| 中文摘要 | 第4-6页 |
| Abstract | 第6-7页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第8-16页 |
| Chapter 1: Introduction | 第16-28页 |
| 1.1 Research Background | 第18-19页 |
| 1.2 Research Object and Questions | 第19-20页 |
| 1.3 Methodology | 第20-25页 |
| 1.3.1 Corpus Analysis Method | 第21-24页 |
| 1.3.2.1 Data Source | 第21-22页 |
| 1.3.2.2 Data Collection and Analysis | 第22-24页 |
| 1.3.2 Induction and Deduction | 第24-25页 |
| 1.4 Research Significance | 第25-26页 |
| 1.5 Thesis Organization | 第26-28页 |
| Chapter 2: Literature Review | 第28-46页 |
| 2.1 Structural Linguistics-Based Study of before | 第28-31页 |
| 2.2 The Non-Cognitivism Semantic Analysis of before | 第31-37页 |
| 2.3 Cognitive Linguistics-Based Study of before | 第37-46页 |
| Chapter 3: A Syntactic Analysis of X before Y Construction | 第46-102页 |
| 3.1 Theoretical Foundation | 第46-58页 |
| 3.1.1 Goldberg's (1995,2006) Construction Grammar | 第46-53页 |
| 3.1.2 Langacker's (2008) Cognitive Grammar | 第53-58页 |
| 3.2 Three Parts of Speech of before: Preposition, Adverb and Conjunction | 第58-61页 |
| 3.3 Syntactic Features of before as a Preposition | 第61-80页 |
| 3.3.1 The Syntactic Structure of X before Y construction | 第62-75页 |
| 3.3.1.1 The Syntactic Forms Following before | 第62-71页 |
| 3.3.1.2 The Pre-before Structures | 第71-75页 |
| 3.3.1.3 Frequently Used Modifiers of before and Fixed Collocations of before | 第75页 |
| 3.3.2 The Syntactic Functions Within X before Y Construction | 第75-79页 |
| 3.3.2.1 The Syntactic Functions of before Y Structure | 第76-77页 |
| 3.3.2.2 Before Y Structure in Cleft Construction | 第77-78页 |
| 3.3.2.3 Negation of X before Y Construction | 第78-79页 |
| 3.3.3 The Syntactic Positions of before Y Structure | 第79-80页 |
| 3.4 Syntactic Features of before as an Adverb | 第80-90页 |
| 3.4.1 The Syntactic Structure of before | 第80-85页 |
| 3.4.1.1 The Syntactic Components of before | 第80-81页 |
| 3.4.1.2 Tense, Aspect, Modality and Mood of before | 第81-83页 |
| 3.4.1.3 Fixed Collocations of before | 第83-85页 |
| 3.4.2 The Syntactic Function of X before Y construction | 第85-90页 |
| 3.4.2.1 The Modifying Function of before Structure | 第85-86页 |
| 3.4.2.2 The Syntactic Position of before Structure | 第86-89页 |
| 3.4.2.3 Negation | 第89-90页 |
| 3.5 Syntactic Features of before as a Conjunction | 第90-100页 |
| 3.5.1 The Syntactic Structure of before | 第90-92页 |
| 3.5.2 The Syntactic Function of before | 第92-95页 |
| 3.5.2.1 X before Y construction in Cleft Structure | 第92-94页 |
| 3.5.2.2 Negation | 第94-95页 |
| 3.5.3 The Syntactic Positions of before Structure | 第95-96页 |
| 3.5.4 Tense, Aspect, Modality and Mood of the Conjunction Based X before Yconstruction | 第96-100页 |
| 3.6 Adverb and Conjunction Based X before Y Constructions as Extensions ofPreposition Based X before Y Construction | 第100-102页 |
| Chapter 4: A Semantic Analysis of X before Y Construction | 第102-134页 |
| 4.1 The Etymology of before | 第104-105页 |
| 4.2 The Domain of Spatial Semantic of before | 第105-111页 |
| 4.2.1 The Semantic Features | 第107-108页 |
| 4.2.2 The Difference Between the Spatial Preposition before and in front of | 第108-111页 |
| 4.3 The Domain of Temporal Semantic of before | 第111-121页 |
| 4.3.1 The Semantic Features | 第112-114页 |
| 4.3.2 The (Non-)veridical Implications of X before Y | 第114-117页 |
| 4.3.3 Before- VS After-, When- and Until-Clauses | 第117-119页 |
| 4.3.4 The (A)symmetry Between before- and after-Clauses | 第119-121页 |
| 4.3.4.1 The Symmetry Between X before Y and Y after X | 第119-120页 |
| 4.3.4.2 The Asymmetry Between X before Y and Y after X | 第120-121页 |
| 4.4 The Extension to Priority Interpretation Within the Temporal Domain | 第121-124页 |
| 4.5 The Extension to Condition Interpretation Within the Temporal Domain | 第124-128页 |
| 4.6 The Extension to the Purpose of Avoidance Interpretation Within the TemporalDomain | 第128-131页 |
| 4.7 Summary | 第131-134页 |
| Chapter 5 Conclusion | 第134-136页 |
| References | 第136-143页 |
| Appendix 1 Before as a Preposition | 第143-149页 |
| Appendix 2 Before as an Adverb | 第149-150页 |
| Appendix 3 Before as a Conjunction | 第150-151页 |
