On The Meta-functions Of United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods(CISG) From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Grammar

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) was passed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law in1980. Taking full consideration of the characteristics of the sales contract in international business, it is a significant representative of international business laws. It has been accepted and confirmed by major trade states in the world, including the US, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. China is among the earliest contracting states. The study on CISG has been a heating issue for the academic world. However, most of the studies focus on the content analysis from the perspective of laws. With such background, the study on CISG in terms of Systemic functional grammar possesses certain theoretical significance:Firstly, it is beneficial for the academic world to open mind, with an attempt to investigate CISG and relative international laws from the linguistic point of view. Secondly, it is contributive to extend the application sphere of systemic functional grammar, testifying its powerful applicability. Besides, as an important international laws, the study on CISG from the perspective of Systemic functional grammar obtains great practical significance:Firstly, it promotes the study of the original English version of CISG by the Chinese professionals, eliminating the deviation arising between the original and the translated version. Secondly, it summarizes the linguistic features of international laws so that China can better participate the legislation of international laws.This thesis is composed of seven chapters. Chapter One is the introduction, which states the research background, research significance, research method and the general framework. Chapter Two is the literature review consisting of two sections. The first section summarizes the formation, development, content and previous study of discourse analysis while the second section introduces the formation, content and previous study of CISG. Chapter Three is the theoretical framework, which elaborates the main content of systemic functional grammar. Chapter Four is the study on ideational function, which sums up the linguistic features of CISG in terms of experiential function and logic function. Chapter Five is the study on the interpersonal function, which generalizes the linguistic features of CISG in terms of mood system and modality system. Chapter Six is the study on textual function, which concludes the linguistic features of CISG in terms of thematic structure and cohesion. Chapter Seven is the conclusion, which summarizes the achievement and limitations of the previous study on CISG.