| Abstract in Chinese | 第1-4页 |
| Abstract in English | 第4-5页 |
| List of abbreviations | 第5-6页 |
| List of tables | 第6-7页 |
| Acknowledgement | 第7-11页 |
| Chapter1 Introduction | 第11-17页 |
| ·The context of the study | 第11页 |
| ·The need for the study | 第11-13页 |
| ·Research questions | 第13页 |
| ·The significance of the study | 第13-15页 |
| ·The organization of the thesis | 第15-17页 |
| Chapter2 Literature Review | 第17-28页 |
| ·Introduction | 第17页 |
| ·Overview of Speech Act Theories | 第17-19页 |
| ·Austin's Speech Act Theory | 第17页 |
| ·Searle's Speech Act Theory | 第17-19页 |
| ·Previous studies on politeness | 第19-21页 |
| ·Face-saving theory by Brown and Levinson | 第19页 |
| ·Conversation-maxim theory by Leech | 第19-21页 |
| ·Studies on politeness in Chinese context | 第21页 |
| ·Previous studies on compliment responses | 第21-26页 |
| ·Conversational analysis approach | 第21-22页 |
| ·Prescriptive approach | 第22-23页 |
| ·Studies from second language acquisition perspective | 第23-24页 |
| ·Studies from contrastive perspective | 第24-26页 |
| ·Limitations of previous studies on compliment responses | 第26-28页 |
| ·Few studies on CRs in Chinese context | 第26页 |
| ·Disagreement among studies on CRs in Chinese context | 第26-27页 |
| ·Previous studies on CRs is from a static perspective | 第27-28页 |
| Chapter3 Conceptual Framework | 第28-38页 |
| ·Introduction | 第28页 |
| ·Structure of culture and culture changes | 第28-30页 |
| ·The characteristics of culture | 第28-29页 |
| ·The structure of culture | 第29-30页 |
| ·Verschueren's adaptation theory | 第30-36页 |
| ·Pragmatics as a functional perspective on language use | 第30-33页 |
| ·Contextual correlates of adaptability | 第33-34页 |
| ·Roles of social world in communication | 第34-36页 |
| ·A tentative framework of the realization of compliment responses | 第36-38页 |
| Chapter4 Data Collection and Questionnaire Design | 第38-51页 |
| ·Research questions and hypothesis | 第38页 |
| ·Dependent and independent variables | 第38-39页 |
| ·Definitions of the main variables | 第39-41页 |
| ·Relative power | 第39页 |
| ·Social distance | 第39页 |
| ·Topic | 第39-40页 |
| ·Gender | 第40页 |
| ·Major in study | 第40页 |
| ·Definition of the dependent variable-compliment response | 第40-41页 |
| ·Instrument | 第41-43页 |
| ·Rationale for choosing open-ended questionnaire | 第41-42页 |
| ·Open-ended questionnaire | 第42-43页 |
| ·Pilot study | 第43页 |
| ·Final study | 第43-45页 |
| ·Subjects | 第45页 |
| ·Coding of data | 第45-50页 |
| ·Summary | 第50-51页 |
| Chapter5 Questionnaire Survey Results and Discussion | 第51-89页 |
| ·Results | 第51-75页 |
| ·Introduction | 第51页 |
| ·An overall tendency for Chinese college students to accept Cs | 第51-55页 |
| ·Distributions of responses to compliments by intimates and strangers | 第55-59页 |
| ·Distributions of responses to compliments by superiors and peers | 第59-67页 |
| ·Distributions of responses by male and female subjects | 第67-70页 |
| ·Distributions of appreciation tokens by English majors and Non-English majors in overall situations | 第70-73页 |
| ·Distributions of complex responses for Chinese college students | 第73-75页 |
| ·Discussion | 第75-89页 |
| ·Introduction | 第75页 |
| ·Adaptation to the college social setting | 第75-77页 |
| ·Adaptation to Western culture influences | 第77-78页 |
| ·Adaptation to Chinese traditional culture | 第78-87页 |
| ·Chinese traditional culture | 第78-79页 |
| ·Adaptation to the different hierarchical relationships | 第79-81页 |
| ·Adaptation to the differences between insiders and outsiders | 第81-83页 |
| ·Adaptation to prescribed gender roles | 第83-87页 |
| ·Adaptation to the social development in contemporary China | 第87-89页 |
| Chapter6 Conclusions | 第89-92页 |
| ·Major findings | 第89-90页 |
| ·Implications of the present study | 第90页 |
| ·Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research | 第90-92页 |
| References | 第92-97页 |
| Appendix | 第97-98页 |
