Linguistic peculiarities of contracts translation

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)

All expenses connected therewith being  born  by…  (therewith  =

with it)

The examination of the goods and objection thereto…  (thereto  =

to it)

Subject to General Conditions on Sale endorsed hereon… (hereon =

on this document)

As we have already mentioned, very few words are borrowed from French.  The  most  widespread  of them 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.

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 their texts. They all are rather bookish and belong to formal style of written English, they are not being used in informal English and rarely used in spoken formal English.

On the whole, grammar of any contract may be characterised as rather simple and formal. Simple here means lack of diversity of variants which occurs in every document which is not legal. As for the  grammar tenses which are used in  agreements,  the  most  widespread  are  the Indefinite and the Perfect tenses, both  in  the  Active  and  Passive Voices. As we have already mentioned above, Passive Voice is more preferable in English contracts, though in many points the usage of Active and Passive Voices is already part and parcel. For example:

1. Sellers have sold and Buyers have bought… (Present Perfect)

             2. The Agents shall bear all transport expenses from…  (Future

             Indefinite)

             3. Our firm informed the Suppliers that the general conditions were

             not contained in the order. (Past Indefinite Active / Passive)

The following example translation of a Ukrainian contract into English fully illustrates the grammar tenses used in English agreements:

Ukrainian variant         Наступним Гравець заявляє і  гарантує, що Гравець: (а)  добровільно укладає цей Контракт  і зобов’язується добровільно  виконувати обов’язки Гравця, викладені  у наданому Контракті; (b) є одноосібним володарем прав на рекламу та матеріали, що сприяють просуванню Продукції, а також ліцензійних прав, котрі має Гравець згідно дійсного Контракту і котрі Гравець не передав, Гравець зобов’язується не надавати права, ліцензії, привілеї або інші переважні права, що стосуються цього Контракту, на протязі Терміну дії Контракту або його продовження стосовно прав на матеріали, що сприяють просуванню Продукції, рекламу за участі Гравця або консалтингових прав та послуг будь-якому Конкуренту Компанії; (с)  не вступав і не вступить ні в які договірні обов’язки, котрі будуть перешкоджати або значно погіршать виконання своїх обов’язків Гравцем згідно з цим Контрактом; (d) не знає ні про які наявні проблеми зі здоров’ям або медичні свідчення, котрі можуть значно вплинути на можливості Гравця як гравця. Гравець зобов’язується повідомити Компанію, якщо йому стане відомо про будь-які проблеми зі здоров’ям або медичні свідчення, котрі виникнуть згодом на протязі Терміну дії Контракту, і котрі можуть значно вплинути на можливості Гравця як гравця; (е) у даний  час і на протязі року, що  передував виконанню цього Контракту,  а також у майбутньому на  протязі Терміну дії Контракту  або його продовження, Гравець  не вживає і не утримує наркотики  або інші речовини, використання  або утримання яких заборонено дійсним законодавством або іншими дійсними правилами та розпорядженнями будь-якого спортивного  об’єднання, національними та міжнародними спортивними організаціями, у віданні котрих знаходиться Гравець.

English variant       The Player hereby represents and warrants that the Player: (a) is free to enter into this Contract and to fulfill and perform the Player’s obligations contemplated herein;   (b) is the sole owner of the promotional, endorsement and licensing rights granted hereunder and that the Player has not granted, and agrees that the Player shall not grant any right, license or privilege, or any option relating thereto during the Contract Period or any extension thereof with respect to the Player’s promotional, endorsement or consulting rights and services to any Competitor of the Company; (c) has not entered and will not enter into any other contractual commitment that will prevent or substantially impair the performance of the Player’s obligations under this Contract; (d) does not know of any existing health problem or medical condition which may significantly affect the Player’s ability as a player and the Player shall notify the Company if the Player becomes aware of any health problem or medical condition which subsequently arises during the Contract Period and which may significantly affect the Player’s ability as a Player; (e) the Player does not know, and did not during the year prior to the date of execution of this Contract, and shall not during the Contract Period or any extension thereof, use or possess any drugs or other substances, the use or possession of which is prohibited by applicable law or any applicable rules or regulations of any sports federation or national or international sports organization with jurisdiction over the Player.

Complex analytical forms of the verb, such as the Continuous and Perfect Continuous Tenses, are absolutely not used in any way. The specific character of any contract provides rare usage of the past tenses. One of specific features of contract is usage of the verb shall. Though it is not used in Modern English, in business correspondence and documents it keeps being used. It can be seen in the following examples:

1. The  result  shall  be  considered.  =   The  result  is  to  be

             considered / will be considered.

             2. Buyers can pay for the goods from the first person or from the third

             one, both in the plural and singular number.

3.  Each  party  shall  have  the  right  to  refuse  any  further

             fulfilment of the obligations. (3d person, sing)

             4. The Buyers shall obtain the import licence. (3d person, pl.)

             5. We shall have the right to assign to you… (1st person, pl.)

The combination of the verb should and the infinitive also shows a future action, but with a less degree  of   probability.   This construction usually occurs in subordinate clauses. For example:

1. …if a delay in the delivery should exceed 3 months.

2. In many cases shall and should are equal in meaning.

One of the most frequently used verbals in business letters is the infinitive. It may serve as an adjunct to verbs, nouns and adjectives. The groups of the infinitive as an adjunct to an  active  verb,  the infinitive as an adjunct to a passive verb and  the  infinitive  as  a complex  adjunct  to  an  active   verb   are   used   in  commercial correspondence and in contracts in particular. The infinitive as an adjunct to an active verb always follows a head-verb.  In  business  correspondence  it  is  lexically  dependent  and commonly found after the following verbs:  to  agree,  to  appear,  to arrange, to continue, to decide, to expect, to fail, to  hesitate,  to hope, to intend, to like, to manage, to need, to offer,  to  omit,  to plan, to prefer, to prepare, to propose, to regret, to secure, to try, to want, to wish. For example:

1.  They have arranged to produce the equipment.

             2. We won’t fail to provide full particulars as soon as possible.

Generally in contracts and agreements the infinitive adjunct to an active verb is a simple infinitive.  Sometimes,  however,  it  may  be followed  by  the  perfect  infinitive,  indicating  an  action  which precedes that one of  the  predicate  verb.  As for the continuous infinitive in this function the analysis of contracts has proved that it is hardly ever used. It can be shown in the following examples:

1. Property in goods, to have passed to Buyers  when  goods  have

             been put a board.

             2. You don’t appear to have taken into account the annual summer

             works’ shut-down.

It should also be noted that in commercial correspondence the subject of the infinitive adjunct is a person (e.g.  we,  they)  or  a thing denoted by the subject of the sentence (e.g. our firm). For example:

1. We look forward to your early reply.

             2. The Suppliers inform the Buyers that there had been a fire.

              The infinitive in business correspondence may also serve as an adjunct to a passive verb. In this case it always follows its head-verb and is lexically restricted.  The infinitive in this function follows the following verbs: to consider, to expect, to instruct, to prepare, to repute, and to require, as in the examples:

             1. The delivery date is understood to be the date on which the

             2. Suppliers apply to the Buyers’ Shipping Agents.

The infinitive may serve as an adjunct to an active verb followed by a noun or a pronoun which stands to the infinitive in the relation of a subject. The  combination  is  lexically  restricted,  because  in business correspondence it may be found only after the definite  verbs from the following list: to advise, to allow, to ask,  to  enable,  to expert, to help, to prefer, to urge, to want, to wish. For example:

1. We would advise you to take an all-rich insurance policy.

             2. If the period of guarantee has not expired we will ask you to

             replace the machine by another one.

The complex infinitive adjunct to an active verb is not restricted stylistically and is in extensive use in scientific and fiction literature and also in commercial and business correspondence. The Indefinite Infinitive occurs in contracts in the function of the predicate, expressing obligation and a future action. It can be clearly seen in the following examples:

1. Delivery to commence in six to eight months and to be completed

             in twelve to sixteen months (to commence = will commence).

             2. Date of shipment to be determined by date of Bill of Lading (to be

             determined = will be determined).

It is allowed only in texts of contracts and other business documents.   Each contract also has constructions with participles. For example:

The letter of credit is to be  valid  for  90  days,  all  bank charges being at

            the expense of the Buyers.

Some participles which have no explanatory words in contracts can either precede or follow a noun. Mostly they are constructions with Participle II:

e.g. the required specification vs. specification required;

             the enclosed letter vs. the letter enclosed.

The Past Participle Passive always follows a noun if it has explanatory words: a telegram received from London,  the cheque attached to the letter.

If a participle shows only an action which is made upon the subject, it follows a noun: The sellers are to inform us  of  the  quantity  of  the  goods loaded.

The participle showing the quality, if there is one, precedes the noun: e.g. illustrated catalogue; damaged goods.

The definite article the in contract has its own peculiarities.   In every contract there are Buyers and Sellers and these words can be used either with the definite article or without it. Nevertheless, they are always capitalised: Buyers, Sellers. Although in Ukrainian 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.

Also the definite article is rarely used after prepositions of the Latin origin per and ex: The goods were shipped per S.S. Svir.The definite article is never used with nouns which are followed  by a number in sizes, codes, etc.: under Contract № 25; Order № 1015.

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. The research revealed a specific character of the translation of contract as a type of business correspondence. Linguistic peculiarities of contract as a kind of written business English have been studied as groups of stylistic, grammatical and lexical peculiarities.