| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-5页 |
| 摘要 | 第5-8页 |
| ABSTRACT | 第8-16页 |
| Chapter One INTRODUCTION | 第16-22页 |
| ·Background of the Research | 第16-19页 |
| ·Significance of the Research | 第19-20页 |
| ·Organization of the Thesis | 第20-22页 |
| Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW | 第22-38页 |
| ·The Definitions and Classifications of Shell Nouns | 第22-25页 |
| ·Definitions of Shell Nouns | 第22-24页 |
| ·Classifications of Shell Nouns | 第24-25页 |
| ·Previous Studies on Shell Nouns | 第25-31页 |
| ·Functional Studies of Shell Nouns | 第25-27页 |
| ·Cognitive Studies of Shell Nouns | 第27-28页 |
| ·Comparative Studies of Shell Nouns | 第28-29页 |
| ·Other Studies Concerning Shell Nouns | 第29-31页 |
| ·Shell Nouns as Constructions | 第31-35页 |
| ·Different Constructions of Shell Nouns | 第31-33页 |
| ·N-be-that Construction | 第33-35页 |
| ·Summary | 第35-38页 |
| Chapter Three THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK | 第38-46页 |
| ·Construction Grammar | 第38-43页 |
| ·Background and Development of Construction Grammar | 第38-40页 |
| ·Constructions: What They Are | 第40-42页 |
| ·Interaction between Words and Construction | 第42-43页 |
| ·Usage-based Theory | 第43-45页 |
| ·Summary | 第45-46页 |
| Chapter Four RESEARCH METHODOLOGY | 第46-58页 |
| ·Research Questions | 第46页 |
| ·Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA) | 第46-47页 |
| ·Data Collection | 第47-50页 |
| ·The Analytical Tool and The Analyzing Procedure | 第50-56页 |
| ·Collostructional Analysis | 第50-52页 |
| ·Collexeme Analysis | 第52-53页 |
| ·Cluster Analysis | 第53-55页 |
| ·The Analytical Tool | 第55-56页 |
| ·Summary | 第56-58页 |
| Chapter Five RESULTS AND DISCUSSION | 第58-80页 |
| ·Collexemes in N-be-that Construction | 第58-63页 |
| ·Raw Frequencies of Noun Collexemes | 第58-60页 |
| ·Collostruction Strength of Noun Collexemes | 第60-63页 |
| ·The Characteristics of Shell Nouns in N-be-that Construction | 第63-68页 |
| ·Classifications of Shell Nouns in N-be-that Construction | 第64-66页 |
| ·Characteristics of Shell Nouns in N-be-that Construction | 第66-68页 |
| ·Cluster Analysis of N-be-that Construction | 第68-74页 |
| ·The 30 Top Nouns in N-be-that Construction | 第68-71页 |
| ·Semantic Features of N-be-that construction | 第71-74页 |
| ·The Formation of N-be-that Construction | 第74-78页 |
| ·Summary | 第78-80页 |
| Chapter Six CONCLUSION | 第80-84页 |
| ·Major Findings of the Research | 第80-81页 |
| ·Implications of the Research | 第81-82页 |
| ·Limitations of the Research and Suggestions for Further Research | 第82-84页 |
| REFERENCES | 第84-91页 |
| 附录： 作者在攻读硕士学位期间发表的论文 | 第91页 |
