英文合同的语言性特征分析_英语论文

An Analysis of the Languages Features of English Contracts

摘要

在当今社会,中国同世界各国之间在经济、贸易方面来往日益密切,不可分割, 故而贸易各方使用英语签署合同就不足为奇了，因而研究英文合同的语言特征具有十分重大的意义。本论文首先对英文合同进行了简要的介绍,包括英文合同的定义和常用类型，接着着重探讨了英文合同的语言性特征，包含了英文合同中所出现的常用句法、词法两大部分。具体来说，在词汇层面涵盖了法律术语、正式词汇、古体词、名词化、情态动词、以及成对词；在句法层面主要包括定语从句、长句、被动句以及状语从句。最后一段是总结，对全文做出总结与概括。经过探究分析，本文概括出英文合同显著的词汇和句法特征以及这些特征对于商业活动的必要性，旨在帮助合同双方避免一些不必要的争议。

关键词：法律英语；语言特征；英文合同

Abstract

In this contemporary society, China is contacting with other countries more frequently in the aspects of economy and business than any time. English is adopted by many countries since it is regarded as an international language and official language. Thus, it widely exists in the contract, so it is very significant to make some valuable researches on the features of contract English. In this paper, a brief introduction is firstly made of the English contract, including its definition and main types. Secondly a detailed analysis is made from the lexical and syntactic aspects of contract English. Specifically, the lexical features of contract English mainly include legal terms, formal expressions, archaic words, nominalization, modal auxiliaries and pair words; and the syntactic features mainly include attributive clauses, long sentences, passive sentences and adverbial clauses. Based on the above analysis of the linguistic features, the importance and significance of conducting this study are discussed in the final part of this paper. According to the exploration and analysis of this paper, the author concludes the necessity of studying the linguistic features of contract English to the smooth ongoing of the business activities and it is pointed out by the author that the significance of the writing of this paper is to help relevant contract parties to avoid unnecessary disputes arising from the misunderstanding of contract English.

Key words: legal English; linguistic features; English contract

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract & Key words in English ii

Abstract & Key words in Chinese iii

Introduction                               1

1. A brief introduction of English contracts 1

   1.1 Definition of English contracts 1

    1.2 Main types of English contracts 1

2. Lexical features of English contracts 2

   2.1 Legal terms 2

   2.2 Formal expression 3

   2.3 Archaic words 4

   2.4 Nomalization 5

   2.5 Modal auxiliary 6

   2.6 Pair words 8

3. Syntactic features of English contracts 8

   3.1 Attributive clauses    9 

   3.2 Long sentences    10

   3.3 Passive sentences  10

   3.4 Adverbial clauses of condition  . 11 

Conclusion 11

References .12