文摘
英文文摘
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
1.2 Significance of the Study
1.3 Purpose of the Present Research
1.4 Overview of the Thesis
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Intensifiers
2.1.1 Different Definitions of Intensifiers by Grammarians
2.1.2 Semantic Classification of Intensifiers
2.2 Downtoners
2.2.1 Definition of Downtoners
2.2.2 Classification of Downtoners
2.2.3 Syntactic Features of Downtoners
2.3 Collocational Knowledge
2.3.1 Defining Collocation
2.3.2 Types of Collocation
2.3.3 Significance of Collocational Knowledge
2.3.4 Colligation
2.4 Previous Corpus-based Studies on Downtoners
2.4.1 Researches Abroad
2.4.2 Researches in China
Chapter Three Research Methodology
3.1 Research Questions
3.2 Corpus-based Study
3.3 Corpora used in the Present Research
3.3.1 Introduction to CLEC
3.3.2 Description of BROWN Corpus
3.4 Instrument
3.5 Data Collection Procedures
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 General Frequencies of Downtoners in Sub-Corpora of the CLEC
4.2 Downtoner Collocations in BROWN and sub-corpora of CLEC
4.2.1 Comparison and Analysis of Approximators
4.2.2 Comparison and Analysis of Compromisers
4.2.3 Comparison and Analysis of Diminishers
4.2.4 Comparison and Analysis of Minimizers
4.3 General Discussions
Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1 Major Findings
5.2 Pedagogical Implications
5.3 Limitations of the Present Study
References
Acknowledgements
Resume
