| Introduction | 第1-8页 |
| Chapter One Major Previous Studies | 第8-24页 |
| ·Gofftnan's concepts of face and face-work | 第8-9页 |
| ·Brown and Levinson's universal politeness theory | 第9-14页 |
| ·Leech's Politeness Principle | 第14-18页 |
| ·Chinese scholars' research into politeness | 第18-24页 |
| ·Gu's View | 第18-20页 |
| ·Mao's View | 第20-24页 |
| Chapter Two Discovering problems in politeness studies | 第24-56页 |
| ·Controversies over Brown and Levinson's universal claim | 第24-44页 |
| ·Criticisms of Brown and Levinson's framework | 第26-31页 |
| ·What caused the criticisms? | 第31-35页 |
| ·Defense of Brown and Levinson's framework | 第35-44页 |
| ·Alternative approaches to politeness study | 第44-49页 |
| ·Universality in appropriateness | 第44-46页 |
| ·A cognitive approach to politeness | 第46-49页 |
| ·Confusion in politeness study | 第49-56页 |
| ·Confusion in defining politeness | 第51-53页 |
| ·Causes of the confusion in politeness definition | 第53-54页 |
| ·Alternative conceptualizations of politeness | 第54-56页 |
| Chapter Three Further Discussion and Implications | 第56-63页 |
| ·The limitations of descriptive generalization | 第56-57页 |
| ·Where to find universality? | 第57-58页 |
| ·Universality vs. Specificity | 第58-59页 |
| ·Cultural variations | 第59-61页 |
| ·Contextual/Individual variations | 第61-63页 |
| Conclusion | 第63-65页 |
| Bibliography | 第65-69页 |
