Abstract：Traditionally metaphors are studied as rhetorical and lexical means, with fewer linguists focusing their researches on grammatical metaphor. In fact, grammatical metaphor is used extremely widely in a variety of English written texts. Grammatical metaphor is one of the important features of English business contracts. This paper aims to analyze the functions of grammatical metaphor in English business contracts. Of all the grammatical metaphors, the most frequently used ones in English business contracts are passive voice, modal verbs and nominalization. Through analyzing the examples of grammatical metaphor used in English business contracts, this paper suggests that these grammatical metaphors can make the English business contracts more formal, concise and precise. Using the metaphor, we can get a profound connotation and a mighty logicality. Therefore, analyzing the grammatical metaphor can help us know the tincture of business contracts and improve the validity of language performance.
Key words: grammatical metaphor; English business contracts; formal; concise; precise
中文摘要:传统上语言学家把比喻归入修辞研究的范围，通常局限于词汇隐喻，较少考虑到语法隐喻，而系统功能语言学将语法隐喻作为重要的概念，且语法隐喻确实大量存在于实用语篇。本文通过对Halliday的著作研读，进一步了解语法隐喻，语法隐喻不是用一个词去代替另一个词，而是用某一语法类别或语法结构去代替另一语法类别或语法结构。本文阐述了语法隐喻的类别及其作用，举例分析了在商务英语合同中以被动语态、情态动词、名词化结构三种形式出现的语法隐喻，指出语法隐喻是商务英语合同的主要文体特点之一，在商务英语合同的表达中起着重要的作用，语法隐喻是语言中客观存在的现象。通过对举例的分析，表明语法隐喻在商务英语合同中的应用能够使得商务合同语篇客观正式，简洁严谨，衔接紧密，体现庄重文体的要求。
关键词：语法隐喻；英语商务合同；正式；简明扼要；精确
