Thematic Structure Analysis Of English Import And Export Contract

The theme of this paper is thematic structure analysis of English import and export contract textures. Firstly, thematic structure is one of the subsystems of textual function, which is one of the three metafunctions in systemic functional linguistics theory and was created by the internationally-known linguist Halliday in the 1950s. Systemic functional linguistics was one of the most influential linguistic theories in the world in the second half of the twentieth century. Early in 1970, Halliday raised the conception of“functions of language”, including ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function, which were regarded as the three metafunctions in systemic functional theory. Half century’s development catalyzed the wide application of systemic functional grammar in the linguistic fields of register research, genre research, cohesion and coherence research, and cognitive linguistics, etc. However, in China, functional grammar theory was seldom applied in the analysis of business contracts, especially import and export contracts. For this reason, I think it is necessary to do some specific research and this paper is just to interpret the main articles of English import and export contracts on thematic structure theory basis.Under the economic globalization, import and export trade plays a more and more important part in pushing forward economic development. Establishing standard import and export contracts, as well as accurately interpreting them is a key link in the trade activities. Thorough and careful scrutiny on the contract articles and the key sentences is needed when drafting or before signing the contract so that the responsibilities of both parties can be clarified, ambiguity can be avoided, and the further disputes and losses will be prevented. Furthermore, when concluding an English contract, we Chinese are apt to be in the dock due to the restriction of the thinking of Chinese language. Therefore, more work and effort have to be made. Contracts of high quality can help promote the import and export activities, and at the same time, the effective interpretation of the contract enables the parties to understand each other’s purposes so as to carry out the contract articles properly and avoid future disputes. For the above reasons, this paper attempts to make the analysis on the main articles of import and export contracts in terms of their thematic structure for the purpose of better understanding the contracts and the parties’intention as well as establishing high-quality contracts and smoothing the import and export trade.This paper is to analyze the main articles of English import and export contracts from the angle of textual function of functional grammar. I will firstly introduce Halliday’s systemic functional grammar theory, mainly involved with the three metafunctions: ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. What will be more concerned about are textual function and its three subsystems because thematic structure theory is the theoretical basis of this paper. After bringing in the basic conceptions, the analysis of the English import and export contracts will be based on the introduced theory, which will become the most important part of the paper. The clauses to be analyzed in this part include payment clause, inspection clause, force majeure clause, claim clause and arbitration clause, for each of which two or three examples will be brought in. Each example will be analyzed in terms of its thematic structure and pattern of thematic progression. Some analysis will be given about the informative structure and cohesion as well. Then the functional features of one type of article will be concluded to show how to understand and interpret the article more precisely through analysis. In the end, the conclusions will be got on common functional features of the import and export contract articles and the modes of expression entitled by those features. The actual case study followed will show evidence of how to avoid disputes by thematic structure analysis. Instances, diagrams and tables are to be used in the analysis. The application of Halliday’s systemic functional grammar theory into the analysis of contracts is a practical use of the theory, which not only widens the application range of the theory, but also helps to interpret the contract textures that seem to be dull but actually full of expressive skills and inherent laws.