| ACKNOWEDGEMENT | 第6-7页 |
| 英文摘要 | 第7页 |
| LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES | 第9-10页 |
| ABBREVIATIONS | 第10-16页 |
| CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION | 第16-21页 |
| CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW | 第21-44页 |
| 2．1 Introduction | 第21页 |
| 2．2 Review of sociolinguistic gender research | 第21-26页 |
| 2．2．1 The dominance approach | 第22-23页 |
| 2．2．2 The difference approach | 第23-24页 |
| 2．2．3 The social constructionist approach | 第24-25页 |
| 2．2．4 Relevance to the present study | 第25-26页 |
| 2．3 Overview of speech act theory | 第26-28页 |
| 2．3．1 Austin's speech act theory | 第26-27页 |
| 2．3．2 Searle's speech act theory | 第27-28页 |
| 2．4 Politeness and face theory | 第28-35页 |
| 2．4．1 Brown and Levinson's poliiteness principles | 第29-31页 |
| 2．4．2 Leech's politeness theory | 第31-32页 |
| 2．4．3 Summary | 第32-33页 |
| 2．4．4 Overview of Chinese politeness and Gu's politeness principle | 第33-35页 |
| 2．5． Review of the studies on compliments and compliment responses | 第35-42页 |
| 2．5．1 Compliment formulas | 第36-38页 |
| 2．5．2 Compliment topic | 第38页 |
| 2．5．3 Compliment responses | 第38-40页 |
| 2．5．4 Compliments as a gender-preferential strategy | 第40-42页 |
| 2．6 Relevance to the present study | 第42-44页 |
| CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY | 第44-70页 |
| 3．1 The research questions and hypothesis | 第44-45页 |
| 3．2 The independent and dependent variables | 第45页 |
| 3．3 The definitions of the main variables | 第45-47页 |
| 3．3．1 Topic | 第45-46页 |
| 3．3．2 Gender | 第46页 |
| 3．3．3 An explanation for the controlling of some variables | 第46-47页 |
| 3．4 The definitions of the dependent variables—compliment and compliment response | 第47-56页 |
| 3．4．1 Operational definitions of compliment and compliment response | 第48-49页 |
| 3．4．2 The coding scheme for analyzing the compliment and compliment response patterns | 第49-56页 |
| 3．4．2．1 The coding scheme for analyzing the compliment patterns | 第50-53页 |
| 3．4．2．2 The coding scheme for analyzing the compliment response patterns | 第53-56页 |
| 3．5 Instrument | 第56-61页 |
| 3．5．1 Open-ended questionnaire | 第57-58页 |
| 3．5．2 Ethnographic studies | 第58-59页 |
| 3．5．3 Multiple-choice questionnaire | 第59-60页 |
| 3．5．4 The rationale for choosing open-ended questionnaire | 第60-61页 |
| 3．6 The pilot study | 第61-62页 |
| 3．7 The subjects | 第62-63页 |
| 3．8 Locating the subjects | 第63页 |
| 3．9 Situation design | 第63-66页 |
| 3．10 Data-collecting procedures | 第66-67页 |
| 3．11 Coding of data | 第67-69页 |
| 3．12 The statistical analysis | 第69-70页 |
| CHAPTER 4 THE RESULTS | 第70-88页 |
| 4．1 Introduction | 第70页 |
| 4．2 Observation of compliment strategies and compliment formulas | 第70-78页 |
| 4．2．1 Question 1:Observation of compliment strategy types in terms of the overall situations | 第70-72页 |
| 4．2．2 Question 2:Observation of compliment strategy types from the four-level perspectives | 第72-75页 |
| 4．2．3 Compliment strategy types by gender-further illustration | 第75-76页 |
| 4．2．4 Question 3:Observation of compliment formulas in overall situations | 第76-78页 |
| 4．3 Observation of compliment response strategies | 第78-86页 |
| 4．3．1 Question 4:Observation of compliment response strategies in overall situations | 第78-81页 |
| 4．3．2 Question 5:Observation of compliment response strategies from the four-level perspectives | 第81-83页 |
| 4．3．3 Compliment response strategy types by situation and gender—further illustration | 第83-86页 |
| 4．4 Summary | 第86-88页 |
| CHAPTER 5 INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION | 第88-111页 |
| 5．1 Introduction | 第88-89页 |
| 5．2 Interpretation of the major findings | 第89-98页 |
| 5．2．1 Qualitative analyses on compliment strategy types and compliment formulas | 第89-96页 |
| 5．2．1．1 Qualitative analyses on compliment strategy types | 第89-93页 |
| 5．2．1．2 Qualitative analyses on compliment formulas | 第93-96页 |
| 5．2．2 Qualitative analyses on compliment response strategy types | 第96-98页 |
| 5．3 Other factors | 第98-100页 |
| 5．3．1 The compliment topic | 第98-99页 |
| 5．3．2 Gender of hearer | 第99页 |
| 5．3．3 Regional factors | 第99-100页 |
| 5．4 Discussion on gender differences in language | 第100-107页 |
| 5．4．1 Origin of gender difference in language | 第100-103页 |
| 5．4．2 Why do gender differences in language still exist? | 第103-107页 |
| 5．4．2．1 The influence of traditional concepts | 第104页 |
| 5．4．2．2 A view of gender difference from cultural perspective | 第104-105页 |
| 5．4．2．3 Men and women fill different roles in society--a viewpoint on gender differences from a social perspective | 第105-106页 |
| 5．4．2．4 Summary | 第106-107页 |
| 5．5 Further findings-some distinctive features of compliments and compliment responses in Chinese | 第107-108页 |
| 5．6 The major points reviewed | 第108-111页 |
| CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION | 第111-116页 |
| 6．1 Summary of the present study and major findings | 第111-113页 |
| 6．2 Theoretical consideration | 第113页 |
| 6．3 Implications of the present study | 第113-114页 |
| 6．4 Limitations and further directions | 第114-116页 |
| REFERENCES | 第116-123页 |
| Appendix A: The pilot study questionnaire | 第123-126页 |
| Appendix B: The final study questionnaire | 第126-130页 |
| Appendix C: Raw data table | 第130-132页 |
| Appendix D1: Results of compliment strategy types and compliment formulas in overall situations by SPSS | 第132-137页 |
| Appendix D2: Results of compliment strategy types on the topic levels by SPSS | 第137-139页 |
| Appendix D3: Results of compliment response strategy types in overall situations by SPSS | 第139-144页 |
| Appendix D4: Results of compliment response strategy types on the topic levels by SPSS | 第144-146页 |
