| Abstract (in Chinese) | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract (in English) | 第7-9页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第9-12页 |
| List of abbreviations | 第12页 |
| List of figures | 第12-13页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第13-22页 |
| 1．1 Introduction to Indirectness in Conversation | 第13-16页 |
| 1．1．1 Conversational Implicature | 第13-15页 |
| 1．1．2 The functions of Indirectness in Conversation | 第15-16页 |
| 1．2 Introduction to Style | 第16-18页 |
| 1．3 Introduction to the Rationale and Significance of the Present Study | 第18-20页 |
| 1．4 Introduction to the Thesis | 第20-22页 |
| 1．4．1 Date Collection and Research Method | 第20页 |
| 1．4．2 Objective of the Present Study | 第20-21页 |
| 1．4．3 Outline of the Thesis | 第21-22页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第22-31页 |
| 2．1 The Code Model | 第22-24页 |
| 2．2 Grice's Theory of Conversational Implicature | 第24-28页 |
| 2．3 Searle's ISAs Theory | 第28页 |
| 2．4 The Politeness Theories | 第28-31页 |
| Chapter 3 The Theoretical Framework | 第31-42页 |
| 3．1 Relevance Theory | 第31-39页 |
| 3．1．1 Cognitive Environment and Mutual Manifestness | 第34-35页 |
| 3．1．2 Explicature and Implicature | 第35-38页 |
| 3．1．3 Relevance Theory and Verbal Understanding | 第38-39页 |
| 3．2 Relations between Relevance Theory and Style | 第39-42页 |
| Chapter 4 An Analysis of Indirect Answers | 第42-72页 |
| 4．1 The Definition of Indirect Answer to Information-Seeking Question | 第42-46页 |
| 4．2 Motivations in Producing Indirect Answer | 第46-47页 |
| 4．3 Factors Influencing Choices of Indirect Styles | 第47-50页 |
| 4．3．1 S_2' s Assumptions of S_1's Contextual Information | 第47-49页 |
| 4．3．2 S_2's Trusts on S_1's Processing Ability | 第49-50页 |
| 4．4 Analyzing Indirect Styles | 第50-70页 |
| 4．4．1 Types of Indirect Styles | 第50-53页 |
| 4．4．1．1 Type 1 — to Make the Contexts Explicit | 第50-51页 |
| 4．4．1．2 Type 2 — to Make the Contexts Implicit | 第51-53页 |
| 4．4．2 Relations among Indirect Styles | 第53-70页 |
| 4．4．2．1 The Specificity of Lexical Content | 第56-61页 |
| 4．4．2．2 The Determinacy of the Strongest Implicature | 第61-64页 |
| 4．4．2．3 The Degree of Misunderstanding | 第64-66页 |
| 4．4．2．4 The Number of Weak Implicatures | 第66-69页 |
| 4．4．2．5 The Strength of Socio-Psychological Effects Achieved | 第69-70页 |
| 4．5 Summary | 第70-72页 |
| Chapter 5 Conclusion | 第72-75页 |
| 5．1 Major Findings | 第72-73页 |
| 5．2 Limitations of the Study | 第73页 |
| 5．3 Implications and Recommendations | 第73-75页 |
| Works Cited | 第75-78页 |
