| Abstract | 第1-8页 |
| 摘要 | 第8-10页 |
| 1. Introduction | 第10-16页 |
| ·Understanding iconicity | 第11-12页 |
| ·Contentions on the nature of human language: arbitrary or iconic | 第12-14页 |
| ·A conclusion on relation between arbitrariness and iconicity | 第14-15页 |
| ·Objective of this study | 第15-16页 |
| 2. Literature review | 第16-25页 |
| ·Studies of language iconicity abroad | 第16-23页 |
| ·Studies of language iconicity from Chinese linguists | 第23-25页 |
| 3. Theory Perspective | 第25-35页 |
| ·Morphological iconicity | 第25-26页 |
| ·Theory from Charles Sanders Peirce | 第26-30页 |
| ·Exophoric and endophoric iconicity | 第30-31页 |
| ·Ideas from Sebeok's modeling system theory and cognitive linguistics | 第31-35页 |
| 4. Iconicity in Word Forms and Word Meanings of Chinese and English Languages—A Contrastive Study | 第35-86页 |
| ·Different definitions of word in English | 第35页 |
| ·Choosing lexical words | 第35-36页 |
| ·Defining "word" in Chinese | 第36页 |
| ·Iconicity revealed in six categories of Chinese characters (Liu Shu) | 第36-49页 |
| ·Iconicity revealed in Chinese characters | 第40-49页 |
| ·Iconicity revealed in English lexical words | 第49-62页 |
| ·A contrastive discussion | 第62-68页 |
| ·Word meanings from the view of iconicity in English | 第68-77页 |
| ·Word meanings from the view of iconicity in Chinese | 第77-83页 |
| ·A contrastive discussion | 第83-86页 |
| 5. A conclusion of this contrastive study | 第86-95页 |
| Notes | 第95-98页 |
| Bibliography | 第98-102页 |
| Glossary | 第102-104页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第104页 |
