| Acknowledgements | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract in Chinese | 第7-9页 |
| Abstract in English | 第9-10页 |
| PART ONE | 第10-13页 |
| Introduction | 第10-13页 |
| PART TWO | 第13-30页 |
| Chapter 1 Literature Review: Guarded Understatement | 第13-16页 |
| 1．1 Diplomatic Language | 第13-14页 |
| 1．1．1 Definition of Diplomatic Language | 第13-14页 |
| 1．1．2 The Relation between Diplomacy and Diplomatic language | 第14页 |
| 1．1．3 The Features of Diplomatic Language | 第14页 |
| 1．2 Guarded Understatements | 第14-16页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review on Pragmatics | 第16-30页 |
| 2．1 Definition of Pragmatics | 第16-17页 |
| 2．2 The Gricean Theory | 第17-20页 |
| 2．3 Speech Act Theory | 第20-22页 |
| 2．3．1 Origin of Speech Act Theory | 第20页 |
| 2．3．2 Three Kinds of Speech Acts | 第20-21页 |
| 2．3．3 Illocutionary Acts | 第21页 |
| 2．3．4 Classification of Illocutionary Acts | 第21-22页 |
| 2．4 Pragmatic Conceptualizations of Politeness | 第22-24页 |
| 2．4．1 Politeness in terms of Principles and Maxims | 第22-23页 |
| 2．4．2 Politeness as the Management of Face | 第23-24页 |
| 2．5 Presupposition and Entailment | 第24-30页 |
| 2．5．1 Presupposition | 第24-25页 |
| 2．5．2 Entailment | 第25页 |
| 2．5．3 The Relations between Presupposition and Entailment | 第25-26页 |
| 2．6． Deixis and Reference | 第26页 |
| 2．6．1 Deixis | 第26-27页 |
| 2．6．2 Reference | 第27-28页 |
| 2．6．3 The Relation between Deixis and Reference | 第28页 |
| 2．7． Contexts | 第28-30页 |
| PART THREE | 第30-62页 |
| Chapter 3 The Motivations of Guarded Understatement | 第30-39页 |
| 3．1 Principle Adherence | 第30页 |
| 3．2 Politeness | 第30-31页 |
| 3．3 Pragmatic Conceptualization of Politeness and Guarded Understatement | 第31-34页 |
| 3．3．1 Principle of Non-condescendence | 第31-34页 |
| 3．4 Case Analysis | 第34-39页 |
| Chapter 4 Specific Forms of Guarded Understatements | 第39-51页 |
| 4．1 Violations of the Cooperative Principle | 第39-42页 |
| 4．2 Metaphors used in diplomatic discourses | 第42-43页 |
| 4．3 Passive Voice used in Diplomatic Discourses | 第43-45页 |
| 4．4 Expressions of indirect Reference | 第45-48页 |
| 4．4．1 Speech Strategy of Generalization | 第46-48页 |
| 4．5 Indirect Illocutionary Acts | 第48-51页 |
| Chapter 5 Analysis of Meaning Conveyed by Guarded Understatements | 第51-59页 |
| 5．1 Context and Meaning | 第51-53页 |
| 5．2 Conversational Implicature | 第53-55页 |
| 5．3 Background Knowledge and Implicature | 第55-58页 |
| 5．4 Summary | 第58-59页 |
| Chapter 6 Guarded Understatements and Illocutionary Acts | 第59-62页 |
| PART FOUR | 第62-65页 |
| Chapter 7 Conclusion | 第62-65页 |
| 7．1 Major Findings | 第62-63页 |
| 7．2 Implications | 第63-64页 |
| 7．3 Limitations of Present Study and Recommendations for Future Studies | 第64-65页 |
| PART FIVE | 第65-68页 |
| Bibliography | 第65-68页 |
