Abstract

With the development of the global economy, the contract becomes more and more important. In a contract, there are lots of cohesive devices. These cohesive devices, as one of the important components of texture, attract lots of linguists and scholars’ attention. Cohesion can be grammatical and lexical as well. Lexical Cohesion is a deciding factor to form a texture in the text. So, to some extent, it is also the textual cohesion.

Based on the theory of lexical cohesion, this paper studies the lexical cohesive devices in the business contracts. It aims to give references to the study of the lexical cohesion in Chinese and English contracts. This thesis explains and analyzes three kinds of lexical devices: repetition, synonym and collocation in Chinese and English contracts. Through the comparison of business contracts in Chinese and English, the paper will find the similarities and differences in them, and then find out the reasons behind of them. It aims to add the understanding of Chinese and English contracts and avoid the unnecessary contract disputes.

Key Words: business contracts; lexical cohesion; repetition; synonymy; collocation

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature Review2

 2.1 Business contracts2

    2.1.1 Definition2

2.1.2 Characteristics.3

2.1.3 Functions.3

 2.2 Lexical Cohesion4

    2.2.1 Definition of lexical cohesion.4

    2.2.2 Devices5

 2.3 Related studies6

3 Lexical Cohesive Devices in Chinese and English Contracts7

  3.1 Repetition8

  3.2 Synonymy.9

  3.3 Collocation.10

4 Comparison of Lexical Devices in E-C Contracts11

5 Conclusions.13

References15