Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1．1 Background
1．2 Chinese Aging and the Gap in its Research
1．2．1 The Problem of the Elders in China
1．2．2 Language-related Chinese Aging Research and its Gap
1．3 The Significance of the Present Study
1．4 Goals of the Present Study
1．5 Brief Descriptions about the Present Research
1．6
Chapter Overview

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2．1 Picture-elicited Narratives
2．2 Previous Research in Aging Using Picture-elicited Narratives
2．3 The Previous Research Using the Insights of Transitivity in SFT
2．4 The Relation of the Present Research with the Previous Research

Chapter 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
3．1 A Brief Introduction to SFT
3．1．1 A Brief Introduction to Halliday's SFT
3．1．2 The Difference between Halliday and Martin
3．1．3 The Difference between Berry and Halliday
3．1．4 The Overlap between Halliday， Vygotsky and Bemstein．
3．2 Transitivity
3．2．1 The Position of Transitivity in SFT
3．2．2 The Development of Transitivity
3．2．3 The Content of Transitivity
3．2．4 The Difference between Halliday's Transitivity and the Traditional Transitivity
3．2．5 Transitivity——the Intersection of SFT and Other Schools of Linguistics
3．2．6 Transitivity in Neurological and Health Science Research
3．3 Chinese and Transitivity
3．3．1 The Compatibility of Transitivity for Studying Chinese
3．3．2 Chinese Scholars' Research in Transitivity

Chapter 4 METHODOLOGY
4．1 Hypotheses
4．2 Data Collection
4．3 Rationale for Using Secondary Chinese Data
4．4 Participants
4．5 Instrument
4．6 Purpose of Analyzing the Pic~tre-elicited Narrative
4．7 Coding System
4．8 Post-explanation

Chapter 5 ANALYSIS
5．1 Coding
5．2 Coder Training
5．3 Raters Accuracy and Reliability
5．4 Transitivity
5．5 Analysis
5．6 Analyses with Extracts

Chapter 6 RESULTS
6．1 Statistical Solution
6．2 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on the Participants' Overall Performance of Transitivity
6．3 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on Material Process
6．4 Impact of Age， Education and Gender Impact on Mental Process
6．5 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on Verbal Process Performances
6．6 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on Behavioral Process Performance
6．7 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on Relational Process
6．8 Impact of Age， Education and Gender on Existential Process Performance
6．9 Summary of Age， Education and Gender Impact on Transitivity

Chapter 7 CONCLUSION
7．1 Summary of the Objectives， Results and Analysis
7．2 Strengths of the Present Research
7．2．1 Transitivity as a Proper Framework for an Aging Study
7．2．2 Justification of Paradis' Stimuli and Development of Coding System
7．2．3 Proper Use of GLM to Determine Significant Impact
7．3 Limitations
7．3．1 Absence of Post-reflective Comment
7．3．2 Quasi-Longitudinal Study and No True Longitudinal Study
7．3．3 No Requirement for Processing Speed
7．4 Recommendations for Future Research
7．4．1 Extension of Age-span
7．4．2 The Comparison of Normal Elders with Elderly Patients
7．4．3 Mini-lingual Status Examination
7．4．4 Semi-computerized Coding
7．5 Final Remarks
REFERENCES
Appendix
Appendix A： Coding Sheet*
Appendix B： Examples of Empty "be" Relational Process in Chinese
Appendix C： Abbreviations