| Acknowledgement | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract(English) | 第5-8页 |
| Abstract(Chinese) | 第8-14页 |
| List of Figures | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第15-20页 |
| ·Introductory Remarks | 第15页 |
| ·Orientation of the Present Study of Linguistic Politeness | 第15-17页 |
| ·Rationale | 第17-18页 |
| ·Organizational Structure of This Thesis | 第18页 |
| ·Concluding Remarks | 第18-20页 |
| Chapter Two A Synopsis of Politeness Theory | 第20-29页 |
| ·Introduction | 第20页 |
| ·Conceptualizations of Utterance Politeness | 第20-22页 |
| ·The Word “Polite”and the Term “Utterance Politeness” | 第20页 |
| ·Conceptualizing Politeness in the Framework of Social Interaction | 第20-21页 |
| ·Conceptualizing Politeness from a Cognitive Perspective | 第21-22页 |
| ·Various Perspectives on Politeness | 第22-27页 |
| ·Leech and Lakoff’s Conversation-maxim View of Politeness | 第22-24页 |
| ·The Face-saving View of Politeness | 第24-25页 |
| ·The Social-norm View of Politeness | 第25-26页 |
| ·The Conversational-contract View of Politeness | 第26-27页 |
| ·The Relevance-theoretic Approach to Politeness | 第27页 |
| ·Summary | 第27-29页 |
| Chapter Three The Theoretical Framework of Relevance Theory | 第29-37页 |
| ·Introduction | 第29页 |
| ·The Ostensive-inferential Nature of Verbal Communication | 第29-31页 |
| ·Clarifying the Notion of Ostensive-inferential Communication | 第29-30页 |
| ·Intentional Overt Communication | 第30页 |
| ·Verbal Comprehension as a Matter of Inference | 第30-31页 |
| ·Relevance and Verbal Understanding | 第31-32页 |
| ·The Notion of Relevance and Principles of Relevance | 第31-32页 |
| ·The Comprehension Process under the Principle of Relevance | 第32页 |
| ·Dynamic Cognitive Context and Mutual Manifestness | 第32-34页 |
| ·The Notion of Context in Relevance Theory | 第32-33页 |
| ·Developing a Context through Perception | 第33-34页 |
| ·The Concept of Mutual Manifestness | 第34页 |
| ·Explicature vs. Implicature | 第34-36页 |
| ·Notions of Explicature and of Implicature | 第34页 |
| ·Identification of Explicatures | 第34-35页 |
| ·Identification of Implictures | 第35-36页 |
| ·Summary | 第36-37页 |
| Chapter Four Relevance and Ostensive Communication of Utterance Politeness | 第37-52页 |
| ·Introduction | 第37页 |
| ·Relevance of Utterance Politeness | 第37-42页 |
| ·“Irrelevance of Anticipated Politeness” | 第37-38页 |
| ·Relevance at the Interpersonal Level | 第38-40页 |
| ·The Relevance of Politeness Utterance: Case Analyses | 第40-42页 |
| ·Ostensive Communication of Utterance Politeness | 第42-51页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness and Intentionality | 第42-44页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness and Mutual Manifestness | 第44-48页 |
| ·The Attribution of Intention in Understanding Politeness Utterances:Case Analyses | 第48-51页 |
| ·Summary | 第51-52页 |
| Chapter Five RT Account of Utterance Politeness Inferred and Phaticness | 第52-75页 |
| ·Introduction | 第52页 |
| ·The Inferential Process in Understanding Politeness Utterances | 第52-57页 |
| ·The Inferential System | 第52-53页 |
| ·The Social Categorization System | 第53-55页 |
| ·Social Categorization and Inferencing Politeness Utterances | 第55-57页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness as Procedural Meaning | 第57-58页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness Conveyed in the Form of Procedural Meaning | 第57-58页 |
| ·Politeness Expressions of Procedural Meaning | 第58页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness and Explicature | 第58-60页 |
| ·The Meaning of Politeness Utterances as Explicatures | 第58-59页 |
| ·The Meaning of Politeness Utterances as Explicatures: A Study of Case | 第59-60页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness as Implicature | 第60-62页 |
| ·Distinction between Anticipated Politeness and Utterance Politeness as Implicature | 第60-61页 |
| ·Utterance Politeness as Implicature: Two Cases of Study | 第61-62页 |
| ·Dynamic Generation of Context in Understanding Utterance Politeness | 第62-69页 |
| ·Context Selection in Inferring Politeness Utterances | 第62-65页 |
| ·Context Selection in Understanding Utterance Politeness: Two Cases of Study | 第65-69页 |
| ·A Relevance-theoretic Account of Phaticness | 第69-73页 |
| ·Defining Phaticness from Social and Cognitive Perspectives | 第69页 |
| ·Phaticness in Terms of Effect and Effort | 第69-70页 |
| ·Phaticness in Terms of Informative and Communicative Intentions | 第70-73页 |
| ·Summary | 第73-75页 |
| Chapter Six General Conclusions | 第75-79页 |
| ·Concluding Remarks | 第75页 |
| ·Implications | 第75-76页 |
| ·Possible Contributions to the Present Study | 第76-77页 |
| ·Limitations of the Present Thesis and Suggestions for Further Research | 第77-79页 |
| References | 第79-82页 |
