| Acknowledgements | 第1-4页 |
| Chinese Abstract | 第4-5页 |
| English Abstract | 第5-9页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第9-14页 |
| ·The Ubiquity of Irony | 第9-10页 |
| ·The Purpose of the Thesis | 第10-11页 |
| ·The Organization of the Thesis | 第11-14页 |
| Chapter 2 Notion of Irony | 第14-31页 |
| ·Introduction | 第14页 |
| ·Diversity of the Definition of Irony | 第14-18页 |
| ·Classical Rhetorical View on Irony | 第14-16页 |
| ·Dictionary Definitions of Irony | 第16-18页 |
| ·Diachronic Evolution of Irony | 第18-19页 |
| ·Irony, Sarcasm and Satire | 第19-22页 |
| ·Classification of Irony | 第22-29页 |
| ·Intentional Goal/Plan irony, Serendipitous Goal/Plan Ironyand Competence Irony | 第23-24页 |
| ·Socratic Irony, Dramatic Irony and Irony of Fate | 第24-26页 |
| ·Verbal Irony vs. Situational Irony | 第26-27页 |
| ·Semantic Features of Irony | 第27-29页 |
| ·Summary | 第29-31页 |
| Chapter 3 Nature and Pragmatics of Irony | 第31-52页 |
| ·Introduction | 第31-32页 |
| ·Manifold Views on the Nature of Irony | 第32-42页 |
| ·Irony as Negation | 第32-33页 |
| ·Irony as Violation of Quality: Gricean Model | 第33-34页 |
| ·Irony as Indirect Negation | 第34-35页 |
| ·Irony as an (Insincere) Speech Act | 第35-37页 |
| ·Irony as Echoic Mention/Interpretation | 第37-39页 |
| ·Pretense Theory of Irony | 第39-41页 |
| ·Irony as Implicit Display of Ironic Environment | 第41-42页 |
| ·Pragmatics of Irony | 第42-51页 |
| ·CP, PP & IP | 第43-44页 |
| ·Pragmatic Functions of Irony | 第44-51页 |
| ·Littman et. al.’s View on Pragmatic Functions of Irony | 第45-48页 |
| ·Other Views on Pragmatic Functions of Irony | 第48-49页 |
| ·Distinct Psychological Effects of Indirectand direct Language | 第49-51页 |
| ·Summary | 第51-52页 |
| Chapter 4 Processing of Irony | 第52-82页 |
| ·Introduction | 第52-53页 |
| ·Characteristics of the Thinking Pattern of Irony | 第53-54页 |
| ·Two Opposing Views on Irony Processing | 第54-63页 |
| ·Modular Model of Irony | 第55-59页 |
| ·Standard Pragmatic Model of Irony - Grice’s View | 第56-57页 |
| ·Graded Salience Hypothesis on Irony | 第57-59页 |
| ·Direct Access View on Irony | 第59-63页 |
| ·Conventional Meaning Model -Gibbs’ View | 第59-61页 |
| ·Echoic Mention/Interpretation Theory | 第61-63页 |
| ·Implicit Display Theory of Verbal Irony | 第63-76页 |
| ·Notion of Implicit Display | 第64-67页 |
| ·Three Components of an Ironic Environment | 第64-65页 |
| ·Realization of Implicit Display - Three Forms | 第65-67页 |
| ·Prototype-based View of Irony | 第67-69页 |
| ·A Case Analysis in Terms of Implicit Display Theory | 第69-73页 |
| ·Three Components of the Ironic Environmentin ‘Yanzi in Chu’ | 第69-70页 |
| ·Three Typicality Conditions -Realization of Implicit Display | 第70-73页 |
| ·Comment on Implicit Display Theory of Irony | 第73-76页 |
| ·Irony and Discourse Comprehension in ESL/EFL Teaching | 第76-80页 |
| ·Summary | 第80-82页 |
| Chapter 5 Irony and its Pragmatic Meaning - A Conclusion | 第82-86页 |
| ·Summary of the Study | 第82-83页 |
| ·Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research | 第83-86页 |
| Bibliography | 第86-89页 |
