| Acknowledgements | 第5-6页 |
| ABSTRACT | 第6-7页 |
| 摘要 | 第8-17页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第17-24页 |
| 1.1 The significance of collocation | 第17-18页 |
| 1.2 The study of degree adverbs from a collocational perspective | 第18-20页 |
| 1.3 Scope and objectives of the study | 第20-23页 |
| 1.4 Outline of the dissertation | 第23-24页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature review | 第24-55页 |
| 2.1 Theoretical and empirical studies on collocation | 第24-34页 |
| 2.1.1 Research traditions of collocation | 第24-26页 |
| 2.1.2 Definition of collocation | 第26-30页 |
| 2.1.2.1 Various definitions of collocation | 第26-29页 |
| 2.1.2.2 Defining features of collocation | 第29-30页 |
| 2.1.3 Extraction of collocations | 第30-32页 |
| 2.1.4 The nature of collocation restrictions | 第32-34页 |
| 2.1.5 Summary | 第34页 |
| 2.2 Definition and classification of degree adverbs | 第34-44页 |
| 2.2.1 Definition of degree adverbs | 第34-38页 |
| 2.2.2 Classification of degree adverbs | 第38-44页 |
| 2.2.2.1 Classification of degree adverbs in English | 第38-40页 |
| 2.2.2.2 Classification of degree adverbs in Chinese | 第40-44页 |
| 2.3 Previous research on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs | 第44-55页 |
| 2.3.1 Previous research on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in English | 第44-48页 |
| 2.3.2 Previous research on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in Chinese | 第48-53页 |
| 2.3.3 Summary | 第53-55页 |
| Chapter 3 Methodological considerations | 第55-63页 |
| 3.1 Contrastive approach | 第55-56页 |
| 3.2 Intuition-based plus corpus-based approach | 第56-58页 |
| 3.3 Qualitative plus quantitative analysis | 第58页 |
| 3.4 Selection of corpora | 第58-63页 |
| 3.4.1 BNC | 第59-60页 |
| 3.4.2 BNC baby | 第60页 |
| 3.4.3 LCMC | 第60-61页 |
| 3.4.4 Other corpora: CCL and some parallel corpora | 第61-63页 |
| Chapter 4 Semantic restrictions on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs | 第63-136页 |
| 4.1 Introduction | 第63-64页 |
| 4.2 The (un)boundedness of verbs | 第64-75页 |
| 4.2.1 The (un)boundedness of events with reference to time | 第65-71页 |
| 4.2.1.1 The conceptualization of boundedness of events | 第65页 |
| 4.2.1.2 The linguistic instantiation of boundedness of events | 第65-71页 |
| 4.2.2 The (un)boundedness events with reference to degree | 第71-74页 |
| 4.2.3 Summary | 第74-75页 |
| 4.3 A corpus-based investigation of the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in English | 第75-94页 |
| 4.3.1 Maximal degree adverbs: completely, absolutely, fully, entirely, totally, perfectly | 第75-80页 |
| 4.3.2 Approximatives: almost, nearly, virtually and practically | 第80-86页 |
| 4.3.3 Boosters: greatly, much and very much | 第86-89页 |
| 4.3.4 Moderators：fairly, pretty, rather, and quite | 第89-92页 |
| 4.3.5 Minimal degree adverbs: slightly | 第92-93页 |
| 4.3.6 Summary | 第93-94页 |
| 4.4 A corpus-based investigation of the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in Chinese | 第94-116页 |
| 4.4.1 Maximal degree adverbs: wanquan | 第94-99页 |
| 4.4.2 Approximatives: jihu, chadianr, chabuduo | 第99-106页 |
| 4.4.3 Boosters: hen, feichang, tai, ji, shifen | 第106-110页 |
| 4.4.4 Moderators: bijiao and jiao | 第110页 |
| 4.4.5 Minimal degree adverbs: youdian, shao, lue, shaoshao, shaowei, luewei | 第110-116页 |
| 4.5 A contrastive analysis of semantic restrictions on the collocations of degree adverbs with verbs in English and Chinese | 第116-134页 |
| 4.5.1 The similarities | 第116-127页 |
| 4.5.1.1 The principle of type matching | 第116-123页 |
| 4.5.1.2 The (un)boundedness of nominals with quantifiers | 第123-124页 |
| 4.5.1.3 Coercion | 第124-127页 |
| 4.5.2 The differences | 第127-134页 |
| 4.5.2.1 Debounding by means of quantifiers | 第127-130页 |
| 4.5.2.2 Tolerance for coercion | 第130-134页 |
| 4.6 Summary | 第134-136页 |
| Chapter 5 Structural restrictions on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs | 第136-170页 |
| 5.1 Introduction | 第136-137页 |
| 5.2 The word order and grammatical functions of degree adverbs with relevance tverbs | 第137-145页 |
| 5.3 Case studies of collocations of degree adverbs with verb phrases in Chinese and their English equivalence | 第145-169页 |
| 5.3.1 The collocation of degree adverbs with periphrastic causatives | 第145-157页 |
| 5.3.1.1 Introduction | 第145-146页 |
| 5.3.1.2 The semantic features of Chinese periphrastic constructions compatible with degree adverbs | 第146-148页 |
| 5.3.1.3 A contrastive analysis of Chinese and English periphrastic causatives with regard to psychological verbs | 第148-154页 |
| 5.3.1.4 A preliminary explanation of the collocation of degree adverbs with periphrastic constructions | 第154-157页 |
| 5.3.2 The collocation of degree adverbs with modal auxiliary verbs | 第157-169页 |
| 5.3.2.1 The definition and classification of modal auxiliary verbs | 第157-159页 |
| 5.3.2.2 The difference between Chinese and English degree adverbs with 1egard to their collocability with modal auxiliaries | 第159-161页 |
| 5.3.2.3 The semantics of Chinese modal auxiliaries and their collocation with degree adverbs | 第161-169页 |
| 5.4 Summary | 第169-170页 |
| Chapter 6 Prosodic restrictions on the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs | 第170-194页 |
| 6.1 Introduction | 第170-172页 |
| 6.2 The interaction between rhythm and syntax in English and Chinese | 第172-175页 |
| 6.3 The collocation of Chinese degree adverbs in terms of syllables | 第175-184页 |
| 6.3.1 Findings from the corpus of LCMC | 第175-179页 |
| 6.3.2 The choice of monosyllabic or disyllabic degree adverbs | 第179-181页 |
| 6.3.3 The disyllabification of degree adverbs in Chinese | 第181-184页 |
| 6.4 The addition and omission of function words | 第184-189页 |
| 6.5 Prosodic restrictions on collocations of degree adverbs in English | 第189-191页 |
| 6.6 A preliminary explanation of the different role of prosodic constraints on collocations in English and Chinese | 第191-193页 |
| 6.7 Summary | 第193-194页 |
| Chapter 7 Conclusion | 第194-200页 |
| 7.1 Summary of findings and discussion | 第194-197页 |
| 7.2 Implications of this study | 第197页 |
| 7.3 Limitations of this study | 第197-198页 |
| 7.4 Suggestions for further research | 第198-200页 |
| References | 第200-210页 |
| Appendices | 第210-224页 |
| 攻读博士学位期间发表的学术论文目录 | 第224页 |
