摘要
合同是约定当事人权利义务的正式文件，对英文合同中的语言的要求不同于一般基础英语或者文学作品。Martin Joos按照语言使用的正式程度提出了英语的五种变体，即庄重文体、正式文体、商议文体、随便文体和亲密文体。一般认为合同英语属于庄重文体，即文体中正式程度最高的一种。合同英语在词汇和句法等方面具有鲜明的文体特征。
合同在人们的生活中变得越来越重要，但是国内外对合同英语的专门研究却相对匮乏，正是针对这一现状我选择了《合同英语的文体特征》作为硕士学位论文的选题。
本文简洁地论述了合同的概念及其分类之后，对文体及合同英语加以界定，并表明本文中合同是指条款式的书面合同，泛指以英语为官方语言的国家的民、商事合同。
本文的核心部分在于借助大量的在合同中出现的范例对合同英语文体特征所作的具体、详尽的阐述。在这部分中，分别论述了合同英语的词汇特征、合同英语的句法及语法特征等等。
本文基于典型实例的分析，从正式用语、古体词、专业术语以及词语并列、模糊性词语、名词代替代词的使用等方面论述了合同英语在词汇层次所体现出来的文体特征。
在论述了合同英语的词汇特征之后，本文介绍了合同英语的句法及语法特征。合同英语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。
除了上述的句法和语法方面的特征之外，文中还提到了合同英语中较特殊的一些表达方式：用“数字+文字”的方式把合同中某些重要的数量、期限等
渗
硕士学位论文
入认STER’S’l’I一IESIS
加以强调;合同条款的确立使用第三人称;合同中常将某些名词的第一个字母
大写以示强调等等。
我们对合同英语的词汇、句法等特征的了解，不仅能帮助我们更好地阅读、
理解英文合同，而且对我们起草、翻译英文合同也大有裨益。除此之外也有利
于英文合同的教学。
最后，笔者在简单介绍了简洁英语运动的基本情况及其对合同英语的影响
之后得出结论，尽管越来越多的国外文章书刊提倡合同使用短句，用现代英语
代替古英语，但常见的英文合同仍以长句、古英语和法律术语频繁使用为特色。
我们作为非英语国家的学习者，目前最好采取“知旧促新”的态度:“知旧”
就是知晓英语合同的传统格式和用语;“促新”就是努力促进合同英语的改进。
A contract refers to an agreement establishing, modifying and terminating the civil rights and obligations between subjects of equal footing. The language for contract is different from that for basic English or literature. In the Five Clocks, the American linguist Martin Joos advances the five stylistic varieties in English: the Frozen Style, the Formal Style, the Consultative Style, the Casual Style and the Intimate Style. The style of Contract English can be considered as the first one, which is the Frozen Style because the language habits of the profession cause lawyers (conn-act drafters) to frequently choose one means of expression over other possibilities. The special expressions used in English contract are difficult for non-professionals to understand. In order to understand them, non-professionals need a process of interpretation by professionals. This process is the process of thawing or unfreezing.
With China's carrying out the policy to promote reform and opening to the outside world and China's entry the WTO, there are more and more opportunities for us to communicate with those countries whose official language is English. When communicating with natural persons, legal persons or other organizations from the English speaking countries, we often need to sign English contracts with them. English contracts are becoming more and more important in our daily life. But the study of the stylistic features of contract English is limited. In our country and abroad, there are few books or articles talking about the language of contract. The language of contract is quite often ignored. There are a number of worthwhile guides to forensic linguistics in general, but given their broad scope they are of little help to the English contract learners. In order to improve the relevant study, I choose The Stylistic Features of Contract English as the title of the dissertation. Such a dissertation like mine could have a
significantly greater impact on contract
English study than any number of works on stylistic features of legal English.
In this dissertation I examine the conventions of language used in English contracts in a more systematic way and a lot of examples are cited to support what I want to say.
After briefly introducing the definition and classification of contract, the dissertation defines the terms style and contract English and points out that contract in this dissertation refers to the written clause-style civil or commercial contract of the countries whose official language is English. Generally speaking, contract English is an important branch of legal English, which is the language of the contract of England, America, and some other countries whose official language is English. The word "style" may refer to some or all of the language habits shared by a group of people (contract drafters or lawyers) at one time, or over a period of
time.
The most important part of this dissertation is Part five: the stylistic features of contract English. First of all the features of lexicon in contract are introduced. This dissertation, based on the analysis of typical examples, discusses the lexical features of contract English from the perspectives of formal words, archaisms, technical terms, common words with uncommon meanings, reduplication of words, deliberate use of vague words, and avoidance of pronouns etc..
After the interpretation of the lexical features of contract English, the 7 syntactic features are analyzed one by one: 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..
This dissertation also lists other features of legal usage in contract; words-and-numerals approach used to convey numbers, impersonal constructions and the capitalization of some nouns in contract.
The implications of stylistic features of contract English are interpreted in part 6 of this dissertation. To know the stylistic features of contra
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