| Acknowledgements | 第6-7页 |
| 摘要 | 第7-8页 |
| Abstract | 第8-9页 |
| Chapter One Research Background | 第12-25页 |
| 1.1 Introduction | 第12-13页 |
| 1.2 Linguistic studies of sign languages | 第13-16页 |
| 1.2.1 Phonology of sign language | 第14-16页 |
| 1.2.1.1 Two different modalities | 第14-15页 |
| 1.2.1.2 Four parameters | 第15-16页 |
| 1.2.1.3 Minimal pairs | 第16页 |
| 1.3 Linguistic study of Chinese Sign Language and its variants | 第16-18页 |
| 1.4 Phonological representation of handshape | 第18-25页 |
| 1.4.1 Models of sign language phonology | 第18-22页 |
| 1.4.2 Finger groups | 第22-23页 |
| 1.4.3 Finger configurations | 第23-25页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review and Research Methodology | 第25-32页 |
| 2.1 A comparison of this research with Yi's work | 第25-28页 |
| 2.1.1 Yi's survey of the phonetics of SSL | 第25-27页 |
| 2.1.2 The innovation of the present study | 第27-28页 |
| 2.2 The investigation of this research | 第28-32页 |
| 2.2.1 Research object | 第28-29页 |
| 2.2.2 Subject | 第29-30页 |
| 2.2.3 Methodology | 第30页 |
| 2.2.4 The notation system based on Prosodic Model | 第30-32页 |
| Chapter Three Phonetic Basis of Phonological Features | 第32-41页 |
| 3.1 Data about the flat handshapes | 第32-35页 |
| 3.1.1 Handshapes with two or more adjacent flat non-thumb fingers | 第33-34页 |
| 3.1.2 Handshapes with all fingers selected | 第34-35页 |
| 3.2 Physiology of hand | 第35-41页 |
| 3.2.1 Bones and joints of hand | 第35-36页 |
| 3.2.2 Physiological account for Assumption One | 第36-38页 |
| 3.2.3 Physiological account for Assumption Two | 第38-41页 |
| Chapter Four Phonemic Handshapes and Allophonic Variations in SSL | 第41-65页 |
| 4.1 The analysis of handshape phonemes of SSL | 第41-59页 |
| 4.1.1 Native and non-native lexicon | 第42-43页 |
| 4.1.2 Handshape segments in SSL | 第43-56页 |
| 4.1.2.1 Handshapes that only appears in finger spelling signs | 第43-44页 |
| 4.1.2.2 Handshapes with different selected fingers | 第44-46页 |
| 4.1.2.3 Handshape phoneme inventory in SSL | 第46-56页 |
| 4.1.3 Frequency and Markedness | 第56-59页 |
| 4.2 Allophones in spoken language | 第59页 |
| 4.3 Handshape allophones in SSL | 第59-65页 |
| 4.3.1 Complementary distribution | 第60-61页 |
| 4.3.2 Ease of articulation | 第61-62页 |
| 4.3.3 The role of the thumb | 第62-63页 |
| 4.3.4 Configurations used alternatively for the same sign | 第63-65页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusion | 第65-68页 |
| Appendix | 第68-69页 |
| Bibliography | 第69-72页 |
