Abstract:With the development of economy, with the deepening of China’s opening-up to the outside world, and particularly with China’s entry into the WTO, the business transaction has grown rapidly and business activities between China and other countries have become more and more frequent. Business contracts are both economic documents and legal documents, which have legal power and authority, and they play important roles on international trade. Most international business contracts are written in English. Thus mastering the unique characteristics English business contracts are of great significance for international business workers. Therefore, this paper explores the stylistic features of English business contracts from two aspects: lexical level and syntactic level with a lot of examples. Hopefully, this will offer some help to international business workers.

Keywords:  English business contracts   stylistic features   lexical features   syntactic features

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Significance and Purpose of the Thesis-1

1.2 Structure of the Thesis-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-2

2.1 Definition of Business Contract-2

2.2 Significance of Business Contract-2

2.3 Characteristics of English Business Contract-3

Chapter Three: Stylistic Features of English Business Contracts-4

3.1 Stylistics-4

3.2 Lexical Features-4

3.2.1 Technical Terms-4

3.2.2 Abbreviations-5

3.2.3 Common Words with Special Meanings-6

3.2.4 Formal Words-6

3.2.5Archaic Words-7

3.2.6 Juxtaposition of Words-7

3.3 Syntactic Features-8

3.3.1 Declarative Sentence-8

3.3.2 Long Sentence-9

3.3.2.1 Attributive Subordinate Clause-9

3.3.2.2 Adverbial Subordinate Clause-10

Chapter Four Conclusion-12

References-13