【正文】 its preciseness． This characteristic is embodied by use of paired words,plex expression,scarcity of pronouns,repetition of words and so on． The last feature is the conservation of the traditional contract English． It is externalized by dearth of punctuation and the set framework that consists of a beginning with the two parties concerned expressed in capitals and sometimes with the date that sees the contract signed written out fully in words and withwhereas clauseexpressed or implied． The main verbwitnessethis followed by a very long abject and the ending is often characterized byin witness where of． 9 IV .Formal Contract Although the traditional English contract is still operative and can be read occasionally,the English contracts that are often adopted in international businesses have changed significantly in dictation and grammar． Therefore it is necessary to analyze and discuss in terms of lingual styles the current English contracts,which I boldly divide into the two kinds,the formal one and the modern one,and then pare them with the traditional ones． We take the formal contracts in to account first． Both of the Samples Three and Four are still difficult to peruse,but not so difficult as the two of the traditional contracts； at least,we feel that theflavoris a little different． A. Features of Lingual Styles of Formal Contract of Long and Short Sentences These two samples contain many lengthy sentences,though some sentences in them are short． Sample Three is made up of five sentences． Each of three of them is constituted by 1 00 words or so． They bear similarity in length to those presented in the traditional contracts． The other two,one with about 50words,and the other with 29 words,may be called midlength sentences． In Sample Four,there are six sentences in a11． Three of them deserve the name of long sentences with 93,72 and 81 words other three are of normal length and the shortest of them is coral： lost of 13 words． I have also read a good number of other formal English contracts and counted the words that form a sentence． The findings are similar to what have been analyzed above． Therefore,a conclusion may be arrived at that a formal English contract is stamped with one of the linguostylistic features： long sentences,but they are mixed with some short and mid1ength sentences. 10 Punctuation Unlike the traditional contracts the formal English contracts are fully punctuated with mas and periods and so on． but question marks and ellipses can find no way into them． The reason for this change may be to make these formal contracts easy to read quickly and accurately so as to keep pace with the swift rhythms of our electronic era． Another possible explanation of full punctuation may be that nowadays． the formal contracts are almost always duplicated or even multiplexed and each copy is equally authentic in law． If occurs any alteration or deletion of punctuation that might change the original meanings of some sentences,it will be impossible to tamper with all the copies and the distorted one is easily recognized by modern science． 3. Less Archaism Archaism lingers about the formal contracts． Both in Sample Three and Four,we can spot some pound adverbs which are archaic and exclusively used in contracts． In Sample Three, hereunder and herebyare the two arehereof,herein,therein,thereofin Sample Four．． All these adverbs put a touch of archaism on the formal English contracts,but,except these adverbs,other archaic words are rarely used in them,which is a difference of the formal English contracts from the traditional ones． 4. Pervasive Special Terms and Formal Words Like the traditional contract,the formal contracts are pervaded with special terms and big words ． In Sample Three,the verbattach means effect ore into legal operation． This definition ofattach can not he found in many dictionaries but only in Webster’s New Third International Dictionary,which reflects that this usage of the verb is highly specialized． The phrasein forceis also of legal use． meaningin effect other than the mon meaning ofin large numbers． Commencement used instead of the mon wordbeginning,Completion,prior toandterminateare used rather thanend,be they believe that a social contract originates in a rational agreement by members of society. In other words,the normative principles of interpersonal relationships conceptually emerge from the practical procedures of political dialogues that assign individual rights and obligations to promote individual cooperative interactions and set legal and moral constraints on the pursuit of personal interests. Rightsbased contract theorists emphasize that the most important principles of the formation of contractual arrangements among individual and institutional contractors are freedom and equity,moral autonomy,fairness,individual wellbeing,and social utility. They believe that rights should entail these moral and legal constraints on the pursuit of each individual39。 關鍵詞 ： 語言特征 ； 傳統(tǒng)合同 ； 現(xiàn)代合同 ； 正式合同 ii A Comment on Linguostylistics of Contract English Abstract This paper is aimed at expounding the linguostylistic features of the contract English． First it is designed to classify the English contracts into three kinds： the traditional,the formal and the modern． The traditional contract English may be the most formal of all English varieties and possess many lingual features such as extreme length of a sentence sometimes,even several paragraphs are constituted by one sentence dearth or absence of punctuation pervasion of archaic and big words ， employment of special terms,and paired synonyms,redundance of expressions,repetition of words,omission of articles