| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract | 第5-7页 |
| 摘要 | 第7-11页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第11-15页 |
| ·Research Background | 第11-12页 |
| ·Significance of the Research | 第12-13页 |
| ·Research Design | 第13-14页 |
| ·Organization of the Thesis | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第15-31页 |
| ·Overview of Speech Act Theory | 第15-16页 |
| ·Previous Studies on Politeness | 第16-22页 |
| ·Brown and Levinson's Face-saving Theory | 第16-17页 |
| ·Leech's Politeness Principle | 第17-18页 |
| ·Gu Yueguo's Politeness Maxims in Chinese Context | 第18-20页 |
| ·Differences between the Western and Chinese Concepts of Politeness | 第20-22页 |
| ·Previous Studies on Compliment Responses | 第22-31页 |
| ·Conversational Analysis Studies | 第22-24页 |
| ·Pragmatic Studies | 第24-26页 |
| ·Sociolinguistic Studies | 第26-27页 |
| ·Contrastive Studies | 第27-29页 |
| ·Comment on the Methods of Data Collection | 第29-31页 |
| Chapter 3 Methodology | 第31-39页 |
| ·Purpose of the Research | 第31页 |
| ·Research Instrument | 第31-32页 |
| ·DCT Questionnaire | 第31-32页 |
| ·Natural Observation | 第32页 |
| ·Participants | 第32-33页 |
| ·Procedures for Data Collection | 第33-34页 |
| ·Procedure for DCT Questionnaire | 第33-34页 |
| ·Procedure for Natural Observation | 第34页 |
| ·Data Coding Scheme | 第34-39页 |
| Chapter 4 Results and Discussion | 第39-54页 |
| ·The Overall Distribution of Compliment Response Strategies by Native English and Chinese Speakers | 第39-41页 |
| ·Different Distributions of Compliment Responses on Different Compliment Topics | 第41-43页 |
| ·Different Distributions of Compliment Responses by Different Age Groups | 第43-45页 |
| ·Different Distributions of Responses to Compliments from Different Social Status | 第45-46页 |
| ·Discussion | 第46-54页 |
| ·Individualism vs. Collectivism | 第47-48页 |
| ·Modesty vs. Self-denigration | 第48-49页 |
| ·Face vs. Lian/Mianzi | 第49-51页 |
| ·Solidarity vs. Power | 第51-54页 |
| Chapter 5 Conclusion | 第54-59页 |
| ·Major Findings | 第54-55页 |
| ·Implications and Suggestions | 第55-58页 |
| ·Implications for Intercultural Communication | 第55-57页 |
| ·Implications for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning | 第57-58页 |
| ·Limitations | 第58-59页 |
| Bibliography | 第59-64页 |
| Appendix Ⅰ DCT (English Version) | 第64-65页 |
| Appendix Ⅱ DCT (Chinese Version) | 第65-66页 |
| Papers Published | 第66页 |
