Abstract

 Since 1930s, western countries (the UK and the USA) have studied discourse analysis. As a matter of fact, it is a new subject which has progressed very quickly since it came into being in the fifties of last century. Cohesion and coherence are two basic concepts which play a very important role in the field of discourse analysis. Moreover, Cohesion is the key point in discourse analysis.
 Business English contract is a discourse with unique features. Chinese and English  scholars both have studied it. Some have concentrated on the study of the features of pitching upon words in business English contracts. Others have made efforts to study the ways of translation in business English contracts. However, little effort has been made to study the effects of nominal substitution in business English contracts. This thesis is based on the cohesion theory of Halliday & Ha san and also combines with the important views put forward by famous  scholar Hu zhuanglin. Through these concrete examples, from the perspective of definite substitution devices, this thesis is designed to study the application and effects of nominal substitution and promote the drafting, reading and translating of business English contracts.
The thesis draws the following conclusion after comparing various examples of business English contracts. Generally speaking, nominal substitution consists of five types: hyponymy, pronoun substitution,“one” or “that”, “the same”.

Keywords: business English contracts  cohesion  nominal substitution
 
摘要

自从20世纪30年代，西方国家（英国和美国）就已经研究语篇分析。事实上，它是一门新兴的学科，自从上个世纪50年代兴起后就迅猛发展。衔接和连贯是语篇分析中的两个基本概念，而且它们在语篇分析中起着重要作用。而且，衔接是语篇分析的核心话题。
商务英语合同是一种具有自身特色的文体。中外学者都对其有所研究。一些学者重点研究商务合同中的措辞特征，其它学者在商务英语合同的翻译方面做出很大努力。但是，几乎很少有人研究名词性替代在商务英语合同中的的应用和功能。本篇论文以韩礼德&哈桑的衔接理论为指导，结合学者胡壮磷的重要观点，通过分析和研究不同的商务英语合同的样例，从替代手法的视角出发，旨在研究名词性替代在商务英语合同中的应用及功能，从而促进商务英语合同的起草，阅读和翻译。
本篇论文通过分析比较各种不同的商务英语合同样例，得出以下结论：一般来讲，名词性替代包括以下五种：上下义词替代，代词替代“one” or “that”替代,“the same” 替代。

关键词: 商务英语合同;  衔接;  名词性替代
 
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Subject
Since 1930s, western countries (the UK and the USA) have studied discourse analysis. Cohesion theory has attracted the attention of many scholars both home and abroad since it came into being in 1976, because it plays an important role in discourse analysis, translation theory, and many other aspects. Since Halliday and Hasan’s seminal work on cohesion in 1976, a lot of researches on discourse cohesion have been done. Some scholars made further study from the aspect of translation of substitution in business English contracts. Some academicians do research on the relationship between Chinese business contracts and business English contracts.  Others make efforts on the features of words in business English contracts. Besides, some professors make further study on vague language in business English contracts. Moreover, some study nominal substitution in discourse cohesion. But there is seldom academic research on nominal substitution in business English contracts. What’s more, nominal substitution plays an important role in business English Contracts. Nominal substitution is a very common cohesive device which is a tie in discourse analysis and makes the context coherent. Further more, the most important function of nominal substitution is to avoid repetition. So, it is necessary to do research on nominal substitution in business English contracts.