unit (IU) 7
1.2.2. Intonation 8
1.2.3. Tone and Intonation 9
1.3. Grammar in the IU 11
1.4. General Research Questions 12
1.5. The Data 13
1.5.1. Spontaneous Narratives and Constructed Examples 13
1.5.2. Data Collection and Consultants 14
1.6. The Organization of the Book 19
Chapter 2 Word Prosody 21
2.0. Introduction 21
2.1. Previous Analyses of Cogtse Word Prosody 21
2.2. Typological and Analytical Problems with Pitch-Accent 30
2.3. A Privative Interpretation of Cogtse Tone 35
2.3.1. Surface-Melody 1 37
2.3.2. Surface-Melody 2 48
2 3 3. Grammatical Tonal Variations 55
2.3.3.1. Tonal Modification Preserving the Two-Way Contrast 56
2.3.3.1.1. Stem1-Stem2 Alternation 56
2.3.3.1.2. Toned Clitics: Dual and Plural Cliticization 60
2.3.3.1.3. Toneless Clitics 66
2.3.3.2. Partial Tone Retention: Compounding 67
2.3.3.3. Morphosyntactically-Assigned Tones 68
2.3.3.3.1. Observational 68
2.3.3.3.2. Indirect Evidential 70
2.3.3.3.3. Vocative Case 75
2.4. The Prosodic Phrase 75
2.4.1. Phrasal Modifications: Type 1 77
2.4.2. Phrasal Modifications: Type 2 83
2.4.3. Phrasal Modifications: Type 3 86
2 4 4. Phrasal Modifications: Type 4 94
2.5. Summary and Discussion 96
TABLE OF CONTENTS  iii
Chapter 3 Intonation Units: Segmentation and Intonation 99
3.0. Introduction 99
3.1. Labeling IU Boundaries 100
3.1.1. Prosodic Criteria for IU-boundary Identification 100
3.1.2. Inter-Rater Reliability Tests 103
3.2. Intonational Analysis 107
3.2.1. Phrasal Rules 109
3.2.2. Prosodic Accent 119
3.2.3. Boundary Tone 124
3.3. Summary and Discussion 139
Chapter 4 Intonation Units: Grammatical Structure 143
4.0. Introduction 143
4.1. Transcription System 147
4.1.1. Review of Some Major Transcription Systems 147
4.1.2. The Transcription System for Rgyalrong 152
4.2. Methodology: Coding Grammatical Types of the IU 156
4.3. Structural Types of the IU 165
4.3.1. Non-Clausal IUs 165
4.3.1.1. Nominal IUs 165
4.3.1.2. Discourse Markers 167
4.3.1.2.1. Connectives 167
4.3.1.2.2. Pause Fillers 168
4.3.1.2.3. Other Discourse Markers 169
4.3.1.3. Adverbials 170
4.3.1.4. Ideophone 172
4.3.1.5. Onomatopoeics 175
4.3.2. Clausal IUs 176
4.3.2.1. Mono-Clausal IUs 176
4.3.2.1.1. Fully Finite Clauses 176
4.3.2.1.2. Nominalized Finite Clauses 177
4.3.2.1.3. Non-Finite Clauses 186
4.3.2.1.4. Relative Clauses 190
4.3.2.1.5. Adverbial Clauses 194
4.3.2.2. Multi-Clausal IUs 196
4.3.2.2.1. Complex Sentences 196
4.3.2.2.2. Sequential Sentences 198
4.3.2.2.3. Juxtaposed Clauses 198
4.3.2.2.4. Super-Complex Clausal IUs 201
4.4. Distribution of Structural Types 202
4.5. Discussion of the Results 204
4.5.1. The Preferred Structural Type 204
4.5.2. Complex IUs vs. the “One Clause per IU” Tendency 205
4.6. Prosodic Correlations to Discourse and Grammar: Some Observations 211
4.6.1. Extrapropositional Expressions 211
4.6.2. Prosody-Grammar Correlation in the
Quotative Construction 214
4.7. Summary and Conclusion 220
Chapter 5 Conclusion 223
5.0. Introduction 223
5.1. RQ1: How can Cogtse word prosody be best characterized?Is it tonal, pitch-accented, or both? 225
5.2. RQ2: How does prosody organize speech into basic units? 226
5.3. RQ3: What are the contour shapes observed on the Cogtse IU? How are they best described? 226
5.4. RQ4: What is the relationship between tone and intonation? 227
5.5. RQ5: What are the grammatical exponents of Cogtse IUs? What does the distribution of the structural types tell us about the grammatical organization of Cogtse natural speech? 227
5.6. RQ6: Is there any salient correlation between prosody and grammatical or discourse functions? 228
5.7. Contribution, Limitation, and Future Research 229
REFERENCES 233
Appendix: Three Cogtse Narratives 253

Table of Contents i
Acknowledgements vii
Abstract ix
Chapter 1 General Introduction 1
1.0. Introduction 1
1.1. Cogtse Rgyalrong and Rgyalrongic Languages 3
1.2. Prosody 6
1.2.1. Intonation Unit (IU) 7
1.2.2. Intonation 8
1.2.3. Tone and Intonation 9
1.3. Grammar in the IU 11
1.4. General Research Questions 12
1.5. The Data 13
1.5.1. Spontaneous Narratives and Constructed Examples 13
1.5.2. Data Collection and Consultants 14
1.6. The Organization of the Book 19
Chapter 2 Word Pros...