| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 第1-4页 |
| ABSTRACT(ENGLISH) | 第4-6页 |
| ABSTRACT(CHINESE) | 第6-8页 |
| LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS | 第8-13页 |
| CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION | 第13-18页 |
| ·The rationale of the study | 第13-14页 |
| ·The objectives of the study and research questions | 第14-15页 |
| ·Methodology and data collection | 第15-16页 |
| ·Definition of the terms in the study | 第16-17页 |
| ·The organization of the thesis | 第17-18页 |
| CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW | 第18-33页 |
| ·Introduction | 第18页 |
| ·Studies on questions | 第18-21页 |
| ·Grammarians' categories of questions | 第18-19页 |
| ·Classification of questions according to different responses | 第19-20页 |
| ·Closed questions and open questions | 第20-21页 |
| ·Studies on answers | 第21-24页 |
| ·Kiefer's study on answers | 第21-23页 |
| ·Grewendorf's study on answers | 第23页 |
| ·Stenstrom's study on answers | 第23-24页 |
| ·Studies on general questions | 第24-31页 |
| ·Pragmatic studies on general questions and their answers | 第24-29页 |
| ·General questions and speech acts | 第24-26页 |
| ·Conducive yes/no questions | 第26-27页 |
| ·Direct and indirect answers | 第27-28页 |
| ·Preferred answers and dispreferred answers | 第28-29页 |
| ·Syntactic studies on general questions | 第29-30页 |
| ·Semantic studies on general questions | 第30-31页 |
| ·Summary | 第31-33页 |
| CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY | 第33-45页 |
| ·Introduction | 第33页 |
| ·Grice's CP | 第33-37页 |
| ·The maxims of the CP | 第33-34页 |
| ·Flouting of the maxims and the occurrence of conversational implicature | 第34-37页 |
| ·Flouting the maxim of quantity | 第35-36页 |
| ·Flouting the maxim of quality | 第36页 |
| ·Flouting the maxim of relevance | 第36-37页 |
| ·Flouting the maxim of manner | 第37页 |
| ·Brown and Levinson's Face Theory | 第37-40页 |
| ·Notion of face and FTAs | 第38页 |
| ·Strategies to avoid or mitigate the degree of face threats | 第38-40页 |
| ·Sperber and Wilson's RT | 第40-44页 |
| ·Ostensive-inferential communication | 第40-41页 |
| ·Principle of relevance | 第41-42页 |
| ·Mutual cognitive environments | 第42-43页 |
| ·Relevance,contextual effect and processing effort | 第43-44页 |
| ·Summary | 第44-45页 |
| CHAPTER FOUR AN ANALYSIS OF PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF ENGLISH GENERAL QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS | 第45-69页 |
| ·Introduction | 第45页 |
| ·Pragmatic functions performed by general questions | 第45-55页 |
| ·Seeking information | 第46-48页 |
| ·Softening imperative force | 第48-50页 |
| ·Making criticism | 第50-52页 |
| ·Eliciting topics | 第52-54页 |
| ·Making suggestions | 第54-55页 |
| ·Pragmatic functions performed by the answers to general questions | 第55-64页 |
| ·Providing information | 第56-57页 |
| ·Explaining reasons | 第57-60页 |
| ·Showing non-cooperation | 第60-61页 |
| ·Expressing disagreement | 第61-62页 |
| ·Expressing refusal | 第62-64页 |
| ·Pragmatic functions of general question intonations in communication | 第64-68页 |
| ·Intonation and its importance in communication | 第64-65页 |
| ·Intonation and pragmatics | 第65页 |
| ·Analysis of pragmatic functions of general question intonations | 第65-68页 |
| ·Different intonations playing different pragmatic functions | 第66-67页 |
| ·The stress influencing the understanding of the utterance meaning | 第67-68页 |
| ·Summary | 第68-69页 |
| CHAPTER FIVE AN ANALYSIS OF GENERAL QUESTIONS AND THEIR ANSWERS FROM COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE | 第69-84页 |
| ·Introduction | 第69页 |
| ·Production and comprehension of general questions and their answers | 第69-71页 |
| ·Cognitive-pragmatic interpretation of general questions and their answers | 第71-82页 |
| ·The ostensive intentions coded in general questions and their answers | 第72-74页 |
| ·Application of inference to interpretation of general questions and their answers | 第74-76页 |
| ·Optimal relevance for verbal interactions | 第76-79页 |
| ·Mutual knowledge for communicative environments | 第79-80页 |
| ·Contextual effect influncing the interpretation of general questions and their answers | 第80-82页 |
| ·Summary | 第82-84页 |
| CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION | 第84-89页 |
| ·Introduction | 第84页 |
| ·Summary of the major findings | 第84-85页 |
| ·Implications of the study | 第85-86页 |
| ·Limitations of the study | 第86-87页 |
| ·Suggestions for future research | 第87-89页 |
| REFERENCES | 第89-93页 |
