| Acknowledgments | 第1-4页 |
| ABSTRACT | 第4-8页 |
| 摘要 | 第8-11页 |
| LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS | 第11-12页 |
| LIST OF FIGURES | 第12-13页 |
| LIST OF TABLES | 第13-21页 |
| CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION | 第21-36页 |
| ·THE SUBJECT OF THE RESEARCH | 第21-24页 |
| ·The Ba-construction in discourse | 第21-23页 |
| ·The diachronic development of the Ba-construction | 第23-24页 |
| ·THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS | 第24-30页 |
| ·Language as a communicative instrument—Functionalism in linguistics | 第24-26页 |
| ·Language as a cognitive activity — Cognitive linguistics | 第26-27页 |
| ·A functional-cognitive integrated approach | 第27-30页 |
| ·RESEARCH OBJECTIVES | 第30-31页 |
| ·RESEARCH APPROACHES | 第31-34页 |
| ·Research approach to the meaning of the Ba-construction | 第31-32页 |
| ·Research approach to the English realizations of the Ba-construction | 第32-34页 |
| ·OUTLINE OF THE STUDY | 第34-36页 |
| CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF LITERATURE | 第36-64页 |
| ·IDEATIONAL MEANING | 第37-45页 |
| ·Disposal and verb | 第37-40页 |
| ·Disposal and verb-object relations | 第40-41页 |
| ·Topic-comment approach | 第41-42页 |
| ·Cognitive approaches | 第42-45页 |
| ·INTERPERSONAL MEANING | 第45-48页 |
| ·TEXTUAL MEANING | 第48-57页 |
| ·The information structure of the Ba-construction | 第48-52页 |
| ·The cohesive function of the Ba-construction | 第52-54页 |
| ·The semantic context of the Ba-construction | 第54-57页 |
| ·SUMMARY AND CRITICAL EVALUATION | 第57-64页 |
| ·Summary of understandings of the meaning of the Ba-construction | 第57-59页 |
| ·Critical evaluations of the previous studies | 第59-64页 |
| CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS | 第64-87页 |
| ·SOME HYPOTHESES OF THE MEANING OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION | 第64-68页 |
| ·General hypotheses | 第64-66页 |
| ·Specific hypotheses | 第66-68页 |
| ·RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS | 第68-85页 |
| ·Causative semantics and the ideational meaning of the Ba-construction | 第68-78页 |
| ·Appraisal Theory and the interpersonal meaning of the Ba-construction | 第78-82页 |
| ·Discourse measurements of topic continuity and the textual meaning of the Ba-construction | 第82-85页 |
| ·SUMMARY | 第85-87页 |
| CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY | 第87-137页 |
| ·RESEARCH QUESTIONS | 第87-88页 |
| ·DATA | 第88-90页 |
| ·Chinese-to-English Translation Corpus I | 第89页 |
| ·Chinese-to-English Translation Corpus II | 第89-90页 |
| ·The English-to-Chinese parallel corpus | 第90页 |
| ·VARIABLES DESIGN | 第90-129页 |
| ·Variables for describing Chinese data | 第91-124页 |
| ·Variables for describing English data | 第124-129页 |
| ·RESEARCH PROCEDURE | 第129-137页 |
| ·Sample collection | 第130-131页 |
| ·Variable application | 第131-133页 |
| ·Data treatment | 第133-137页 |
| CHAPTER FIVE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION | 第137-218页 |
| ·INVESTIGATION OF THE IDEATIONAL MEANING OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION AND ITS ENGLISH REALIZATIONS | 第137-199页 |
| ·General observation and discussion | 第137-140页 |
| ·Description of the Ba-construction with different causative semantic features and its potential English realizations | 第140-196页 |
| ·Summary | 第196-199页 |
| ·INVESTIGATION OF THE ATTITUDINAL MEANING OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION AND ITS ENGLISH REALIZATIONS | 第199-205页 |
| ·General observation and discussion | 第199-201页 |
| ·Description of the attitudes generally conveyed by the Ba-construction | 第201-204页 |
| ·Summary | 第204-205页 |
| ·INVESTIGATION OF THE TEXTUAL MEANING OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION AND ITS ENGLISH REALIZATIONS | 第205-213页 |
| ·General observation and discussion | 第205-208页 |
| ·Description of the main topics in the Ba-construction and their discourse behaviors | 第208-212页 |
| ·Summary | 第212-213页 |
| ·GENERAL DISCUSSION: THE MEANING OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION AND ITS DISTINCTIVENESS | 第213-215页 |
| ·GENERAL DISCUSSION: THE ROLE OF THE BA-CONSTRUCTION IN MODERN CHINESE | 第215-218页 |
| CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION | 第218-226页 |
| ·SUMMARY | 第218-220页 |
| ·Answers to Research Question One | 第218-219页 |
| ·Answers to Research Question Two | 第219-220页 |
| ·IMPLICATIONS | 第220-224页 |
| ·Implication of the research approach | 第220-221页 |
| ·Implication of the empirical research method | 第221-222页 |
| ·Implication of the contrastive study | 第222-224页 |
| ·LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS | 第224-226页 |
| ·Limitations of the present study | 第224页 |
| ·Recommendations for future research | 第224-226页 |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 第226-235页 |
| APPENDICES | 第235-238页 |
| PUBLICATIONS | 第238-240页 |
