Some discourse features of english sales contracts

Abstract In this thesis,some discourse features of English Sale Contract will be analysed and displayed in different sections corresponding to type of cohesive device.In chapter I we wil

Acknowledgements

This thesis was completed due to the intellectual, emotional, and material support that I have received from my teachers, friends, and family whom I would like to thank here.

First, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to my supervisor Mr TrÇn B¸ TiÕn for his invaluable suggestions, corrections and advice that helped me

to fulfill this study

I am also grateful to all the other teachers at the Department of Foreign Languages for all their enthusiasm and suggestions which help me overcome difficulties in the process of my study.

As always I wish to express my special thanks to my parents for giving me encouragement and creating favourable conditions in making my study

possible.

My gratitude is also extended all of my friends for their assistance in

providing me necessary materials for the study.

Abstract

In this thesis,some discourse features of English Sale Contract will be analysed and displayed in different sections corresponding to type of cohesive device.In chapter I we will deal with the definition of discourse and discourse analysis, spoken and written discourse, discourse context, discourse topic,

cohesion and coherence, aspect of coherence, cohesive devices, discourse structure, cooperaive principle and speech acts Then we will be presenting what contract is and explaining in details some grammatical, lexical and textual features of contracts in chapter II Analysing and coding cohesive devices in English Sale Contract will be presented in chapter III of this thesis Finally, some implications to English teaching and translating are provided in the hope that readers will benefit from it.

5 Design of the study ……… … 3

…

Chapter I: Theoretical background ……… … …… 4

2 Why are contracts made?

Part three: Conclusion ……… 53

1 Summary of the study……… 53

Legal acts appeared long ago in the history of human beings For example,

in Vietnam, the earliest written law code dates back from the Ly dynasty in theeleventh century, and the penal code from the Le dynasty “Luat Hong Duc”written in 1440 has been still kept until the present time Modern law code waswritten several recent decades ago Nowadays, due to the development of theworld, more and more law codes have been promulgated Thus, research on thelanguage of legal acts is very necessary It is not easy to understand legaldocuments structurally and linguistically because its communicative purposesdiffer from the ordinary genres

Sales contracts are a form of written documents used as a means to bindbusiness partners to legal obligations It is no exaggeration to say that salescontracts can lead to the success or failure of a company Many bitter lessonshave been drawn from the fact that a number of Vietnamese companies havebeen driven to unfavourable situations due to poor translation or inexperiencedcontract makers’ ignorance It is therefore essential for translators and Englishteachers to have good knowledge of contract making and translation so that suchfailures can be avoided This is the driving force that has inspired me toinvestigate this subject

It is hoped that the study is a contribution to English teaching andlearning, and a good source of reference for those who are interested in the area

2 Aim of the study.

Originating from the above reasons, this graduation paper is aimed at:

- Firstly, clarifying the special features and languages used in English Sale Contract to students and teachers

- Secondly, analysing the structure of English Sale Contract in terms ofdiscourse analysis

- Thirdly, applying the theory into practical work by analysing some authenticcontracts to help readers gain better their understanding of this issue

- Most importantly, identifying some implications in the hope of helpinglearners of English to improve their competence to analyse a contract and makegood contracts

3 Scope of the study.

Within the scope of this thesis, a full catalogue of discourse features ofEnglish is too great a subject to deal with Going deep into the analysis of theminor details of the matter seems to be impossible, considering time andresource constraints Thus, this paper wishes to touch upon some prominentfeatures of discourse with the following foci:

Firstly, the theoretical scope of the study mainly focuses on: Discourse,cohesion and coherence, discourse structure, cooperative principles and speechacts These types are then subclassified according to their manner and features

Secondly, the practical scope of this study is limited to written SalesContracts and the focus of data analysis is cohesive devives, coherence and someregister characteristics of Sales Contract

In short, I have no other wish than to present some findings from mystudy It is hoped that this study will be of some use to teachers and students atdifferent levels in the process of mastering English discourse

4 Methods of the study.

Within the small scope of this graduation paper, so to achieve the mentioned aims, the following methods have been applied

above-The first is collecting English sale contracts and classifying grammatical andlinguistic materials concerning discourse features

The next is analysing all the information selected from English sale contractsand representing it in my own words

Finally, the information obtained will be dealt with, analyzed in order to reachsome conclusions on the subject – matter under investigation, and necessarycomments should be accordingly made

5 Design of the study:

This study consists of three parts

Part One: Introduction.

Part Two: Contents

Chapter I is about theoretical background and provides a clear – cut and systematic presentation of English discourse

Chapter II gives some characteristics of English Sale ContractsChapter III gives a discourse structure of English Sale Contracts

Part Three: Conclusion.

Part II: developments

Chapter I : Theoretical background.

1 Discourse

1.1 What is Discourse?

1.1.1 Definition of discourse.

There are many opinions of discourse In cohesion in English, Halliday

and Hasan (1976: 1) states: a text is a unit of language in use It is not a “Discourse topic”……… grammatical unit, like a clause or a sentence ”

According to Brown and Yule (1983: 31): “discourse is language in use … it cannot be restricted to the description of linguistic forms independent

of the purpose or functions which these forms are designed to serve in human affair ”

While Nunan (1993: 5) states: “discourse is a continous stretch of (especially spoken) language large than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as sermon, argument, joke, or narrative ”

Cook (1997: 39) gives an easy – to – understand definition of discourse:

“stretchs of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive ”

The concept of discourse is still under discussion And, I take the viewthat is close to the way we generally understand what discourse is, as is statedvery clearly by Brown and Yule (1983: 1) “Discourse topic”……… discourse … is language in use …”

1.1.2 Discourse analysis

Traditional language study, and a great deal of language teaching, has always been devoted to sentences In reality, people do not always speak or write ingrammatical or complete sentences, but they still communicate successfully.Knowing what is supposed to make a sentence correct, and where that sentenceends is obviously not enough, though it is, to a certain extent, important andworth teaching

Discourse analysis is a new branch of linguistics that grew out of work indifferent disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics,semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology

Discourse analysis studies language in use: written texts of all kinds, andspoken data, from conversation to highly institutionalized forms of talk It

examines “how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social, and psychological context, becoming meaningful and unified for their users”

(Cook 1997: 9)

At a time when linguistics was concerned largely with the analysis of thesentence, the linguist Zelling Harris published a paper entitled “discourseanalysis” (Harris 1952) His main contributions to discourse analysis were thatdiscourse, for the first time, was recognised as one of the main objects of studyfor linguistics In these words, he concentrated mainly on the distribution oflinguistic elements in extended texts and the links between the text and itssocial situation In 1960s, Dell Hymes provided a sociological perspective withthe study of speech in its social setting

Many linguistic philosophers and sociologists such as Austin (1962),Searle (1969), and Grice (1975) were also influential in the study of language associal action, which are reflected in the speech- act theory, and the formulation

of conversational maxims

One important thing to remember is that when studying discourseanalysis, there are many different perspectives in this subject British discourseanalysis was greatly influenced by Halliday’s functional approach to language inwhich the emphasis is on the social functional structure of speech and writing

Also important in Britain were the works of Sinclair and Coulthard who developed a model for the description of classroom discourses concerned mainlywith teacher- pupil talks.

On the other hand, American discourse analysis has been dominated bywork within the ethnomethodological tradition, which emphasizes the researchmethod of close observation of groups of people communicating in naturalsettings The aim is to examine types of speech events such as storytelling,greetings, rituals and verbal duels in different cultural and social settings.Conversational analysis, which may be subsumed under the general headingdiscourse analysis, was another development of the American perspective ondiscourse analysis

Also relevant to the development of discourse analysis as a whole is thework of text grammarians, working mostly with written language Textgrammarians see texts as language elements strung together in relationships withone another that can be defined

In Vietnam, discourse analysis is a new subject; it has attracted more andmore attention from linguists, who mostly focus on sociological, stylistic,sociolinguistic, and pragmatics perspectives

1.2 Spoken and written discourse.

Spoken and written discourses express different modes of linguisticmeaning Although these two forms of language are similar in some aspects,they still have some differences Brown and Yule (1983) hold that:

(a) The syntax of spoken language is typically much less structured thanthat of written language

i Spoken language contains many incomplete sentences, often

simple sequences of phrases E.g.: Where to, mate? Home.

ii Spoken language typically contains rather little

subordination while and “Discourse topic”……… ” is a very common co-coordinator.

iii In conversation speech, where sentential syntax can be

observed, active declarative forms are normally found

(b) In written language an extensive set of metalingual markers exists to

mark relationships between clauses (that clauses, when and while, besides, moreover, however), in spoken language, the use of and, but, then “Discourse topic”……… ” is

frequent: I was so tired, and I had to go home, rather than “because I was tired,

I had to go home”.

(c) In written language, rather heavily premodified noun phrases occur

frequently such as: The federal ALP caucus aboriginal affairs committee

(d) Whereas written language sentences are generally structured insubject-predicate form, in spoken language it is quite common to find what

Givon (1979b) calls topic-comment structure, as in: These people, they like

drinking beer.

e) In formal speech, the use of passive constructions is relativelyinfrequent Active constructions are noticeable, as in:

Oh everything they do in Edinburgh + they do it far too slowly.

(f) In chat about the immediate environment, the speaker may rely on

gaze direction to supply a referent: (looking at the car) beautiful isn t it?’

(g) The speaker may replace or refine the expressions as he goes along:

Those man + this chap she was going out with.

(h) The speaker frequently uses a good deal of rather generalised

vocabulary: a lot of, got, do, thing, nice, stuff, place, and things like that.

(i) The speaker frequently repeats the same syntactic form several times

over, as in: I look at fire extinguishers + I look at fire exists + I look at what gangways are available + I look at electric cables what + are they properly earthed + are they properly covered.

(j) The speaker may produce a large number of prefabricated fillers “Discourse topic”……… ”: well, erm, I think, you know, if you see what I mean, of course, and so on.

From the above analysis, we can come to the conclusion of the differencesbetween spoken and written language Written language is more specific, moreexact and more coherent than spoken language

1.3 Discourse context

1.3.1 What is context?

Context is an important factor in discourse analysis There is a dialecticalrelationship between discourses as much as the discourse creates the context.For some scholars, context seems just to be minimal stretch of language thathelps to understand what is written or spoken This reasoning is very narrow, as

is clear from the following example offered by Brown and Yule (quoted inNguyen Hoa (2000: 39)

In this example, one and the same utterance is made, but clearly theinterpretation varies.

a Speaker: a young mother, hearer: her mother- in – law, place: park,

by a duck pond, time: sunny afternoon in September 1962 They are watching

the young mother’s two-year-old son chasing ducks and the mother-in-law hasjust remarked that her son, the child’s father, was rather backward at this age.The young mother says:

I do think Adam s quick.’

b Speaker: a student, hearers: a set of students, place: sitting around a coffee table in the refectory, time: evening in March 1980 John, one of the

groups has just told a joke Everyone laughed except Adam Then Adam laughs.One of the students says:

I do think Adam s quick.’

What is apparent from the above example is that in the first instance,Adam compares favourably with his father Also, intonation has a role to play

By contrast, Adam in the latter case compares unfavourably with the rest of thegroup of students The language does not help very much in terms of interpreting

or reading the statements Rather, it is the extra-linguistic factors that areinvolved like the backdrop of the joke enjoyed promptly by other students, butlater by Adam By context what actually mean are the non-linguistics factorsthat contribute and constrain our interpretation of discourse

1.3.2 Context versus co-text

A distinction should be made between context and co-text According toHalliday, co-text is the stretch of language that occurs before or after theutterance, which needs to be interpreted For example:

The same evening I went ashore The first landing in any new country is very interesting

(Brown and Yule, 1983: 47)

The word landing has its specific meaning determined because of the previous discourse, i.e., the person went ashore You will then know that this

particular person came ashore or traveled by ship, and did not arrive by plane

To sum up, both context and co-text take important parts in interpretingdiscourse, but they are obviously different Context involves non-linguisticelements while co-text refers to linguistic ones

1.4 Discourse topic

1.4.1 The notion discourse topic“ ”

As there exists a close relationship between topic and the representation

of discourse content, the use of the term topic “Discourse topic”……… ”, a notion that seems to be essential to concepts such as “relevance” and “coherence” will be examined in

the study of discourse

For Brown and Yule (1983) “the notion topic is an intuitively satisfactory way of describing the unifying principle which means one stretch of discourse about something and the next stretch

“Discourse topic”……… ” about something else, for it is appealed

to very frequently in the discourse literature”

For some people, the term topic “Discourse topic”……… ” is associated with description of

sentence structure Following Hockett’s view, we should make a distinctionbetween the topic and comment in a sentence The speaker announces a topicand then says something about it In many languages, the grammatical subject orthe marker of the topic and the predicate indicates the comment

According to Palmer (1983), all sentences are possible to regard ascontaining two parts, each of which carries information The first part of a

sentence – the theme, maybe called the topic when it contains known

information and the other - the rheme, maybe called the comment when it has

new information

Van Dijk (1985: 75 quoted in Nguyen Hoa 1998: 80) uses the term topic and theme interchangeably: “we do not assign a theme or a topic to one sentence, but to large stretches of talks or texts ”

For us, the important thing is that we shall treat topic as “what is being talked about ”

It seems also obvious that a topic is a generalisation or an abstraction,

and hence the expression of a topic should be subjective “Discourse topic”……… ”, and there are many

ways of expressing the topic of discourse, and there is no such a thing as onecorrect expression of the topic for any fragment of discourse

In the analysis of contracts, the use of the word topic “Discourse topic”……… ” as Brown and

Yule (1983) suggested that the topic of a text is equivalent to the title or

headline and that, for any text, there is a single correct expression which is: the “Discourse topic”……… topic ” They also point out that this become the case if texts could only be

understood completely as long as they were accompanied by the joint set ofproposition expressed by the sequence of sentences in the text

1.4.3 Topic framework:

The notion topic “Discourse topic”……… ” as “what is being talked about” is attractive because it

seems to be the central organising principle for a lot of discourse And it mayhelp us to determine what set of sentences should be considered together as a set

of some kind, separate from another set This can serve as a criterion fordistinguishing the connected coherent from anything that is not However, what

is needed is a characterisation of topic “Discourse topic”……… ”, and as Brown and Yule suggest, this is possible within a topic framework “Discourse topic”……… ”

Topic framework consists of all the activated (relevant to the

interpretation of what is said or written) features of context because they bearthe aspects of contexts directly reflected in the text, and need to be called upon

to interpret it What happens is that the speaker or writer usually operate withinthis topic framework to produce language, thus we will have a sense that thesentences are connected topically

2 Cohesion and coherence.

2.1 Cohesion versus coherence.

In this section, we will look at “cohesion” and “coherence” as two distinct

discoursal concepts

Cohesion, according to Arthur (1992), is defined as follows:

“cohesion: [from Latin cohesion/cohaesionics: to cling together] is the use of language forms to indicate semantic relations between elements in a discourse … Together cohesion and register contribute to textuality, the sense that something is a text and not a random collection of sentences ”

In Moley’s (1985) view, cohesion is a relationship between elements of “Discourse topic”………

a text where proper interpretation and understanding of one element depends

on another It thus serves to relate elements of a text to each other ”

For Halliday and Hasan (1976), The concept of cohesion is a semantic “Discourse topic”……… one: it refers to relations of meaning that exist within a text, and that define it

as a text ”

From the above definitions, it can be said that cohesion is a term used tomention the formal link that causes text or discourse to cohere or stick together.This formal link can be achieved through several means of cohesion:

grammatical, logical and lexical cohesion

A: You weren t at the party last night’

B: No, I m sorry, I wasn t there How did it go?’ ’

In this example, there is obviously a link between “at the party” and“there” “There” is used to refer to “at the party”.

Coherence, in contrast, is concerned with the type of semantic orrhetorical relationship that underlines texts Coherence often depends on thecommon shared background knowledge, implication or inference: The followingdialogue may provide an illustration

A: You weren t at the party last night’

B: My son s ill’

The response seems unrelated to the former sentence, but it becomes coherent if A knows the implication that because B’s son were ill, she had tostay at home

In short, cohesion is only a guide to coherence, and coherence issomething created by the reader in the act of reading the text Coherence is thefeeling that a text hang together, that it makes sense, and is not just a jumble ofsentences Coherence is embodied by a system of cohesive devices and cohesion

is mainly used to embody coherence

Cohesion Coherence

- is in the text

- grammatical/ lexical relationship

- clues/ signal/ guide to coherence

- is in the readers’/ listeners’ mind

- the feeling that the text makes sense

It is obvious that the above sentences all refer to the same topic, that is theproblems of drink – driving.

A text may sometimes have subtopics that should be explicitly stated inthe topic sentence and hierarchically developed in each paragraph of the text.However, all the supporting ideas should maintain constant discussion on onlythe main topic of the text

This analysis shows that the coherence of the text can be gain in the

topical cohesion that can help to distinguish from a jumble of sentences

The high cost of a college education has become a staple of American discourse Pundits disapprove of it; parents gripe about it at neighbourhood parties; people plan their careers and finances around the necessity of paying for it A college education, we constantly hear, now costs more than $100,000, and the cost is rising faster than the inflation rate

The truth is that the $25,000-a-year college is relatively rare, but it exerts

a pernicious influence on American culture It creates an atmosphere of panic around college, ect

It can be realized easily that the logical sequence relation here is cause and effect relation as the high cost of college education, so the impact on

American society

In general, what creates links between the clauses and sentences of thetext is known as cohesion and coherence, the topic and logic of a text can beachieved with the help of topical cohesion and logical cohesion known as twoimportant aspects of coherence

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), there are two kinds of reference:

exophora and endophora Endophora consists of anaphoric and cataphoric.

These two types of references are performed through instructing readers toconsult back to the former part of the contract ( anaphoric reference) or to thelatter part of the contract (cataphoric reference)

- Nominal ellipsis: The phenomenon in which a nominal phrase or a headnoun is omitted is called nominal ellipsis

E.g.: His brother is the first person to get married He is the second.

Person

“Discourse topic”……… ” is elliptical and “the second” means “the second person”.

- Verbal ellipsis: It means ellipsis within the verbal group, for instance:

Have you been swimming?

- Clausal ellipsis: Takes the presupposing clause as a basic structurewhere ellipsis occurs in constituents like the subject, complement, predicatorand adjunct Missing part can be recovered from the correspondingpresupposed structure in another sentence, undoubtedly the whole clause can

be omitted

E.g.: Can you swim?

Yes [I can swim]

“Discourse topic”……… I can swim” is omitted

2.3.3 Substitution:

Substitution is simply defined as the replacement of an expression byanother in the text It is used to avoid repetition in case the writer or the speakerdoes not want to use the same word or phrase many times without implication.Most of substitutes are proform within sentences

E.g.: You and Peter seem to be ready Shall we go to the cinema now?

We

“Discourse topic”……… ” substitutes for an implication you and Peter and I “Discourse topic”……… ”

Similar to ellipsis, substitution can also be classified into three: Nominal substitution, verbal substitution, and clausal substitution.

- Nominal substitution: is the use of substitute word to replace the head of acorresponding nominal group The noun function as the head is alwayscountable

E.g.: I have two sons and a pretty daughter.

I have the same.

“Discourse topic”……… The same” substitutes for two sons and a pretty daughter “Discourse topic”……… ”.

- Verbal substitution: is substitution of the verbal group by means of the verb

do

“Discourse topic”……… ”, which can substitute for any verb provided it is active, not passive except be , “Discourse topic”……… ” or in some contexts, have “Discourse topic”……… ”

E.g.: Have the children fed the dog?

I think they must have done

- Clausal substitution: is another type of substitution in which what ispresupposed is not an element within the clause but an entire clause

E.g.: I think that they got married.

I think so [they got married]

2.3.4 Conjunction:

Conjunction is the forth and final type of cohesive relation that we find ingrammar cohesion Conjunction differs from reference, substitution, andellipsis in that it is not a device for reminding the reader of previouslymentioned entities, actions, and states of affairs In other words, it is a cohesivedevice because it signals relationships that can only be fully understoodthrough reference to other parts of the text

In English, four types of conjunction are recognised: adversative, additive, temporal and causal.

- Additive conjunction: serves to add something more to the text It usually

introduces a new clause as an extra piece of information, perhaps reinforcing

what has already been said For example: and , in addition , similarly , “Discourse topic”……… ” ” ” “Discourse topic”……… ” moreover

“Discourse topic”……… ”…

E.g.: She said she loved him and she wanted to marry him

- Adversative conjunction: is explained as introducing an item of information

which is contrary to expectation such as: but , however , yet “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ”…

E.g.: He worked very hard Yet he didn t pass the exam.’

- Causal conjunction: marks the relationship of reason, consequence and

purposes such as: because , hence , consequently “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ”

E.g.: I woke up late There fore, I was late for school.

- Temporal conjunction: specifies the time sequence relationship, which

exists between sentences For example: previously , up to now , at the “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… same time , from now on , first , second , at first , finally ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ”…

E.g.: First he forgot his money, then he forgot his key.

2.3.5 Lexical cohesion:

Lexical cohesion is the choice of words In other words, it is the choice of

lexical items Lexical cohesion comes about through the selection of items thatare related in some way to those that have gone before Therefore, the cohesiveeffect is achieved by the selection of vocabulary which involves the employment

of repetitions, synonyms or lexical equivalents, antonyms and association

2.3.5.1 Repetition:

Repetition is an action of saying or writing something more than once Inlegal documents repetition instead of pronouns seems to be a preferabletransition device The main cause of this transition device is to increase the

precision and closeness of the articles of law For example, the word party A “Discourse topic”……… ”

is repeated twice in the following example:

Party A shall be responsible for the delivery time provided that all materials and accessories to be supplied by party B arrive at Haiphong port in reasonable time prior to starting production of a new style.

Any factories to be used for production of orders by Party A shall be approved/accepted by Technicians from Steilmann.

The purpose of reiteration here is to avoid possible mistakes if pronounsare used instead of reiteration, and to obtain a more important result that isclarity and closeness of legal acts The lack of pronoun in legal acts is one cause making these acts wordy in style, dull and monotonous for readers

2.3.5.2 Synonymy:

Synonymy is a phenomenon of using synonyms And synonyms aredefined that they are actually words of the same parts of speech which havesimilar meaning This is to avoid repeating one word or phrase too many time For example:

Where did you buy this skirt? You got it at the students shop, didn t you?’ ’

In order to avoid repeating the word buy ,“ ” speaker uses got “Discourse topic”……… ” to replace

2.3.5.2 Antonymy:

Antonymy is a phenomenon of using antonyms Words that are opposite

in meaning are called antonyms Popularly, to avoid repeating one word orexpression and its negative form, we use its antonym For example:

He treats you ill or well.

“ill” & “well” are antonyms We can say that “He treats you ill or not ill” However, “well” makes the sentence more profound

2.4 Discourse structure:

There have been a number of studies on discourse structuring According

to the ideas of Prague School of linguistics, any utterance or sentence can be

said to contain given and new information Given information is that which the speaker or writer assumes is known by the listener or reader New information is that which is assumed to be known Given and new information will be reflected

in the structure of sentences and utterances

The new maybe conveyed in English by means of cleft-sentences, some

limiting adverbs, the indefinite article, and the construction “there is…””

Meanwhile, the given may find its expression in “as far as…””, inversion, thedefinite article, or substitution by pronominal elements

Examples:

* It is the cat which ate the rat.

(Given: Something ate the rat

New: The cat did the eating)

*What the cat ate is the rat.

(Given: The cat ate something

New: The rat got eaten)

Particularly, Mann and Thompson’s view on discourse structuring is the

best known in English The outstanding feature of their theory is relations,

which show that type of connection between two parts of discourse Therelationship, according to them, exists between two pieces of discourse calledthe nucleus (N) and the satellite (S) The function – the reason why the speaker/

writer chooses to combine these two pieces of discourse, is called the effect.

Mann and Thompson have identified many types of relations Their open-endedlist is circumstance, solutionhood, elaboration, relation of cause, antithesis and

so on For example:

a) (N) The program as established for calendar year 1980 really works.

b) (S) In only a few minutes, I entered all the figures from my 1980 tax return and got a result which agreed with my hand calculations to the penny.

The first sentence is the nucleus, which is strengthened by two pieces ofevidence in the S: first you got the result, then the result was judged correct Theauthor’s purpose is using these S clauses to enhance the reader’s belief in the Nclause

2.5 Cooperative principle

Grice (1967) introduced the concept of general principle of conversationplus a number of maxims which participants will normally obey This generalprinciple is called the co-operative principle, and can serve as a help to accountfor the high degree of implicitness in conversation and the required relationbetween rule-governed meaning and force

The principle comprises four maxims: quantity, quality, relevance andmanner

- Quality: Do not say what you believe to be false

Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

- Quantity: Make yourself as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange

Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Therefore this thesis just aims at the maxim relevance “Discourse topic”……… ” which seems to be the

most important because it provides the basis to deal with the problem of

coherence of texts Relevance “Discourse topic”……… ” can be understood to be suitability in

information of the problems of finding out which information is suitable,informative and relevant

2.6 Speech acts:

Discourse analysis and pragmatics are closely related because both ofthem study the same language phenomena Language in use involves not only

making statements that describe states of affairs, but also performing what wecall speech acts.

We often perform an act by saying some acts which are said to be explicit

in the sense that they involve a performative verb Others are implicit becausethey can be open to a number of interpretations When a speaker produces aperformative sentence, he or she is actually realising three acts at the same time:

A locutionary act is the act of saying something in the full sense of “say”

An illocutionary act is an act performed by or as a result of saying.

A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or as a result of saying

Depending on functions, George Yule classify five types of speech act asfollowing:

- Declaratives: bring about a new state of being Some typical verbs are:

declare, pronoun, resign.

E.g.: I declare the meeting open.

- Representatives: can be judged for true value E.g.: I didn t sleep last night’ Representatives may vary in terms of how hedged or aggravated the assertionmight be These variations are often expressed by the use of modal words

Compare: She is right vs Perhaps, she is right.

- Expressives: they are expressions of joys, disappointment, likes and dislikes

such as what a beautiful girl! “Discourse topic”……… ”

- Directives: are those acts which get people to something They are commands,

orders, requests, suggestions expressed by verbs as order, command, request, allow …

E.g.: How many times do I have to tell you.

- Commissives: which are statements that function as promises or refusals for action E.g.: Don t worry I ll be there tomorrow’ ’

Chapter II: The English Sale Contract and its Properties

1 What is a contract?

A contract is a legally enforceable promise or set of promises Howevernot all promises are contracts Over the years, the law courts developed anumber of requirements that a promise had to meet before it would be

considered a contract According to Jame Barnes (2000: 58) “A contract is an agreement (an offer and an acceptance) voluntarily entered into by parties having capacity to contract to do a legal act or acts” In addition to these

elements, the courts required written evidence of some kinds of contracts

2 Why are contracts made?

Contracts are probably a necessary device in any kind of market economywhere goods and services are exchanged by people acting in their own interest.People might not enter into agreements that call for some future performanceunless they know some means exist (the law) to force either people to honortheir promises

For example, a small business might be afraid to supply its goods to alarge corporation in exchange for the corporations promise to pay for them nextmonth unless the business knows it could have outside help to force thecorporation to pay Similarly, a weak person might not be willing to pay a strongperson today for goods to be delivered next week unless the weak person knowsthere is outside help available to enforce the return of the money if the goods arenot delivered, or if the goods delivered are not what was agreed to

It is also true that it would probably be impossible to have anindustrialized market economy without contracts A manufacturer would beunable to do the kind of planning necessary to run a business if it could not rely

on agreements with suppliers to furnish the raw materials needed to make itsproducts Similarly, a manufacturer might not be willing to commit itself to buyraw materials or hire employees it could not rely on buyers’ promises to buy itsproducts

It is not surprising, then, that the contract was accepted as the basis forbusiness transactions at a very early point in history Egyptians and

Mesopotamians recognized and enforced contracts thousands of years beforeChrist By 1603 the common law courts of England recognized theenforceability of simple contracts.

of the field, mode, tenor- constitute a register ”

For Hudson (1980) the term “register” is widely used in socio – linguistics to refer to “varieties according to use” or in other words, register

shows what you are doing

In the view of Galperin (1977): “ A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.”

In short, register is linguistic varieties that are closed linked to occupation,profession, topics, etc It is tied to the selection of words in discourse.Therefore, one should take the audience into consideration when he/sheproduces a written or spoken piece of language, i.e to whom it is written orspoken

3.2 The parameters of register.

According to Halliday, Mc Intosh and Strevens, there are three parameters

of register to describe the effect of situational context on the meaning of text.They are: Field, Mode, and Tenor

3.2.1 Field:

Field of discourse refers to the purpose and subject matter of the

discourse, which is what the speaker talks about In the view of Halliday, field

is “the total event, which the text is functioning, together with the purposive activity of the functioning, together with the purposive activity of the speaker

or writer, it thus includes the subject matter as one element in it ”

3.2.2 Mode:

Mode of discourse is about the channels or the ways by which discourse isconducted Mode is concerned with what part of language is playing, what it isthat the participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation,the symbolic organisation of the text, the status that it has, and its function inthe context, including the channel and also the rhetorical mode, what is beingachieved by the text in terms of such categories as persuasive, expository,didactic and the like.

3.2.3 Tenor:

Tenor of discourse is concerned with the interpersonal relations betweenthe participants It refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants,their statuses and roles: what kind of role relationships of one kind or another,both the types of speech role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships in which they are involved.Tenor is divided into personal tenor and functional tenor: Personal tenorcomprises the degree of formality, familiarity and technicality of linguisticexchanges It refers to the social roles of participants together with their statusrelationships and personalities On the other hand, Functional tenor refers to thedetermining of the social function or role of utterance, identifying the purposefor which the language is being used

In the view of functional grammarians, Field is considered as the ideational component, Mode is the textual component and Tenor is the

interpersonal component In fact, these three variables overlap They help usdefine and identify register

use of modal verbs such as will , shall , should , may , must “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ”, mostly

shall

“Discourse topic”……… ’, and may “Discourse topic”……… ”

“Discourse topic”……… ” conveys the meaning of giving permission, therefore, it is used to

build optional, noncompulsory norms For example:

Neither the rights and duties under this contract nor the contract itself

may be assigned by either party, either in whole or in part, without the prior written approval of the other party.

Shall / will , must , should

“Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” “Discourse topic”……… ” convey the meaning of obligation, prohibition

and giving an order, so they are used in prohibitive norms and compulsorynorms For instance:

* Any amendments and supplements in this contract must be made with

mutual agreement by both Parties in writing.

* In case the two Partners cannot solve the problem themselves the case

should be referred to Economic Arbitration Board Hanoi city, whose final decision shall be final and bound for implementation The charge

for judging will be paid by the counterpart that faults.

Especially, “shall” used with the second and the third person is mostlyused in contracts to express a strong assertion, command or duty

The two Parties commit to accomplish all terms and conditions specified

in this Contract cooperatively On the execution of this contract, any

discrepancy or dispute arise s hall be solved amicably based on documents attached this contract Violator must undertake legal responsibility.

3.3.2 Use of passive voice and active voice.

English contract is rich in passive verbs Unluckily for lawyers, modernEnglish is moving away from the passive because passive forms often “test out”badly, reader responds slowly and inaccurately to passive, their speakers have

no “feel” for this form Thus, avoid using passive verbs where active verbsconvey meanings of the sentences clearly Passive verb test out badly,especially in instructions Readers respond slowly and less accurately wheninstructions use passives For example:

Passive:

For the watch to be set, both the command button and the recessed set button must be used If the set button is to be depressed, use should be made of a small object such as paper clip Damage could be incurred by the watch if a large object is employed.

Active: When you set your watch, you ll have to use both the command’

button and the recessed set-button Use something small, a paper clip for example, to depress the set button If you use something bigger, you could damage your watch.

The passive is sometimes dangerous if you assign a duty but fail to saywho must perform it Look at the following example:

A monthly progress report should

be sent to the employer at his

registered office.

The contractor should send a monthly progress report to the Employer at his registered office

Or:

Payment is required on or before

13 th of each month

The Licensee shall pay the Licensor

on or before 13 th of each month.

For those reasons the passive voice is not normally used in Sales Contractsand our investigation seems to support this view

3.3.3 The Clause pattern in English Sale Contract:

Long sentences quickly become confusing in English, especially in theinternational arena, drafter must know, and work within, the limits of basisEnglish clause structure when combining ideas into longer sentence English is

a mix of French and Anglo-Saxon When languages combine, two results arecommon

* An oversize vocabulary with blurred distinctions of meaning

* A simplified grammatical structure with usage and idiom replacing “logical” rules

Both results occurred in the case of English Because English grammar isthin on rules and rich in “illogical” usages, it is difficult to expresscomplex,logical relationships among ideas As a basis for expression, try towork with the four basic clause structures that underlie most well writtencontract provisions

Structure 1: Main clause plus Main clause.

Two sentences (main clause) joined by and (or a similar conjunction).

This is most frequently used structure in the English language Because most

languages freely use and, but, or between main clauses, this construction

presents no problems internationally

Main clause + Main clause

E.g.:

* The stipulated prices are fixed, and they are to be understood delivered paid to the place of destination.

* The headings and marginal notes in these General Conditions shall not

be deemed part of this Contracts, and they shall not be taken into consideration in the interpretation thereof.

Structure 2: Main clause plus One subordinate clause.

The simplest relationship between two ideas is to make one into a mainclause and the other into a subordinate clause These simple sentences aresometimes enough to express quite elaborate contract provisions

Main clause + Subordinate clause

E.g

The Employer has the right to terminate this Contract if construction work is not carried out in accordance with local by-laws.

We can also begin with the subordinate clause, especially when using the

if- clause; the addition of the word then makes the relationship particularly clear.

Subordinate clause + Main clause

E.g

If the construction work is not carried out in accordance with the local

by laws then the employer has the right to terminate this Contract–

Structure 3: The Daisy – Chain.

In contracts, a string of conditions is often attached to a main provision.Then we must “daisy-chain” the clause

Main clause

+

Subordinate Subordinate Subordinate

clause + clause + clause

(Type A) (Type A) (Type A)

Naturally, the main clause can also come after the daisy-chain The

conjunction, for example, if, should be repeated at the start of each clause A

good example occurs in these Terms for Deliveries Abroad: