| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5-7页 |
| 内容摘要 | 第7-10页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第10-17页 |
| ·Semantics and semantic change | 第14-15页 |
| ·Significance of this study | 第15-16页 |
| ·Organization of the dissertation | 第16-17页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review of Semantic Change | 第17-28页 |
| ·Metaphor and metonymy | 第17-21页 |
| ·Metaphor | 第17-19页 |
| ·Metonymy | 第19-21页 |
| ·Grammaticalization | 第21-24页 |
| ·Subjectification | 第24-27页 |
| ·Summary | 第27-28页 |
| Chapter Three Theoretical Foundations of this Study | 第28-41页 |
| ·Prototype theory | 第28-30页 |
| ·significant notions of prototypes | 第30-37页 |
| ·Salience, Centrality and Radial Structures | 第30-32页 |
| ·Family Resemblance and Fuzzy Boundaries | 第32-33页 |
| ·Levels of Categorization and Basic Level Categories | 第33-35页 |
| ·Scripts, Frames and Schemata | 第35-37页 |
| ·Characteristics of prototypicality | 第37-39页 |
| ·Prototypicality as an efficiency principle and its motivation in lexical semantic change | 第39-41页 |
| Chapter Four Prototypical Characteristics of Semantic Change | 第41-49页 |
| ·Modulations of core cases | 第41-42页 |
| ·Radial sets through time | 第42-44页 |
| ·Semantic polygenesis | 第44-46页 |
| ·Semantic change from subsets | 第46-49页 |
| Chapter Five Classification of Semantic Change and its Prototypicality | 第49-64页 |
| ·Classification of semantic change | 第49-53页 |
| ·Generalization of meaning | 第49-50页 |
| ·Specialization | 第50-51页 |
| ·Transference of meaning | 第51-53页 |
| ·Elevation and degradation of meaning | 第53页 |
| ·The mechanisms of lexical semantic change | 第53-58页 |
| ·The smoothness of lexical semantic change | 第54-55页 |
| ·Prototype shift | 第55-56页 |
| ·Prototype Split | 第56-58页 |
| ·The causes of semantic change | 第58-60页 |
| ·Semantic change from internal and external aspects | 第60-64页 |
| ·External aspect | 第60-62页 |
| ·Internal aspect | 第62-64页 |
| Chapter Six Conclusion | 第64-66页 |
| References | 第66-68页 |
