| Abstract | 第1-5页 |
| 摘要 | 第5-8页 |
| Chapter One Introduction | 第8-12页 |
| ·A General Description of Irony | 第8-9页 |
| ·The Necessity and Feasibility of the Study | 第9页 |
| ·The Objective of the Study | 第9-10页 |
| ·The Organization of the Thesis | 第10-12页 |
| Chapter Two Irony and the Previous Studies on Irony | 第12-23页 |
| ·Basic Concepts of Irony | 第12-18页 |
| ·The Definitions of Irony | 第12-13页 |
| ·The Classification of Irony | 第13-15页 |
| ·Irony and Some Related Figures of Speech | 第15-18页 |
| ·Approaches to the Analysis of Irony | 第18-21页 |
| ·The Literary and Rhetorical Approach to Irony | 第18页 |
| ·The Semantic Approach to Irony | 第18页 |
| ·The Psycholinguistic Approach to Irony | 第18-19页 |
| ·The Pragmatic Approach to Irony | 第19-21页 |
| ·Summary | 第21-23页 |
| Chapter Three The Adaptation Theory as the Theoretical Framework of the Study on Irony | 第23-31页 |
| ·A Brief Introduction to the Adaptation Theory | 第23-25页 |
| ·Verschueren’s pragmatic perspective | 第23页 |
| ·Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory | 第23-24页 |
| ·The Appropriateness of the Adaptation Theory for the Present Study | 第24-25页 |
| ·Irony as a Result of Making Choices | 第25-27页 |
| ·Irony as a Product of Adaptation | 第27-28页 |
| ·Irony and the Four Angles of the Adaptation Theory | 第28-30页 |
| ·Summary | 第30-31页 |
| Chapter Four Irony as the Realization of Adaptation | 第31-58页 |
| ·Contextual Correlates of Adaptability | 第31-32页 |
| ·Irony and the Communicative Context | 第32-47页 |
| ·Irony and the Utterer and Interpreter’s Mental World | 第33-40页 |
| ·Irony and the Utterer and Interpreter’s Social World | 第40-44页 |
| ·Irony and the Utterer and Interpreter’s Physical World | 第44-47页 |
| ·Irony and the Linguistic Context | 第47-49页 |
| ·Irony and Salience | 第49-57页 |
| ·The Definition of Salience | 第50-52页 |
| ·Degrees of Salience in the Realization of Irony | 第52-57页 |
| ·Summary | 第57-58页 |
| Chapter 5 Conclusion | 第58-61页 |
| ·The Major Findings of This Study | 第58-59页 |
| ·The Implications for Future Research | 第59-61页 |
| Bibliography | 第61-64页 |
| Acknowledgement | 第64-65页 |
