| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5-7页 |
| 摘要 | 第7-8页 |
| Contents | 第8-10页 |
| List of Tables | 第10-11页 |
| List of Abbreviations | 第11-12页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第12-15页 |
| ·Background of the study | 第12-13页 |
| ·Necessity & significance of the study | 第13页 |
| ·Objectives of the study | 第13-14页 |
| ·Organization of the thesis | 第14页 |
| ·Summary | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter Two Literature Review | 第15-27页 |
| ·Business Letters | 第15-16页 |
| ·Definition of the business letters | 第15页 |
| ·Functions of the business letters | 第15-16页 |
| ·Classification of the business letters | 第16页 |
| ·Speech Acts | 第16-25页 |
| ·Austin's contribution to the speech act theory | 第17-18页 |
| ·Searle's development of the speech act theory | 第18-21页 |
| ·Searle's view of the speech act theory | 第18-20页 |
| ·Searle's felicity condition on speech acts | 第20页 |
| ·Searle's classification of illocutionary acts | 第20-21页 |
| ·Direct vs indirect speech acts | 第21-25页 |
| ·Direct speech act | 第22页 |
| ·Indirect speech act | 第22-24页 |
| ·Types of indirect speech acts | 第24页 |
| ·Indirectness and politeness | 第24-25页 |
| ·Business letters and speech act theory relevant studies | 第25-26页 |
| ·Summary | 第26-27页 |
| Chapter Three Methodology | 第27-30页 |
| ·Research questions | 第27页 |
| ·Research materials | 第27-28页 |
| ·Data and analysis procedures | 第28-29页 |
| ·Summary | 第29-30页 |
| Chapter Four Results & Disscussion | 第30-50页 |
| ·Speech acts in letters of payments | 第30-39页 |
| ·Pragamatic stragegies in letters of payments | 第39-49页 |
| ·Assertives in English business letters of payments | 第39-41页 |
| ·Being accurate and concrete | 第39-40页 |
| ·Using passive voice | 第40页 |
| ·Using Arabic figures | 第40页 |
| ·Avoiding using You-Language | 第40-41页 |
| ·Using abbreviation | 第41页 |
| ·Dirctives in English business letters of payments | 第41-48页 |
| ·Sequence of dirctive speech acts | 第41页 |
| ·Directive strategies | 第41-44页 |
| ·Directive strategies identified in the corpus | 第44-48页 |
| ·Commissives in English business letters of payments | 第48-49页 |
| ·Declarations in English business letters of payments | 第49页 |
| ·Expressives in English business letters of payments | 第49页 |
| ·Summary | 第49-50页 |
| Chapter Five Conclusion | 第50-53页 |
| ·Major findings of the study | 第50页 |
| ·Implications of the study | 第50-51页 |
| ·Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research | 第51-52页 |
| ·Summary | 第52-53页 |
| Bibliography | 第53-56页 |
| Appendix | 第56-84页 |
| Publications | 第84页 |
