| 中文摘要 | 第1-6页 |
| Abstract in English | 第6-14页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第14-16页 |
| ·Background of the Research | 第14-15页 |
| ·Objectives and Research Questions | 第15页 |
| ·Layout of the Thesis | 第15-16页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第16-25页 |
| ·Studies Carried Out Abroad | 第16-22页 |
| ·Processing Difficulty of Relative Clauses | 第16-18页 |
| ·Influence of Animacy on Processing Relative Clauses | 第18-22页 |
| ·Studies carried out home | 第22-25页 |
| ·Processing Difficulty of Relative Clauses | 第22-23页 |
| ·Influence of Animacy on Processing Relative Clauses | 第23-25页 |
| Chapter 3 Theoretical Rationale | 第25-33页 |
| ·The Definition and Classification of Relative Clauses | 第25-26页 |
| ·Definition of Relative Clauses | 第25页 |
| ·Classification of Relative Clause | 第25-26页 |
| ·The Definition and Classification of Animacy | 第26-27页 |
| ·Hypotheses on Processing Difficulty of RC | 第27-28页 |
| ·Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy Hypothesis | 第27页 |
| ·Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis | 第27-28页 |
| ·The Parallel Functions Hypothesis | 第28页 |
| ·SO Hierarchy Hypothesis | 第28页 |
| ·Theories on Processing of Relative Clauses | 第28-30页 |
| ·Active Filler Strategy | 第28-29页 |
| ·Unrestricted Race Model | 第29页 |
| ·Syntactic Prediction Locality Theory | 第29-30页 |
| ·Constraint-based Models | 第30页 |
| ·Some Accounts on Processing of Relative Clauses | 第30-33页 |
| ·The Integration Cost Account | 第30页 |
| ·The Similarity-Based Interference Account | 第30-31页 |
| ·The Perspective-Shifting Account | 第31页 |
| ·Information Flow Account | 第31-33页 |
| Chapter 4 Research Design | 第33-38页 |
| ·Hypotheses | 第33页 |
| ·Subjects | 第33-34页 |
| ·Variables | 第34页 |
| ·Materials | 第34-35页 |
| ·Instruments | 第35页 |
| ·Procedure | 第35-36页 |
| ·Scoring | 第36页 |
| ·Tools for Statistical Analysis | 第36-38页 |
| Chapter 5 Result and Discussion | 第38-53页 |
| ·Object Relative Clauses Impose Greater Degree of Difficulty to Process than Subject Relative Clauses Do | 第38-41页 |
| ·Higher Degree of Difficulty Exists Among Lower Level Learners in Processing Relative Clause | 第41-47页 |
| ·Animacy of Antecedent Partly Predicts the Processing Difficulty of Relative Clauses | 第47-50页 |
| ·Higher Level Learners Show More Stable Correlations between Different Dimensions of Relative Clauses | 第50-53页 |
| Chapter 6 Conclusion | 第53-55页 |
| ·A Brief Summary of the Research | 第53-54页 |
| ·Implication to Pedagogy | 第54页 |
| ·Limitation of the Research | 第54-55页 |
| Bibliography | 第55-59页 |
| Appendix | 第59-62页 |
| Publications During the Postgraduate Program | 第62-63页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第63-64页 |
