Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 The significance of collocation
1.2 The study of degree adverbs from a collocational perspective
1.3 The corpus-based approach to contrastive analysis
1.4 Scope and objectives of this book
Chapter 2 Degree Adverbs
2.1 Definition of degree Adverbs
2.2 Classification of degree adverbs
2.2.1 Classification of degree adverbs in English
2.2.2 Classification of degree adverbs in Chinese
Chapter 3 Theoretical and Empirical Studies on Collocation
3.1 Research traditions of collocation
3.2 Conceptual introduction to collocation
3.3 Extraction of collocations
3.4 The nature of collocation restrictions
Chapter 4 Semantic Restrictions on the Collocation of Degree Adverbs with Verbs
4.1 The(un)boundedness of verbs
4.1.1 The(un)boundedness of events with reference to time
4.1.2 The(un)boundedness of events with reference to degree
4.2 A corpus-based investigation of the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in English
4.2.1 Maximal degree adverbs: completely, absolutely, fully, entirely, totally and perfectly
4.2.2 Approximatives: almost, nearly, virtually and practically
4.2.3 Boosters: greatly, much and very much
4.2.4 Moderators: fairly, pretty, rather and quite
4.2.5 Minimal degree adverbs: slightly
4.3 A corpus-based investigation of the collocation of degree adverbs with verbs in Chinese
4.3.1 Maximal degree adverbs: wanquan
4.3.2 Approximatives: jihu, chadianr and chabuduo
4.3.3 Boosters: hen, feichang, tai, ji and shifen
4.3.4 Moderators: bzjiao and jiao
4.3.5 Minimal degree adverbs: youdian, shao, lue, shaoshao, shaowei and luewei
4.4 Contrasting semantic restrictions on the collocations of degree adverbs with verbs in English and Chinese
4.4.1 The similarities
4.4.2 The differences
Chapter 5 Structural Restrictions on the Collocation of Degree Adverbs with Verbs
5.1 The word order and granmmtical functions of degree adverbs with reference to verbs
5.2 The collocation of degree adverbs with periphrastic causatives
5.2.1 The semantic features of Chinese periphrastic constructions compatible with degree adverbs
5.2.2 A contrasfive analysis of Chinese and English periphrastic causatives with regard to psychological verbs
5.2.3 A preliminary explanation of the collocation of degree adverbs with periphrastic constructions
5.3 The collocation of degree adverbs with modal auxiliary verbs
5.3.1 The classification of modal auxiliary verbs
5.3.2 Collocability of Chinese and English degree adverbs with modal auxiliaries
5.3.3 nle semantics of Chinese modal auxiliaries and their collocation with
degree adverbs
Chapter 6 Prosodic Restrictions on the Collocation of Degree Adverbs with Verbs
6.1 The interaction between rhythm and syntax
6.2 The collocation of Chinese degree adverbs in terms of syllables
6.2.1 Findings from the corpus survey of LCMC
6.2.2 The selection of monosyllabic or disyllabic degree adverbs
6.2.3 The disyllabification of degree adverbs in Chinese
6.3 The addition and omission of function words
6.4 Prosodic restrictions on collocations of degree adverbs in English
6.5 A preliminary explanation of the different role of prosodic constraints on collocations in English and Chinese
Chapter 7 Conclusion
7.1 Restrictions on the collocation of degree adverbs
7.2 Implications of this study
7.3 Suggestions for further research
Appendices
Appendix l The concordances of can/could completely from BNC
Appendix 2 The concordances of can/could almost from BNC
Appendix 3 Collocations of degree adverbs with verb phrases from LCMC
Appendix 4 The concordances of the collocations of hen and.筇from the CCL Corpus
Appendix 5 Collocations of monosyllabic and disyllabic degree adverbs in Chinese in LCMC
Appen