商务英语函电Unit_13_Contract教材教学课件.ppt

;Part One: Teaching Aims Requirements:;Part Two: Background Knowledge;Ⅱ. Characteristics of Legal Languages 1. Use of terms of art. Legal or contract English employs a great deal of terminology that has a technical meaning and is not generally familiar to the layman (e.g. waiver, restraint of trade, restrictive covenant, defect, remedy, jurisdiction, damages and/or losses, indemnities, tenancy, etc.). The technical meaning of words in the contracts is often stabilized, clarified, single and precise, such as: indemnities instead of compensation; conveyance instead of trnasfer of real estate; tenancy rather than lease of property; wind up a business rather than end/stop a business.;2. Extensive use of words and phrases derived from French and Latin, such as undertake, pursue, observe, establish, execute, terminate, assist, provide, etc. More examples include: pro rate tax rate instead of proportional tax rate; pro bono lawyer rather than lawyer engaged in charitable legal assistance; and agent ad litem, force majuere. 3. Use of ordinary words in apparently peculiar contexts. For example, “Prejudice” as a common word (noun), means an unfair and often unfavorable feeling or opinion formed without thinking deeply and clearly or without enough knowledge. But in contract, “prejudice” means loss of any rights in contract:. ;4. Use of doublets and triplets. There is a curious historical tendency in legal English to string together two or three words to convey what is usually a single legal concept. Examples of this include null and void, fit and proper, perform and discharge, dispute, controversy or claim, and promise, agree and covenant. “FOR VALUE RECEIVED, the undersigned does hereby sell, transfer, and set over to _____ all his right, title and interest in and to a certain contract dated ____, 19____ by and between the undersigned and_____, a copy of which is annexed hereto.” From this long sentence, we can find “sell, transfer, assign and set over” and “right, t