| Abstract in English | 第1-9页 |
| Abstract in Chinese | 第9-10页 |
| Introduction | 第10-13页 |
| The Goal of the Thesis | 第10页 |
| The Overall Structure of the Thesis | 第10-13页 |
| Chapter One Literature Review | 第13-22页 |
| ·A Historical Review of Ambiguity | 第13-16页 |
| ·Definitions of Ambiguity | 第16-17页 |
| ·Classifications of Ambiguity | 第17-20页 |
| ·Phonological Ambiguity | 第18-19页 |
| ·Lexical Ambiguity | 第19-20页 |
| ·Syntactic Ambiguity | 第20页 |
| ·Summary | 第20-22页 |
| Chapter Two Theoretical Foundation | 第22-33页 |
| ·Theory of Rank Scale | 第22页 |
| ·Theory of Metafunction | 第22-32页 |
| ·The Ideational Metafunction | 第23-30页 |
| ·Material Processes | 第25页 |
| ·Mental Processes | 第25-26页 |
| ·Relational Processes | 第26-28页 |
| ·Behavioral Processes | 第28-29页 |
| ·Verbal Processes | 第29-30页 |
| ·Existential Processes | 第30页 |
| ·Interpersonal Metafunction | 第30-31页 |
| ·Textual Metafunction | 第31-32页 |
| ·Summary | 第32-33页 |
| Chapter Three The Nature of Ambiguity | 第33-36页 |
| ·Form and Meaning | 第33页 |
| ·Metaphor | 第33-34页 |
| ·Grammatical Metaphor | 第34-35页 |
| ·Summary | 第35-36页 |
| Chapter Four A Metafunctional Interpretation of Ambiguity in Terms of Different Ranks | 第36-56页 |
| ·Rank Shift | 第36-39页 |
| ·Language Unit Acting as Both the Functional Element of Phrase and That of Non-Finite Clause | 第36-37页 |
| ·Language Unit Acting as Both the Functional Element of Phrase and That of Finite Clause | 第37-38页 |
| ·Language Unit Acting as Both the Functional Element of Phrase and That of Clause Complex | 第38-39页 |
| ·Ambiguity at the Rank of Morpheme and Word | 第39-40页 |
| ·Ambiguity at the Rank of Phrase | 第40-42页 |
| ·Having the Same Logical Function but Different Experiential Function | 第40-41页 |
| ·Having Different Logic Function and Different Experiential Function | 第41-42页 |
| ·Ambiguity at the Rank of Clause | 第42-54页 |
| ·Multifunctional Interpretation of Ambiguity | 第42-43页 |
| ·A Clause Realizing Both Ideational and Interpersonal Functions | 第42页 |
| ·A Clause Realizing Both Ideational and Textual Functions | 第42-43页 |
| ·Ideational Ambiguity | 第43-51页 |
| ·Ambiguity Reflected by Indeterminacy of Process | 第43-46页 |
| ·Ambiguity Reflected by the Indeterminacy of Participant Role in a Certain Process | 第46-51页 |
| ·Interpersonal Ambiguity | 第51-54页 |
| ·Mood Ambiguity | 第52页 |
| ·Modality Ambiguity | 第52-53页 |
| ·An Integrated Ambiguity | 第53-54页 |
| ·Textual Ambiguity | 第54页 |
| ·Summary | 第54-56页 |
| Conclusion | 第56-58页 |
| Bibliography | 第58-62页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第62-63页 |
| 学位论文评阅及答辩情况表 | 第63页 |
