| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract in Chinese | 第5-6页 |
| Abstract in English | 第6-9页 |
| Introduction | 第9-12页 |
| ·Purpose of the Study | 第9页 |
| ·The Main Hypothesis of This Thesis | 第9-10页 |
| ·Significance of the Study | 第10-11页 |
| ·General Structure of This Thesis | 第11-12页 |
| Chapter One Background of the Study | 第12-32页 |
| ·Previous Studies | 第12-18页 |
| ·Yoko Maria Francisca Collier-Sanuki's Study | 第12-13页 |
| ·Previous Studies Concerning the Frequency of Use of RC | 第13-17页 |
| ·Schachter's Study | 第13-14页 |
| ·Bley-Vroman & Houng's Study | 第14-15页 |
| ·Zhao's Study | 第15页 |
| ·Kamimoto, Shimura & Kellerman's Study | 第15-17页 |
| ·Critique of the Previous Studies | 第17-18页 |
| ·Background of the Study | 第18-25页 |
| ·Definition of Relative Clauses | 第18-19页 |
| ·Definition of RC in English and Its Typologies | 第19-21页 |
| ·Clausal Noun-modifying Construction in Chinese | 第21-23页 |
| ·Working Definitions of Relative Clauses for the Purpose of Contrastive Study | 第23-25页 |
| ·Theoretical Background | 第25-32页 |
| ·Robert Lado’s Theory | 第25-26页 |
| ·Fox & Thompson’s Study of the Grammar of RCs in English Conversation | 第26-32页 |
| ·Types of Relative Clauses and Information Flow | 第27-30页 |
| ·Distribution of Head NPs & NPrel across Grammatical Roles | 第30-32页 |
| Chapter Two Frequency of Relative Clauses in Chinese and English | 第32-43页 |
| ·The Frequency of Relative Clauses | 第32-38页 |
| ·The Frequency of RCs in the Original Works and Their Translations | 第32-34页 |
| ·The Frequency of RCs in the Original Works | 第34-36页 |
| ·Writing Styles and RC Frequency | 第36页 |
| ·Word Order and Frequency of RCs | 第36-38页 |
| ·Distribution of Different Strategies Used in Translating Relative Clauses | 第38-43页 |
| ·The Use of Adjectives and Noun-phrase Modification | 第39-40页 |
| ·The Use of Separate Clauses | 第40-41页 |
| ·The Use of Prepositional Phrases | 第41-43页 |
| Chapter Three Discourse Functions of Relative Clauses | 第43-48页 |
| ·Relative Clauses as Referent-specifying Devices | 第43-45页 |
| ·RC as Referent-fore-shadowing Devices | 第45-46页 |
| ·RCs as Cohesion Devices | 第46-48页 |
| Chapter Four Discourse Explanations for the Grammar of RC | 第48-57页 |
| ·Characteristics and Grammatical Roles of the Head NPs | 第48-53页 |
| ·Characteristics of Human versus Non-human Head NPs | 第48-50页 |
| ·Grammatical Roles of Head NPs in Chinese and English | 第50-52页 |
| ·Preference for Object-head NPs in English and Chinese | 第52-53页 |
| ·Characteristics and Grammatical Roles of NP Relatives | 第53-57页 |
| ·Characteristics of Human versus Non-human NP Relatives | 第53-54页 |
| ·Preponderance of s-relatives and O-relatives in English while Chinese is Different | 第54-57页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Study | 第57-58页 |
| Bibliography | 第58-60页 |
