| Acknowledgments | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5-7页 |
| 摘要 | 第7-9页 |
| List of Tables and Figures | 第9-14页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第14-24页 |
| ·Impetus of the study | 第14-16页 |
| ·Assumptions about simile and metaphor | 第16-19页 |
| ·Purpose and rationale of the study | 第19-21页 |
| ·Theoretical foundation of the study | 第21-22页 |
| ·Research methodology | 第22-23页 |
| ·The organization of the dissertation | 第23-24页 |
| Chapter 2 Definition of Simile and Metaphor and Some Related Notions | 第24-34页 |
| ·Definitions of simile and metaphor | 第24-26页 |
| ·Simile in relation to metaphor | 第24-25页 |
| ·Simile as a version of metaphor | 第25-26页 |
| ·Different names for topic and vehicle | 第26-28页 |
| ·Typical and atypical structures | 第28-31页 |
| ·Identification of simile and metaphor | 第31-32页 |
| ·Summary | 第32-34页 |
| Chapter 3 Comparison between Simile, Metaphor and their Literal Counterparts | 第34-45页 |
| ·Indirect process and direct process | 第34-36页 |
| ·Features of simile and metaphor vs. their literal counterparts | 第36-42页 |
| ·Low/high salience vs. high/high salience | 第36-37页 |
| ·Semantic anomaly vs. semantic literality | 第37-39页 |
| ·Interchangeability vs. non-interchangeability | 第39-40页 |
| ·Non-reversibility vs. reversibility | 第40-42页 |
| ·The use of simile and metaphor | 第42-44页 |
| ·Summary | 第44-45页 |
| Chapter 4 A Survey of the Relationship between Simile and Metaphor | 第45-67页 |
| ·The equivalence view | 第45-59页 |
| ·The comparison model | 第45-52页 |
| ·Development of the comparison model | 第47-48页 |
| ·Further studies of the comparison model | 第48-50页 |
| ·Structure-mapping theory | 第50-52页 |
| ·The categorization model | 第52-55页 |
| ·Conceptual metaphor theory | 第55-59页 |
| ·The non-equivalence view | 第59-63页 |
| ·The conventionality model | 第59-61页 |
| ·The literal base model | 第61-63页 |
| ·Empirical studies on the competing views | 第63-65页 |
| ·The conventionality hypothesis | 第63-64页 |
| ·Aptness hypothesis | 第64-65页 |
| ·Summary | 第65-67页 |
| Chapter 5 Research Description | 第67-74页 |
| ·Research questions | 第67页 |
| ·Pilot study | 第67-69页 |
| ·Design of questionnaires | 第69页 |
| ·Participants and role of the researcher | 第69-70页 |
| ·Data process and analysis | 第70-74页 |
| Chapter 6 Experiments and Analyses | 第74-117页 |
| ·Simile attributive and metaphor relational | 第74-83页 |
| ·E xperiment 1 | 第75-78页 |
| ·Results and discussion | 第78-83页 |
| ·Simile less similar and metaphor more similar | 第83-93页 |
| ·Experiment 2 | 第85-86页 |
| ·Results of holistic and discrete similarity rating | 第86-92页 |
| ·Discussion | 第92-93页 |
| ·Simile less familiar and metaphor more familiar | 第93-98页 |
| ·Experiment 3 | 第95页 |
| ·Results and discussion | 第95-98页 |
| ·Simile more symmetric and metaphor more asymmetric | 第98-109页 |
| ·Experiment 4 | 第99-101页 |
| ·Results and discussion of asymmetry ratings | 第101-106页 |
| ·Results and discussion of reversibility | 第106-109页 |
| ·Simile with concrete-concrete pairing and metaphor abstract- concrete pairing | 第109-116页 |
| ·Procedure of the study | 第110-111页 |
| ·Results and discussion | 第111-116页 |
| ·Summary | 第116-117页 |
| Chapter 7 Conclusions | 第117-129页 |
| ·Simile-metaphor distinction | 第117-121页 |
| ·Simile-metaphor overlapping | 第121-123页 |
| ·Simile-metaphor continuum | 第123-125页 |
| ·Theoretical implications | 第125-127页 |
| ·Limitations of the study | 第127-128页 |
| ·Suggestions for future research | 第128-129页 |
| Bibliography | 第129-135页 |
| Appendices | 第135页 |
| Appendix 1 Questionnaire 1 | 第135-141页 |
| Appendix 2 Questionnaire 2 | 第141-155页 |
| Appendix 3 Questionnaire 3 | 第155-164页 |
| Appendix 4 Questionnaire 4 | 第164-174页 |
| Appendix 5 Statistical Results Processed by SPSS | 第174-178页 |
