The Linguistic Analysis of Chinese Emoticon

iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I gratefully acknowledge my advisor, Zhongwei Shen, for granting me the opportunity to pursue my master's degree under his guidance. Since I'm certainly not his typical student type: hard working, always meeting deadlines and attention to details. There's no way for me to imagine how he survived for so many years to deal with me, from undergraduate to graduate school. Therefore, I sincerely appreciate all of the thoughtful support, encouragement, immeasurable patience and all knowledge that Shen has shared with me over the past couple years. Next I would like to thank Enhua Zhang and Zhijun Wang for serving on my committee and giving me their valuable advice on my thesis. Without your help, this thesis surely can't be accomplished today. Thanks also goes to all of the faculty members, staff and friends working in the Chinese program, for making my study at University of Massachusetts Amherst a pleasant experience. Also I would like to mention Marjorie Chan and Zhiguo Xie from Ohio State University. Despite I'm neither their students nor enrolling in their school programs. They still provide countless thoughtful guidance selflessly when in need, just as I'm one of their own students. Last but not least, I am very grateful to my family, especially for my wife Houbao and my daughter, little Xingyi. Because of their pressure and love, I finally gather enough energy to finish this thesis; instead let it hide in some corner of my room.