致谢

Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr. B. Birch. Without her patient assistance and friendly encouragement, it would not possible for me to complete this thesis in such a short period of time without reducing its scholarly quality. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to two anonymous readers for their excellent comments on an earlier version of this paper. My special thanks should go to Dr. B. H. Leeds and Dr. G. J. Tullai for their very helpful suggestions in terms of the content and style of this paper. My sincere thank should also go to Central Connecticut State University for all the support and assistance, financial, scholarly, and technical, it has provided during my one-&-half-year stay in the States, and especially, to Northwest Normal University, my home institute in China, for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to work and study in one of American universities.

Acknowledgements

After the accomplishment of my thesis, I realize that my gratitude and debt are manifold: first and foremost I have been most indebted to my supervisor, Professor XXX, for her/ his generous encouragement, constant help and invaluable advice. Without her/his enlightening instructions and insightful suggestions, the completion of my thesis would have been impossible.

Secondly, I also wish to express my thanks to all my teachers in our department, Professor Shi Yunxia, Professor Wang Xingjuan and Professor Sun Hongyan and so on. Their valuable suggestions and insightful comments on my thesis contributed much to the completion of my paper.

Thirdly, I am also thankful to all my friends, especially my roommates Liu Junqing, Han Wen who generously lent me their hands while I wrote my thesis.

Fourthly, I also thank my family for their encouragement and careful consideration.

Acknowledgements

At the very first, I am honored to express my deepest gratitude to my dedicated supervisor, Prof. XXX, with whose able guidance I could have worked out this thesis. She has offered me valuable ideas, suggestions and criticisms with her profound knowledge and rich research experience. Her patience and kindness are greatly appreciated. Besides, she always puts high priority on our thesis writing and is willing to discuss with me anytime available. I have learnt from her a lot not only about the writing, but also the professional ethics. I am very much obliged to her efforts of helping me complete the dissertation.

I am also extremely grateful to other teachers whose patient and meticulous guidance and invaluable suggestions are indispensable to the completion of this thesis.

Thanks are also due to my classmates, who never failed to give me great

encouragement and suggestions. Special thanks should go to Fan Zhiyi, and Miss Jia Xiuqing for their brainstorming with me when I failed in coming up with ideas. I am also indebted to Xu Jincui for his encouraging and giving me advice when I had problem in writing this dissertation.

At last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their support all the way from the very beginning of my study. I am thankful to all my family members for their thoughtfulness and encouragement.

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