The language of business correspondence

     e.g. D & R Electrical, Ltd. hereinafter the Buyer.

     The aforesaid is a cliche which is more preferable in texts of contracts instead of its less formal equivalents: the above-mentioned, the above-written, as was written / said before, and the like.

     e.g. The aforesaid documents should contain references…

     It is understood and agreed. On one hand it usually adds nothing, because every clause in the contract is figurally understood and agreed. On the other hand, it adds an implication that the other clauses are not backed up by this phrase. By including one you exclude the other.

     e.g. The prices in this contract are understood and agreed upon.

     Including without limitation. Usually people want to specify things underscored in contracts, and this phrase indulges the prediction.

     e.g. You may assign any and all your rights including without limitation your exclusive British and Commonwealth Rights.

     To tell the truth, it is a useful phrase because people are always forgetting or neglecting to mention that a great many interests may be involved in what appears to be a simple dialogue. A is controlled by investors, and В – by a foreign parent company. That's why it will be useful to say in such a situation as between us…

     e.g. We confirm the exchange of telexes as between us follows…

     Solely on condition that – it's one of a few phrases that can be considered better than its short counterparts. One might ask: «Why not use just if instead of the phrase?» If – by itself, opens a possibility to open contingencies.

     e.g. If Smith delivers 2000 barrels I will buy them.

     But it is unclear if you will buy them only from Smith. Therefore, we can use only if as a synonym. Sometimes it works out, but not always. In this case more than an elaborated phrase is justified.

     e.g. I will buy 2000 barrels solely on condition that Smith delivers them.

     The phrase makes the conditions of the deal clear.

     e.g. We can accept the goods solely on condition that you grant us allowance of…per…

     In contracts there are other prepositional phrases made up from words. They are complex, and one must be attentive using them. The prepositions also provided are the following: on conditions that; on the understanding, etc.

     e.g. We agree to this only on the understanding that the rate of freight does not exceed.

     e.g. Claims against the quality of vehicles may be submitted on conditions that the defects are found within 40 days.

     Such prepositional phrases are practically equal in meaning.

     Subject to – a few contracts do without this phrase. Many promises can be made good only if certain things occur. The right procedure is to spell out these plausible impediments to the degree that you can reasonably foresee them.

     e.g. Our agreement is subject to the laws of Connecticut.

     e.g. The wood goods hereinafter specified subject to a variation in Sellers' option of 20 percent…

     But there is another meaning of the prepositional phrase. It may express some condition.

     e.g. We offer you, subject to your acceptance by cable, 1000 tons of ore.

     Exclusive – it's important in contracts. English is vast and its usage creates difficulties in many cases. Exclusivity as a term means that somebody is bored from dealing with another one in a specified area.

     In the lexicon of contracts there are many foreign words, first of all, Latin ones, such as pro rata and pari passu. Pro rata proves helpful when payments are to be in proportion refuting prior formulas in a contract.

     e.g. Demurrage is to be paid per day and pro rata for any part of the running day.

     Pari passu is used when several people are paid at the same level or time out of a common fund.

     e.g. Fractions to be considered pari passu.

     Still there are such words as inferior / superior, they are often used to describe the quality of goods.

     e.g. The quality of Model B-50 is superior to that of Model B-45.

     Complaints and claims may arise in connection with inferior quality of the goods, late delivery or non-delivery of goods.

     A Latin word is not often used in contracts nowadays. Now it means an arbitrary court for a concrete trial. Such Latin words as ultima, proxima are now archaic and rarely used.

     e.g. If the excess is discovered only on arrival of the goods at their ultima destination in the U.K.

     On the contrary, such a Latin adjective as extra, which means additional, keeps being widely used in official English, and is quite common for the colloquial style.

     e.g. In order to obtain delivery we have had to incur extra expenses for which we hold you responsible.

     e.g. No extra payment is to be effected for any excess weight.

     The most widespread French words are force majeure, which is an essential clause of almost any contract and serves to describe some unpredictable events that may happen to goods while being delivered or other reasons, and amicably, which means friendly.

     e.g. Very often the parties amicably agree upon a settlement of the claim in question.

     e.g. The Sellers and the Buyers shall take all measures to settle amicably any disputes.

     So, in contracts a person can come across a definite number of words and word combinations which make up lexical peculiarities of the texts. They all are rather bookish and belong to formal style of written English, not being used in informal English and rarely used in spoken formal English.

     In Chapter 2 the stylistic, grammatical, lexical peculiarities of contract and business correspondence have been analyzed. On the basis of our analysis we can conclude that language of contracts and business correspondence is not always easy to obtain due to their complicated syntactic constructions, specific terms and abbreviations. Linguistic peculiarities of business correspondence and contracts are similar because both of them belong to the formal style of English which is characterized by the conventionality of expressions, combining several ideas within one sentence, the encoded character of the language, absence of emotiveness. All that revealed in texts of contracts and business correspondence through their vocabulary, grammar and style. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. Miram I.E., Daineko V.V. Basic translation. – К.: Ельга, 2002. – 350 с.
2. Ashley A.A. Handbook of commercial correspondence. – OxfordUniversity Press, 1997. – 297p.