| List of Abbreviations | 第4-9页 |
| Abstract | 第9-10页 |
| 摘要 | 第11-13页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第13-19页 |
| 1.1 Research Background | 第13-14页 |
| 1.2 Research Purpose and Questions | 第14-15页 |
| 1.3 Research Significance | 第15-16页 |
| 1.4 Research Methodology | 第16-17页 |
| 1.4.1 Data Collection | 第16页 |
| 1.4.2 Research Method | 第16-17页 |
| 1.5 Overall Structure of the Thesis | 第17页 |
| 1.6 Summary | 第17-19页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review | 第19-25页 |
| 2.1 Introduction | 第19页 |
| 2.2 The Definition of Clitics | 第19页 |
| 2.3 Previous Studies Abroad | 第19-21页 |
| 2.3.1 Comparative Studies among Clitics, Affixes and Function Words | 第19-20页 |
| 2.3.2 Separate Studies on Phonological, Morphological and Syntactic Features of Clitics | 第20-21页 |
| 2.4 Previous Studies at Home | 第21-23页 |
| 2.4.1 The Study on the Auxiliary Clitic ’ll | 第21页 |
| 2.4.2 The Study on the Negative Clitic –n’t | 第21页 |
| 2.4.3 The Study of the Distribution of Auxiliary Clitics | 第21-22页 |
| 2.4.4 The Study of English Cliticization Based on the Minimalist Program | 第22页 |
| 2.4.5 The Comparative Study of the Concepts of Clitics, Affixes, Function Words or Compound Words | 第22-23页 |
| 2.5 Limitations of Previous Studies | 第23页 |
| 2.6 Summary | 第23-25页 |
| Chapter Three Theoretical Framework | 第25-27页 |
| 3.1 Introduction | 第25页 |
| 3.2 The Basic Concepts of the Principle of Least Effort | 第25-26页 |
| 3.3 Summary | 第26-27页 |
| Chapter Four The Phonological Features of English Clitics | 第27-42页 |
| 4.1 Introduction | 第27页 |
| 4.2 The Volume and the Classification of English Clitics | 第27页 |
| 4.3 The Phonological Features of English Proclitics | 第27-35页 |
| 4.3.1 Nominal Determiners | 第27-28页 |
| 4.3.2 Prepositions | 第28-29页 |
| 4.3.3 Conjunctions | 第29-31页 |
| 4.3.4 That as a Relator | 第31页 |
| 4.3.5 Possessive Pronouns | 第31-32页 |
| 4.3.6 Subject Pronouns | 第32-33页 |
| 4.3.7 Auxiliary Verbs as Proclitics | 第33-34页 |
| 4.3.8 There as Subject | 第34-35页 |
| 4.4 The Phonological Features of English Enclitics | 第35-39页 |
| 4.4.1 Object Pronouns | 第35-36页 |
| 4.4.2 Auxiliary Verbs as Enclitics | 第36-39页 |
| 4.4.3 Negator Not | 第39页 |
| 4.5 The Rules of Phonological Distributions of English Clitics | 第39-40页 |
| 4.6 Summary | 第40-42页 |
| Chapter Five The Morphological Features of English Clitics | 第42-50页 |
| 5.1 Introduction | 第42页 |
| 5.2 The Analogy between English Clitics and Allomorphs | 第42-44页 |
| 5.3 The Comparison between English Clitics and Inflectional Affixes | 第44-49页 |
| 5.3.1 The Requirements for the Parts of Speech of Grammatical Words | 第45页 |
| 5.3.2 The Differences in the Adhesive Positions in Grammatical Words | 第45-47页 |
| 5.3.3 The Relationships between Clitics or Affixes and the Grammatical Words | 第47-49页 |
| 5.4 Summary | 第49-50页 |
| Chapter Six The Syntactic Features of English Clitics | 第50-55页 |
| 6.1 Introduction | 第50页 |
| 6.2 The Syntactic Positions of English Clitics | 第50-51页 |
| 6.3 The Grammatical Categories of English Clitics | 第51-52页 |
| 6.4 The Complementary Distribution of English Clitics | 第52-53页 |
| 6.5 The Syntactic Identification of English Clitics | 第53页 |
| 6.6 Summary | 第53-55页 |
| Chapter Seven Conclusion | 第55-61页 |
| 7.1 Major Findings of Present Study | 第55-57页 |
| 7.2 Summarization of the General Features of English Clitics | 第57页 |
| 7.3 Creativity and Implications of Present Study | 第57-58页 |
| 7.4 Limitations of Present Study | 第58-59页 |
| 7.5 Suggestions for Future Studies | 第59-61页 |
| Bibliography | 第61-65页 |
| Appendix | 第65-69页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第69-70页 |
| Publication | 第70页 |
