| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-4页 |
| ENGLISH ABSTRACT | 第4-5页 |
| CHINESE ABSTRACT | 第5-9页 |
| LIST OF TABLES AND CONCORDANCES | 第9-10页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第10-13页 |
| ·Research Background | 第10页 |
| ·Research Aims | 第10-11页 |
| ·Research Features | 第11-12页 |
| ·Organization of the Thesis | 第12-13页 |
| Chapter 2 A Critical Review of Related Literature | 第13-22页 |
| ·Speech Act Theory | 第13-14页 |
| ·Searle’s Contribution to the Speech Act Theory | 第14-17页 |
| ·Problems and Discussions Concerning the Speech Act of Commissives | 第17-19页 |
| ·The Rise and Influence of Corpus Linguistics | 第19-22页 |
| ·Collocation | 第19-20页 |
| ·Semantic Prosody | 第20-22页 |
| Chapter 3 Research Design | 第22-30页 |
| ·Corpora and Software | 第22-25页 |
| ·English corpus and software | 第22-24页 |
| ·English corpus: BNC | 第22-23页 |
| ·Software: Wordsmith | 第23页 |
| ·Data extraction | 第23-24页 |
| ·Chinese corpus and software | 第24-25页 |
| ·Chinese corpus and software: CCL Online Sampler | 第24页 |
| ·Data extracting criteria | 第24-25页 |
| ·Commissive Verbs Examined | 第25-26页 |
| ·English Commissive verbs | 第25-26页 |
| ·Chinese Commissive verbs | 第26页 |
| ·Criteria of Categorizing and Evaluating Concordances | 第26-29页 |
| ·Categories of semantic prosodies | 第26-27页 |
| ·Sub-categories of semantic prosodies: categories of prosodic meanings | 第27-29页 |
| ·Procedural Steps | 第29-30页 |
| Chapter 4 English Data and Discussion | 第30-52页 |
| ·General Data Distribution | 第30-31页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb Promise | 第31-38页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第31-34页 |
| ·Promise that bad situation will turn good | 第34-36页 |
| ·The (possible) violation of promise | 第36-38页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb Pledge | 第38-43页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第38-40页 |
| ·Promise concerning unpleasant things | 第40-42页 |
| ·Promise with neutral meanings | 第42-43页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb Assure | 第43-48页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第43-46页 |
| ·Promise concerning unpleasant things | 第46-47页 |
| ·Promise with neutral meanings | 第47-48页 |
| ·Features of the words Guarantee and Swear | 第48-50页 |
| ·Summary | 第50-52页 |
| Chapter 5 Chinese Data and Discussion | 第52-64页 |
| ·General Data Distribution | 第52-53页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb 承诺 | 第53-57页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第53-54页 |
| ·Promise that bad situation will not appear | 第54-55页 |
| ·Promise that bad situation will turn good | 第55-57页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb 许诺 | 第57-59页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第57-58页 |
| ·Promise concerning unpleasant things | 第58-59页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb 发誓 | 第59-62页 |
| ·Overall data and categories | 第59-60页 |
| ·Promise concerning unpleasant things | 第60-62页 |
| ·Features of the Commissive verb 答应 and 保证 | 第62-63页 |
| ·Summary | 第63-64页 |
| Chapter 6 Comparisons between the English and the Chinese commissives | 第64-68页 |
| ·Activeness Vs. Passiveness of the Promisors | 第64-66页 |
| ·Nationwide Vs. Worldwide Promises | 第66-67页 |
| ·Swear Vs. 发誓 | 第67-68页 |
| Chapter 7 Conclusion: Illocutionary Point and Perlocutionary Force of Commissives | 第68-71页 |
| ·Summary of the Research Content | 第68页 |
| ·Major Findings of the Research | 第68-70页 |
| ·Implications for Future Research | 第70-71页 |
| ·Theoretical Implications | 第70页 |
| ·Practical Implications | 第70-71页 |
| References | 第71-75页 |
