本书以生成语法为理论框架研究自然语言中的关系结构。作者提出了一种新的分析方法?RelP分析，并用之于解释不同语言、不同类型关系结构的生成过程及其语义诠释。实践证明，该分析能够比以往研究更好地预测并解释不同形式关系结构的句法及语义差异。

List of Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One Introductory Remarks
　1.1 Why Study the Relative Construction ?
　　1.1.1 Theory-driven
　　1.1.2 Interest-driven
　1.2 The Aims and Scope of This Study
　　1.2.1 The Aims of the Study
　　1.2.2 The Scope of the Study
　　　1.2.2.1 Type of Semantic Relation betweenthe RC and the Head Noun
　　　1.2.2.2 Hierarchical Status of the RC
　　　1.2.2.3 Presence or Absence of a Head
　　　1.2.2.4 Hierarchical Status of the Head
　　　1.2.2.5 Linear Order between Head and RC
　　　1.2.2.6 Presence or Absence of an RP
　　　1.2.2.7 Element in the Comp Area
　　　1.2.2.8 Finiteness of the RC
　1.3 Organization of the Book
Chapter Two Towards the Derivation of Rel-Cons
　2.1 Introduction
　2.2 Reviewing the Two Mainstream Analyses
　　2.2.1 Their Main Ideas
　　　2.2.1.1 The Adjunction Analysis
　　　2.2.1.2 The Raising Analysis
　　2.2.2 Evaluating the Two Analyses
　　　2.2.2.1 Evaluating the Adjunction Analysis
　　　2.2.2.2 Evaluating the Raising Analysis
　2.3 Our Proposal
　2.4 Conclusion
Chapter Three Elaborating the RelP Analysis
　3.1 Introduction
　3.2 The Licensing of the Relative Relation
　3.3 Justifying the Head Raising Process
　　3.3.1 Counter-arguments against Head Raising
　　　3.3.1.1 The Trigger for Raising
　　　3.3.1.2 The Nature of the Raised Constituent
　　　3.3.1.3 The Nature of ' Who' , 'Whom', 'When','Where' and 'Why'
　　　3.3.1.4 The Doubly-filled Comp Filter
　　　3.3.1.5 The Constituency Problems
　　　3.3.1.6 Coordination Facts
　　　3.3.1.7 Reconstruction Asymmetry
　　3.3.2 Evaluating the Counter-arguments
　　　3.3.2.1 The Motivation for Raising
　　　3.3.2.2 The Nature of the Raised Constituent
　　　3.3.2.3 The Nature of'Who"Whore"When,'Where' and 'Why'
　　……
Chapter Four The relp Analysis and Head-Initial Rel-Cons
Chapter Five The Relp Analysis and Head-Final Rel-Cons
Chapter Six Concluding Remarks
References