Grammatical Metaphor In Language Of Contract

Traditional theories of metaphor view metaphor as a figure of speech or the variation at the lexical or sentential level. While Halliday recognizes variation at the lexicogrammatical level and introduces the theory of grammatical metaphor that approaches metaphor form a different perspective. After Halliday's deconstruction of scientific discourse by grammatical metaphor, his theory of grammatical metaphor is applied to deconstructing various types of discourses ranging from scientific discourse, news discourse to legal discourse.Contract is one of the most important types of legal document and plays a critical role in dispute solving in both commercial and social life. The study of the language of contract thus attracts extensive attentions, but most of the study is confined to the lexical and syntactical features of contract; very few explore at the grammatical level. Based on the previous studies of the language of contract and taking Halliday's reclassification of 13 types of grammatical metaphor as the general frame, this thesis attempts to analyze the language of contract by grammatical metaphor and summarize functions of grammatical metaphor in the language of contract. Four types of most commonly used contracts are selected as the data to be analyzed. In the course of data analysis, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted.The result of the research indicates that grammatical metaphor is pervasive in the language of contact. Nominalizing metaphors play a predominant role in forming the features of contract. When working together, grammatical metaphors make a contract more condensed, objective and authoritative.