ǰ�� ����ժҪ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 The subject of the research 1.1.1 The Ba-construction in discourse 1.1.2 The diachronic development of the Ba- construction 1.2 Theoretical assumptions 1.2.1 Language as a communicative instrument Functionalism in linguistics 1.2.2 Language as a cognitive activity -- Cognitive linguistics 1.2.3 A functional-cognitive integrated approach 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Research approaches 1.4.1 Research approach to the meaning of the Ba- construction 1.4.2 Research approach to the English realizations of the Ba-construction 1.5 Outline of the study CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Ideational meaning 2.1.1 Disposal and the verb in the Ba-construction 2.1.2 Disposal and the verb-object relations in the Ba-construction 2.1.3 Topic-comment approach 2.1.4 Cognitive approaches 2.2 Interpersonal meaning 2.3 Textual meaning 2.3.1 The information structure of the Ba- construction 2.3.2 The cohesive function of the Ba-construction 2.3.3 The semantic context of the Ba-construction 2.4 Summary and critical evaluation 2.4.1 Summary of understandings of the meaning of the Ba-construction 2.4.2 Critical evaluations of the previous studies CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS 3.1 Some hypotheses of the meaning of the Ba- construction 3.1.1 General hypotheses 3.1.2 Specific hypotheses 3.2 Research frameworks 3.2.1 Causative semantics and the ideational meaning of the Ba-construction 3.2.2 Appraisal Theory and the interpersonal meaning of the Ba-construction 3.2.3 Discourse measurements of topic continuity and the textual meaning of the Ba-construction 3.3 Summary CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research questions 4.2 Data 4.2.1 The normal Chinese-to-English translation corpus 4.2.2 The special Chinese-to-English translation corpus 4.2.3 The English-to-Chinese parallel corpus 4.3 Variables design 4.3.1 Variables for describing Chinese data 4.3.2 Variables for describing English data 4.4 Research procedure 4.4.1 Sample collection 4.4.2 Variable application 4.4.3 Data treatment CHAPTER FIVE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 5.1 Investigation of the ideational meaning of the Ba- construction and its English realizations 5.1.1 General observation and discussion 5.1.2 Description of the Ba-construction with different causative semantic features and its potential English realizations 5.1.3 Summary 5.2 Investigation of the attitudinal meaning of the Ba- construction and its English realizations 5.2.1 General observation and discussion 5.2.2 Description of the attitudes generally conveyed by the Ba-construction 5.2.3 Summary 5.3 Investigation of the textual meaning of the Ba- construction and its English realizations 5.3.1 General observation and discussion 5.3.2 Description of the main topics in the Ba- construction and their discourse behaviors 5.3.3 Summary 5.4 General discussion: the meaning of the Ba-construction and its distinctiveness 5.5 General discussion: the role of the Ba-construction in Modem Chinese CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION 6.1 Summary 6.1.1 Answers to Research Question One 6.1.2 Answers to Research Question Two 6.2 Implications 6.2.1 Implication of the research approach 6.2.2 Implication of the empirical research method 6.2.3 Implication of the contrastive study 6.3 Limitations and recommendations 6.3.1 Limitations of the present study 6.3.2 Recommendations for future research BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES