Linguistic Pecularities Of Contracts in English

Sellers…

…and India Electric Company, hereinafter referred to as the

Buyers…

Although in Russian it is always singular, in English it can be either singular or plural. That is why all variants are possible: the

Buyers – the Sellers; the Buyer – the Seller; Buyer – Seller. The most common is the first variant though the others are also possible. e.g. Should the Seller fail to notify the Buyer of a contingency…

If, however, they are to be shipped to Buyer who lives a considerable distance away… (absence of article)

The goods sold under the present contract are to be delivered by

Sellers and accepted by Buyers. (absence of article)

The definite article is also used with ships. e.g. The S.S. Svir is to arrive on July, the 5th.

Also the definite article is rarely used after prepositions of the

Latin origin per and ex. e.g. The goods were shipped per S.S. Svir.

The wheat was delivered ex S.S. Svir.

The definite article is never used with nouns which are followed by a number in sizes, codes, etc.: e.g. under Contract № 25; Order № 1015; our account No. 100/1066; under paragraph 9 of your General Conditions of the order; in accordance with clause 6 of the agreement.

From the above-written we can conclude that contract has its own grammatical and stylistic peculiarities which have much in common with the ones of business correspondence. However, they are unique enough to consider contract a specific type of business correspondence.

2.3. Lexical peculiarities of contracts

From the lexicological point of view contracts are of great interest. The lexicon of contract has its own specific features. First of all, it is rather stable. As a rule, words have their only exact meaning. There are no words which are emotionally coloured. As a result of it, we can point out the words, which are present practically in every contract. They are the following.

Whereas expresses every man’s idea of how a contract begins. One must be careful about mixing up recitals of history with what is actually being agreed on. It would be wrong to write *Where as A admits owing B $ 1000, because the admission may later haunt one.

Rather less damage would be caused by using of the proper word.

Whereas means that the parties have been engaged in a series of transactions resulting in a dispute over accounting between them. e.g. The surplus is to be paid for by the Buyers, whereas shortweight is to be refunded by the Sellers.

One more compound word with the adverb where is whereby, which means by which and refers to the present contract. e.g. We have concluded the present contract whereby it is agreed as follows…

The usage of compound words with adverbs here / there and prepositions is also typical of written formal style of English. Their meaning is made up from meaning of their components. There is no principal difference, though, between meanings of here- / there- compounds. e.g. If shipment of the whole or part is thereby rendered impossible… (thereby = by it; by that means; in that connection)

We are sending you herewith statement of your account. (herewith

= with it / that)