Language Features of Newspaper Headlines
1. Lexical Features
1) Preference for Short Words
English language newspaper headlines often u short words to replace long ones. There are many words you have en before, but when they are ud in newspaper headlines they carry meanings that are quite unfamiliar to you.
e.g. hit, harm, hurt, ruin or wreck ------ damage
drop, give up, quit, skip or yield ------abandon
blast, crash, ram or smash -------explode
Europe Holds Talks to End Tension in Yugoslavia (End = Finish) (The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 20, 1991)
World eyes mid-East peace talks (eyes = watches / obrves) (The Daily Star, Nov.5, 1991)
团练使
Additionally, short nouns are often ud in newspaper headlines, for example, accord (agreement), aid (assistant), aim (purpo), rally (a mass asmbly), drive (campaign), and talk (negotiation).
2) Wide u of initials (缩写词) (or acronyms首字母缩略词) Afr. Ltd.
They are mainly put into three categories.
3) 组织机关等专有名词的简称
4) 常见事物的名称
ABM = anti-ballistic missile
DJI = Dow-Jones Index
TOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign Language
UFO = unidentified flying object
5) 表示人们的职业或职务的名词
DJ = disk jockey (音乐节目主持人)
DINKS = double income, no kids
MP = member of parliament
TP = traffic policeman
6) Wide u of abbreviations (or shortened words) (节缩词)
·formed by clipping or shortening.
·ud not only in headlines
·ud in bodies of news reports.
(1) 梦见买留头去尾
Ad --- advertiment
不及格的英语>抒情散文诗
Auto --- automobile
Bach – bachelor
Biz --- business
(2) 截头留尾
世上有鬼吗
Chute --- parachute
Copter --- helicopter
Dozer --- bulldozer
Quake --- earthquake
(3) 截去头尾，保留中间
Flu --- influenza
Fridge / freezer --- refrigerator
Tec --- detective
Vic --- convict
(4) 截去中间，保留首尾
Nat’l --- national
Dept --- department
Com’l--- commercial
C’tee --- committee
(5) 不规则裁剪词
Bike --- bicycle
Aussie --- Australian
Hanky --- handkerchief
改变作文800字
Telly --- television
7) U of journalistic coinages (生造词)（由两个或两个以上的词组合而成的新词，构成复合词；将常用的词组连贯在一起，省去其中的若干个音节，合二为一）
Smog = smoke + fog motel
Blacketeer = black marketer
Cinemanufacturer = cinema + manufacturer
Politburo = political bureau
Zhengzhou Municiple
8) Frequent omission of certain words
Headlins generally leave out certain words, especially articles, personal pronouns, this, that, and verb to be. The word “and” is often replaced by a comma.
e.g. Woman kills her husband and herlf
(A woman killed her husband and herlf.)
D. Grammatical Features
Journalistic English is called headline (标题语言), and it has its own grammatical features.
1. Omission (Pp 42-43)
A headline is originally a complete ntence, but to make it conci, some grammatical parts or words are frequently left out, especially the function words, such as articles, personal pronouns, this, that, and, to be, etc.
2. U of Heavily Modified Nominal Groups明亮的英语
3. Tens
The tens frequently ud in headlines are: simple prent ten, prent future ten, and prent progressive ten.
1) The simple prent ten is widely ud to describe something happening in the prent or in the past. The ten is ud to save space and increa freshness (新鲜感) and immediacy(春天是什么直接感).
e.g. Longevity star Dies at 110 (The Asian Wall Street Journal 亚洲华尔街日报, Jan. 3, 1992)
2) To refer to the future, the structure ‘be + to do’ is more frequently ud in headlines, and the word ‘be’ is often omitted to save space.
e.g. Japan to help elderly jobless (= Japan is to help the elderly jobless) (The Financial Times, Jan. 27, 2000)
3) The prent progressive ten is sometimes ud, mostly to describe something that is developing, and the auxiliary is often omitted.
