| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| Abstract (English version) | 第5-7页 |
| Abstract (Chinese version) | 第7-10页 |
| List of Figures | 第10-11页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第11-15页 |
| ·Need for the Study | 第11-13页 |
| ·Aims of the Study | 第13-14页 |
| ·Organization of the Thesis | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter 2 Restrictions on Noun Phrases in ETS: An Overview | 第15-31页 |
| ·Definition of Existential-There Sentence | 第15-16页 |
| ·Definiteness Effect in ETS | 第16-24页 |
| ·Semantic approach | 第17-19页 |
| ·Syntactic approach | 第19-21页 |
| ·Pragmatic approach | 第21-24页 |
| ·Topic Restriction | 第24-29页 |
| ·Exceptions to Definiteness Effect: a brief survey | 第24-26页 |
| ·Topic Restriction in functional grammar | 第26-29页 |
| ·Summary | 第29-31页 |
| Chapter 3 Nominals in ETS: A Cognitive Grammatical Approach | 第31-42页 |
| ·A Cognitive Grammatical Approach to ETS | 第31-38页 |
| ·Fundamental concepts in cognitive grammar | 第31-33页 |
| ·Sentence structure in cognitive grammar | 第33-35页 |
| ·ETS as a marked sentence | 第35-38页 |
| ·Complex Nominal Constructions in ETS and Their Functions | 第38-41页 |
| ·Summary | 第41-42页 |
| Chapter 4 Discourse Environment of ETS and Felicitous Conditions of Nominals | 第42-66页 |
| ·Cognitive Environment of Nominals in ETS | 第42-48页 |
| ·Discourse analysis in cognitive grammar | 第42-44页 |
| ·ETS and its nominals in discourse | 第44-48页 |
| ·Felicitous Conditions of Nominals Designating Entities | 第48-59页 |
| ·Entities within a discourse space of present reality | 第48-55页 |
| ·Entities elicited by background knowledge | 第49-50页 |
| ·Entities elicited by encountered discourse experience | 第50-55页 |
| ·Entities within the narrowed discourse space | 第55-57页 |
| ·Entities within the shifted discourse space | 第57-59页 |
| ·Grounding Nominals in ETS | 第59-65页 |
| ·The-marked nominals | 第59-62页 |
| ·A-marked nominals | 第62-65页 |
| ·Summary | 第65-66页 |
| Chapter 5 Conclusion | 第66-69页 |
| ·Summary of the Study | 第66-68页 |
| ·Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Further Research | 第68-69页 |
| Bibliography | 第69-72页 |
| Appendix | 第72页 |
