| Acknowledgements | 第1-5页 |
| English Abstract | 第5-7页 |
| Chinese Abstract | 第7-10页 |
| Figures | 第10-11页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction: About the Horn Scale | 第11-14页 |
| Chapter 2 A General Survey of Three Viewpoints on the Horn Scale | 第14-26页 |
| ·The Anglo-American Pragmatists' Points of View | 第14-16页 |
| ·The Continental Pragmatists' Perspective | 第16-20页 |
| ·Chinese Pragmatists' Points of View | 第20-26页 |
| ·Xu Shenghuan's Study on the Horn Scale | 第20-24页 |
| ·Other Scholars Opinion | 第24-26页 |
| Chapter 3 The Problematic Universality of the Horn Scale | 第26-43页 |
| ·Gender Differences on the Notion of Quantity | 第26-27页 |
| ·Data Collection and Analysis | 第27-35页 |
| ·The First Test of the Questionnaire | 第27-30页 |
| ·Different Communicative Strategies Adopted by the Two Genders | 第30-32页 |
| ·The Second Test of the Questionnaire | 第32-35页 |
| ·The Invalidity of the Conventional Implicatures | 第35-43页 |
| ·The Individuality of the Communicative Intention | 第35-39页 |
| ·The Invalidity of the Interpretation of the Conventional Implicatures | 第39-43页 |
| Chapter 4 Doubts About the Operation of the Horn Scale | 第43-52页 |
| ·Doubts About the Process of Inference | 第43-45页 |
| ·The Criticism of Xu Shenghuan's Six Rules | 第45-47页 |
| ·Doubts About the Over-detailed Horn Scale Stipulations | 第47-52页 |
| Chapter 5 The Interference from the Politeness Principle | 第52-55页 |
| Chapter 6 Conclusion | 第55-57页 |
| Bibliography | 第57-59页 |
| Appendices | 第59-61页 |
