Stylistic Features Analysis of English Agreement and Contract 英文协议、合同文体特征分析.doc

毕业论文论 文 题 目：英文协议、合同文体特征分析作者所在系部： 外 语 系 作者所在专业： 英 语 作者所在班级： b09713班 作 者 姓 名 ： 作 者 学 号 ： 20094071319 指导教师姓名： 完 成 时 间 ： 2013年6月 北华航天工业学院教务处制stylistic features analysis of english agreement and contractbywang jiethesis advisor: bai guirongsubmitted to the b.a. committee in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of bachelor of arts in the foreign languages department of north china institute of aerospace engineering.北华航天工业学院本科生毕业论文原创性及知识产权声明本人郑重声明：所呈交的毕业论文stylistic features analysis of english agreement and contract 是本人在指导教师的指导下，独立进行研究工作取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品或成果。对本论文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。因本毕业论文引起的法律结果完全由本人承担。本毕业论文成果归北华航天工业学院所有。本人遵循北华航天工业学院有关毕业论文的相关规定，提交毕业论文的印刷本和电子版本。本人同意北华航天工业学院有权保存毕业论文的印刷本和电子版，并提供目录检索与阅览服务；可以采用影印、缩印、数字化或其它复制手段保存论文；在不以营利为目的的前提下，可以公布非涉密毕业论文的部分或全部内容。特此声明毕业论文作者： 指导教师： 年 月 日 年 月 日北华航天工业学院毕业论文摘 要合同是约定当事人权利义务的正式文件，具有法律意义商务合同拟定多用英语。所以 为了研究商务合同在国际贸易中的问题，我们需要先分析英语合同和协议的文体特点,这种文体风格不仅有商业合同的特性，而且有英语文体特征。本论文旨在从英文合同语言的文体特征出发，探讨商务英语协议与合同的相似性，并在此基础上，深入探讨了英文协议合同在词汇、句法和语篇层次上可使用的技巧。合同英语在词汇上主要表在以下几个方面：商务合同使用正式用语、同义词、古体词、专业术语以及词语并列、模糊性词语、名词代替代词，但却限制使用代词和冠词；不仅如此，商务英语合同在句法及语法方面主要表现出以下七个方面的特征:多用陈述句、常用复合句且句子较长、频繁使用助动词shall、短语或从句的插入引起句子语序的变化、名词化结构的使用、多用现在时态、主动语态和被动语态的配合使用等等。总之，为了避免不必要的纠纷，我们要充分认识在商务英语协议、合同中选择合适的文体的重要性。关键词：英语 商务合同 协议 文体特征abstractthe contract which has legal significance is an official document that can agree the parties rights and obligations. the business contract is usually written by english. so in order to study the problems in the business contract in the international trade, we need to start with the analysis of the english stylistic features of contract and agreement, which should not only have the general characteristics of the business contract, but also have the features of the english language itself.the thesis starts from the analysis of the basic stylistic features of the contract and agreement language, discusses the comparability of business english agreement and contract. and based on this, the paper probes some useful skills of the english contract and agreement deeply in vocabulary, syntax and discourse level. business english contract lists the features of legal usage: words-and-numerals approach used to convey numbers, impersonal constructions and the capitalization of some nouns in contract, but restriction on the use of pronouns and definite article. the lexical and syntactic features of contract english are analyzed: the use of declarative sentence, long and complex sentence, frequent use of model verb, shall, unusual sentence structure, nominalization, simple present tense, appropriate use of the active voice and the passive voice etc. more than that, it uses formal words, archaisms, technical terms, common words with uncommon meanings, reduplication of words, deliberate use of vague words, and avoidance of pronouns and so on. in a word, in order to avoid unnecessary disputes, we should fully understand the importance of choosing the appropriate style in the business english contract and agreement.key words: english, business contract, agreement, stylistic featurecontentsabstract in chineseiabstractiiintroduction1chapter 1 previous contributions11.1 what is style?21.2 agreement and contract21.2.1 definition of agreement and contract21.2.2 linguistic features of agreement and contract31.2.3 legal english3chapter 2 analysis of lexical52.1 use technical words52.2 use professional acronym62.3 use archaism72.4 use synonyms72.5 use legal vocabulary82.6 use neologism82.7 restriction on the use of pronouns and definite article82.8 verb nominalization9chapter 3 analysis on sentences and discourse93.1 syntactic level93.1.1 use declarative sentences93.1.2 use a lot of compound sentences93.1.3 use a large number of condition sentences103.1.4 use unique tense and voice103.1.5 use vague language103.1 textual level11conclusion12acknowledgements12bibliography13stylistic features analysis of english agreement and contract introductionwith profound influence of chinas opening-up to the outside world, so many kinds of transactions and business activities turn up rapidly. in modern times, the use of contracts and agreements are more and more frequent at the same time. business contract is the symbol of the achievement of the partnership, which is binding contract. therefore, the style of the business contract has an obvious feature of meaning. and as a type of legal document, contract and agreement are showing more and more important.the paper uses many examples to explain how to use formal words, archaic words and specialized vocabulary and so on properly.the aim of this thesis, through studying on stylistic features of business english contract and agreement, is to probe analysis theory from stylistic perspective. to avoid misusing by people we must know how to write a contract accurately and professionally, we must popularize this kind of knowledge. in a word, the ultimate purpose of studying on business english vocabulary stylistic feature is to help to use business english appropriately and accurately.the study of this paper is not only broadening the study scope of stylistic variety, but also exerting practical value and significance. it helps learners develop their wring skills and understand how to write a business english agreement and contract better.chapter 1 previous contributionswith the economic development and globalization, with profound influence of chinas opening-up to the outside world, our living style has changed a lot. all kinds of transactions and business activities turn up rapidly. in modern times, the use of contracts and agreements are more and more frequent at the same time. business contract is the symbol of the achievement of the partnership, which is binding contract. therefore, the style of the business contract has an obvious feature of meaning. and as a type of legal document, are showing more and more important. since international business contracts are signed by parties of different countries, they are required high quality. therefore, there is an increased demand for the contract writing of uniform standards and rules. and it goes without saying that contract writing is important. international business contracts possess particular stylistic features in terms of its special social function; especially there are huge differences in terms of language and structure in chinese and english and at present, in external trade, english is widely used as the common language, and the business contract is written in english on an international regular basis. but when we write business english contract, we casually use chinese writing principles into english writing. it is, to some extent, disagreeable with international contract. so in order to study the problems in the business contract in the international trade, we need to start with the analysis of the english stylistic features of contract and agreement. this is the reason why i study in the field. i will write the literature review in two parts. they are described as below.1.1 what is style?nowadays, style means a special way of doing something, designing something or producing something, especially one that is typical of a peculiar period of time or a particular group of people (longman, an dictionary of contemporary english 1995). but different scholars divide style into different parts.on chapmans had ever said that style is the product of social situation of a common relationship between language users. he further said that style is not an ornament or virtue and is not confined to written language, or to literature or to any single aspect of language.and there are four distinguishable concepts of style that crystal and davy (1979) proposed in investigating english style. here are listed two of them. style may refer to some or all of the language habits of one person as well as it may refer to some or all of the language habits shared by a group of people at one time, or even a period of time. for example, shakespeares style, lu xuns style, etc. 1.2 agreement and contract1.2.1 definition of agreement and contractthe word “contract” came forth in middle english, stemming from the latin word “contractus”, meaning “to draw together”. in the simplest term, it is merely an agreement made by two or more parties for the purpose of communicating and transacting business. in modern times, contract, in its more extensive sense, includes description of agreement or obligation; or, a contract is an act which contains a perfect obligation. in the more confined sense, contract is an agreement between two or more persons, concerning something to be done, whereby both parties are bound to each other, or one is bound to the other.whats more, a contract is defined by trietel (1976) in his work the law of contract as an agreement giving rise to obligations which are enforced or recognized by the law. agreements are fundamental to business activities. specifically speaking, contract is a basically binding agreement between two parties or two countries, and it is legally enforceable. in modern commercial and industrial society, almost everyone makes contracts every day. contracts can be informal, formal, written, oral or just plain. in relation to form, contracts are divided into express or implied.1.2.2 linguistic features of agreement and contractthe agreement stipulates the rights and obligations of the member countries, so it is a legislation document. writing these regulations, the english language has its unique characteristic-legal professional characteristics, which are usually called legal english.and the language used in contract drafting has a strong tendency to be precise, wordy, dull, straightforward, pithy and multidisciplinary. 1.2.3 legal englishlegal language emerges and develops with the existence and development of law. in the legislative and judicial activities, legal language gradually became a variant of the national language and surely plays an essential role.legal language refers to the language that used in the legal field, which can be spoken or written.legal language is spoken mainly in investigating a case, interrogating the accused, defending a case in court, etc. since it is difficult to get access to enough data of spoken legal language for stylistic analysis, we overlooked the spoken legal language. we just describe “legal language” as “the written language used for legal documents” in english speaking countries, the language used for legal documents is named as “legal english”. the field of legal documents contains a wide range: statutes, decrees, legal provision, commodity warranty, economic contracts, insurance policies deeds of trust, wills and testaments, leases and installment plans, etc. all of them are concerned with imposing of obligations and conferring of rights, and are very formal. moreover, all of them are recorded in written forms.legal language is different from other varieties .the writers of legal documents have to pay special attention to the precision of wording, the avoidance of misunderstanding and ambiguity, and for this purpose, they often cite conventional formulas and use mode-examples. therefore, legal language is strongly resistant to change and innovate. generally speaking, it has the following stylistic characteristics:as to diction, legal language borrows a lot of common words and expressions, and attributes them with new meanings that are different from their usual meanings, for example, “action” in legal language means “a proceeding in a court of law where someone seeks to enforce his rights”, and “case” means “a matter for trail”. besides, it also borrows some words from other language such as alias, alibi. whats more, parallel synonyms, repetition of identical words, restriction on the use of pronouns and definite articles and proper use of capitalization. apart from these, legal language also possesses its own technical words and formulaic expressions, such as verdict, copyright, indictment, etc. there are also archaic words such as herein, hereafter, and hence, etc. finally, legal language also employs a lot of adverbial and adjective modifiers which are indefinite in restricting their meanings, such as apparently, average, clue process, incidental, etc.in syntactic structure, the sentences of legal language are declarative, and the lengths of the sentences are usually longer than that in other language variants. in many cases, one sentence is one paragraph, and it has a very complex structure, having many subordinate clauses, nominal elements and modifiers in order to give detailed, precise and adequate definition, description and explanation. thus, legal language is complex, redundant and hard to interpret.as we can see, field of contracts covers a wide range because nearly every aspects of peoples life can be defined and bound by agreements and contracts.1.2.4 stylistic features agreement and contract by now, stylistics has got much influence from generative linguistics, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. much work has been done in classifying varieties and factors of contexts. stylistics has adopted a systematic method of investigation. stylisticians began the study of a text merely at the lexical level, syntactical level and discourse level. it concerns itself with the situational features that influence variations in language use. the text should be treated as a whole and studied with reference to linguistic contexts and situational factors that have stylistic influence on language features.generally speaking, stylistics has plenty of features. they are as follows.according to qianyuan, stylistics is the study of style. it is a branch of linguistics in which the theories and methodologies of modern linguistics are applied to the study of the styles of the varieties of language appeared in language use (1991). to be honest, the definition is rather complete and scientific. wales (1989:437) defines stylistics as “the study of style”. leech (1962:2) defines stylistics as “the study of the use of language in literary study”.in the five clock, martin joos, a distinguished professor of german at the university of wisconsinmadison, advances five stylistic varieties in english: the frozen style, formal style, consultative style, casual style and intimate style. martin joos defines frozen style as follows:frozen style a style for print and for declamation is defined by the absence of authoritative intonation in the text, as also by the fact that the reader or hearer is not permitted to cross-question the author (joos, 1961: 39).according to martin joos definition of frozen style, legal documents fall within the scope of frozen style. international contracts must be understood within the context of the legal profession (shippey, 2000: iii). as legal document is nature, agreement and contract have a frozen style. frozenness takes many shapes, one of which lies in its distinctive wording, such as the use of literary or formal words and expressions, formulated provisions and formulaic expressions, etc. frozenness also crops up in the characteristic syntax with lengthy complex sentences. according to david mellinkoff, the style of legal english has even been described as solemn, mystical, sacerdotal, dignified, and assiduously stilted (mellinkoff, 1987: 19).investigating english style written by crystal, d. and davy, d. in 1969 summarizes the achievements of stylistic studies since the 1960s. it was only in the 1960s that stylistics got well established as a discipline.in practice, a contract concerns the imposition of certain obligations and the conferring of certain rights. one partys rights are in effect the other partys obligations. as a result, a contract must state what the contracting parties want to say as clearly and exactly as possible, leaving no room for misinterpretation (xu youzhi, 1992:177). contracts and agreements are an essential element in some activities. english, as the most important language in all the international communications, inevitably plays a main role in this aspect. thus, contract is an agreement enforced by law. it concerns the economic activities of different countries, different enterprises, and different organizations and people. and english language in contracts, as a sub-variety of legal english, plays an increasingly important role in our life. chapter 2 analysis of lexical2.1 use technical wordsinternational trade is becoming more and more frequently. gradually, contract has its own writing style. and soon some frequent words have there firm model, such as convertible currency, insurance premium and shipping agent. they become technical terms.one of the linguistic features of contract language is the frequent use of technical words which david mellinkoff (1987: 16) defines as “term of art” with specific meanings. thus, correct use of technical words of various disciplines turns out to be most important in business contracts. for instance:the buyer shall, 30 days prior to the date of delivery, open an irrevocable letter of credit with the bank of china, in favor of the seller for the total value of shipment. the credit shall be available against sellers draft at sight on the opening bank for 100% invoice value accompanied by the shipping documents specified in clause 10 hereof. payment shall be effected by the opening bank by telegraphi