study on features and styles of english news’ title

1、<p>　　Study on Features and Styles of English News’ Title</p><p>　　Abstract. Headlines are quite essential for English news. They are the windows of news. This paper describes the types of headlines and

2、 also explains the features of headlines. Firstly, introduction of classifications of headlines can give readers a perceptual knowledge. Secondly, explains characteristics of vocabularies in headlines and then concludes

3、tense and voice features in headlines. News media is the best channel of knowing every field including politics, economics, science, culture, and</p><p>　　Key words: English; headline; feature. </p>&

4、lt;p>　　1. Introduction </p><p>　　A piece of news is composed by three parts: headline, leading and body among which a headline is the epitome and highlight of the content of newspapers and periodicals. Th

5、e headline refers to the title of news and articles on newspaper, composing brief words and revealing journalistic features. Study on this theme can help us avoid misunderstanding, therefore help us better interpret diff

6、erent journalistic culture, enhance English news reading ability. In addition, study on it can help enrich th</p><p>　　2. The function of English news title </p><p>　　The idiom “a good headline

7、is half the story” can generally indicate the vital role headline plays in embodying the news value. Confronted with fierce competition in mass media market and meeting the audience’s need of being quicker and quicker, n

8、ews editors are racking their brains in headline design to make it much accurate, outstanding, vivid, humorous and attractive through blending excellent aesthetic sense with pinpointed journalistic feature together. <

9、/p><p>　　Exactly, we can summarize the function of news headline in the following four aspects: introducing news information; reviewing the news facts; attracting the readers; embellishing the layout. </p>

10、;<p>　　3. Types of headline </p><p>　　There’re usually 6 or 7 columns with width of 4 or 5 cm each in layout of one English printed sheet. English news title can be divided into one-column head, two-c

11、olumn head, three-column head and banner head, etc. in accordance with the amounts of columns and lines it takes up. Recently, despite of some few newspaper as The New York Times, most western newspaper are inclined to a

12、dopt one-deck head, excising highline and subtitle, for one-deck head is not only far easy and convenient to produce a</p><p>　　3.1.1 Cross line </p><p>　　Cross line is also called one-line head

13、, with one line in commonly one column and rarely two, three or four columns. It’s of high popularity for its edge of extremely economy. </p><p>　　E.g. Son Admits Beating Ex-wife Holly </p><p>　

14、　USA Today Aug. 26, 1997 </p><p>　　Obviously, from the aspect of edition skill, the strong point of cross line owes to its clearness at a glance. Besides, it will extent to readers the aesthetic sense of lim

15、pid, simple but elegant. However, it is sometimes too simple and dull to be plump and powerful. Thus frequent use of cross line will provoke bleak and desolate feeling of readers quite easily. </p><p>　　3.1.

16、2 Flush left headline </p><p>　　In a flush left headline, every word or phrase takes up one line and begins at the very left. There’s no limitation for this style on the character number and format, and ther

17、efore it has been one of the most commonly used headline form of modern English newspapers. The following example can show you what a flush left headline is. </p><p>　　E.g. Bear Sterns </p><p>　

18、　rescue was easy </p><p>　　part of crisis </p><p>　　Financial Times March 26, 2008 </p><p>　　Flush left headline can help readers twist eyesight towards underside naturally line by

19、line. It helps save time from seeking for the next line while finishing one line reading, as well as create distinctive layout beauty visually by laying particular press on the left side. </p><p>　　3.1.3 Ban

20、ner headlines </p><p>　　The columns a headline takes up resolve the importance of the corresponding news. Generally speaking, the bigger space it occupies, the more columns it captures, the more importance i

21、t embodies. “For banner headline, every headline word in it is large and bold and the whole headline often covers several columns. It is also called first large headline and often used in front page for its attraction.”

22、Then, it undoubtedly serves for the lead news of that very print. </p><p>　　3.1.4 Drop form headline </p><p>　　Drop form is also called step head, indented head, etc. It looks like a ladder. The

23、re are several lines in it and the following line draws back several letters from the above one. But for drop form has set strict regulation on the length of every line, the production process of it is far laborious and

24、thus the use frequency of it far less. However, the drop form headline acquires leaping attribute visually. Beauty and nice are its merits. </p><p>　　E.g. Atlanta Denies Bribes 　　Used to Get Olympics </p

25、><p>　　The New York Post, Dec. 5, 1991 </p><p>　　Obviously, this style of headline is able to cultivate the aesthetic sense of laminated streamline in general layout. </p><p>　　3.1.5 P

26、yramid and Inverted Pyramid headline </p><p>　　Pyramid or Inverted Pyramid form is constituted by 3 to 4 lines with each of different length, in which, the top one is longest or shortest and the followings g

27、radually shorten or extended by equal length. </p><p>　　In that way, the general image of the headline looks like an triangle or inverted triangle in the shape of a lively pyramid or inverted pyramid. Althou

28、gh this kind of title is good-looking, it’s time-wasting and troublesome to make it out successfully, which refines its use into small range. </p><p>　　E.g. Securities Market </p><p>　　Builds Up

29、 </p><p><b>　　To 92 </b></p><p>　　The Asian Wall Street Journal, Dec.30, 1991 </p><p>　　The toil fully decorated inverted pyramid headline embodies the elegance and sing

30、ularity, spontaneously betraying mightiness, generosity and intensity to the readers. But it is also popular for nice looking. It forms a Pyramid-looking headline. </p><p>　　3.1.6 Double headline </p>

31、<p>　　This kind of headline is used mostly for the report of big events. It has two lines: one is main headline and the other auxiliary headline. </p><p>　　E.g. It Isn’t the Cow That Are Mad </p>

32、<p>　　It’s the People That Are going Mad </p><p>　　3.1.7 Jump head headline </p><p>　　Nowadays, to make the layout and content much colorful and variable, editors have to assure or satisf

33、y certain amounts of headlines of front page. As a result, they will have to cut off some longer news with one part on the front page and remainders on another now and then artificially, thus they edit a new head for the

34、 remaining news as well. That new headline is commonly defined as “jump head”. </p><p>　　The headline is divided into two parts: original head and jump head. An original part is on one page, but after the bo

35、dy jumps pages, the original head will be changed into a jump head which uses different words from original one to express the same meaning. </p><p>　　There is an instance: on Dec.11, 1997, a piece of news o

36、f Times about the economy depression of Britain adopts “jump head”. </p><p>　　The original head: </p><p>　　Preparing for a victory over </p><p>　　Tea and cornflakes </p><

37、p>　　For limited layout, the later part of the news was printed on the 20th print. There’s a jump head for audience to find out the transposition of the remaining part. </p><p>　　The jump head: 　　Planning

38、 for a day of battles </p><p>　　3.1.8 Boxed Headline </p><p>　　Boxed headline refers to headlines encircled by 4 lines. This style is usually applied to small font to make it pinpointed and powe

39、rful. Such as: </p><p>　　The Washington post, Dec. 28, 2001 </p><p>　　South china morning post, Feb. 28, 2002 </p><p>　　3.2 Categories according to their meanings </p><p&

40、gt;　　3.2.1 Strait headline </p><p>　　This kind of headline tells us strait about the subjects of news. This is the most common one and is easy to understand. </p><p>　　(1) e.g. Railroad Workers

41、Strike in Argentina. </p><p>　　(2) e.g. Leaders’ threat </p><p>　　on Olympics </p><p>　　start ceremony </p><p>　　Financial Times March 22, 2008 </p><p>　　3

42、.2.2 Questioning headline </p><p>　　Question marks are often seen in this kind of headlines but most of them do not have meanings of questioning. They often give a clue of possibility or writer’s doubt about

43、 the reality of some facts. Selection of questioning headline can make title obscure and evoke the audience curiosity to explore into the news. In addition, they also tend to discuss with readers and hence recall their r

44、esonance and close the relation between newspaper and audience. For instance, </p><p>　　Who Will Rise to challenge Bush? </p><p>　　Beijing Review, Dec.4, 2003 </p><p>　　At first gla

45、nce of the title, we will wonder the challenge in head of Bush rises from either Iraq war or the contradiction between U.S. and “base institute”. The interlaced hypothesis can successfully rouse the readers’ curiosity. T

46、hen they look through the news body only to find it a prediction report on American president election, focusing on the hindering rivals to George Bush. </p><p>　　No Female Secretaries for Male Leaders? <

47、/p><p>　　International Herald Tribune, Feb. 16, 2003 </p><p>　　The question indicates not only the author’s disapproval of the above title but also the potential discussion with readers. </p>

48、<p>　　War for oil? </p><p>　　No, there’s gas, too! </p><p>　　The guardian, Feb.19, 2003 </p><p>　　The question is a typical self-questioning and self-answering tag one. The q

49、uestion disperses to the audience the author’s strong emotion toward America’s opening fire on Iraq. Other examples: </p><p>　　E.g. Bear at $10: a done deal? </p><p>　　The Wall Street Journal Ma

50、rch 26,2008 </p><p>　　3.2.3 Feature headline </p><p>　　It is often to use feature headline when a piece of news is unusual or readers will be quite interested in it. Such headlines are not easy

51、to understand，sometimes the whole news should be read. 　　E.g. The Man Who Reign over UK’s Queen </p><p>　　Reign means rule over and it is only used for a queen or a king. So the connection of “man” and “rei

52、gn” may get readers confused, then they may be eager to find why. Not until the whole news are read. They find the man is just a captain of a ship named Queen Mary. </p><p>　　4. Features of expression in hea

53、dline </p><p>　　The expression characteristics of English news titles mainly lie in the following three parts: vocabulary, rhetoric, tense and voice. </p><p>　　4.1.1 Short words are often used &

54、lt;/p><p>　　The reader body is composed by people from different fields, classes and of different educational levels. In order to satisfy this particular community, the news writing and title producing should b

55、e simple and understandable rather than abstruse and obscure. </p><p>　　As a journalistic saying goes, “the aesthetic glamour of news resorts to reproducing the news reality in plain words, so does the headl

56、ine” </p><p>　　Generally, editors usually substitute big or long words with monosyllables, which is named “midget word”, and popular for their vividness and compactness. Editors disgust long words badly whic

57、h not only take up lines but also seemed ugly. For the sake of nice and balance，editors like short words to generalize news. </p><p>　　Most midget words are verbs, nouns and adj. </p><p>　　E.g.

58、aid－assistance </p><p>　　bid－attempt </p><p>　　nab－capture </p><p>　　wed －marry </p><p>　　“It has been lasting several years to use short words in news headlines. Menck

59、en，an American linguist，said ‘ it is the outstanding characteristic of using very short words in headlines.’ in his work ‘American English’. Similar examples as above are so many in modern English newspapers. </p>

60、<p>　　“It is worth saying that single syllables beginning with explode are used more for its shortness and power，such as bid，bust，pop，cut，chop，kill，curb，gut，mug…. Many of the vocabularies in headlines are Anglo－Sax

61、on words which are oral，simple，plain and lively. What’s more, they have been accepted by the public.” </p><p>　　4.1.2 Use of shortenings widely </p><p>　　We are always stepping up to make the in

62、formation transmission accurate, exact and efficient in cross-cultural communication. To meet this need, shortenings came into being, which can make thoughts interaction economic and free. Shortenings used in headline ca

63、n not only save space, but also introduce news information in simple but vivid and acceptable way. </p><p>　　E.g. Weighing the U.S. dollar’s decline </p><p>　　The Wall Street Journal March 26, 2

64、008 　　In addition, according to the applying field distinction, there is another division. </p><p>　　Shortenings of institutes and organizations ,such as NPC; NESCO; WTO </p><p>　　Shortenings o

65、f common things in common sense, such as: AIDS; UFO; PC </p><p>　　Shortenings of profession, such as: PM; GM; VIP; PA </p><p>　　4.1.3 Use of literary quotations，proverbs，wisdoms，idioms </p>

66、;<p>　　Terry.L.Fredenkson，in his “Journal English” he said idioms are full of headlines. They are used widely as well as changed their forms very often to give a sense of being humor and alive. </p><p&g

67、t;　　E.g. Farewell to Arms </p><p>　　It tells about the communist party’s secretary of soviet union advised US president to destroy nuclear weapons completely. It quotes the name of a famous book ,“A Fare Wel

68、l to Arms” . </p><p>　　4.1.4 Heavy uses of shorted words/ abbreviation </p><p>　　Shorted words refer to the brief form of n., adj. through clipping or shortening serving the aim of saving space.

69、 </p><p>　　Graduate—grad; Hospital—hosp; </p><p>　　High technology—high-tech; Cigarette—cid </p><p>　　There’re several kinds of clippings: </p><p>　　Back clipping: Ad =

70、 advertisement </p><p>　　Front clipping: Copter= helicopter </p><p>　　Front clipping and back clipping: Flu= influenza </p><p>　　Center clipping: Nat= nationalist </p><p&

71、gt;　　Irregular clipping: Aussie= Australian </p><p>　　4.1.5 Use of neologism and foreign words </p><p>　　This kind of uncommon word can also strikes the eye. Editors know readers are unfamiliar

72、with these words, so they always give explanation in a context. Neologism and foreign words always connected with places and contents that are reported. </p><p>　　E.g. Yen benefits from European funds </p

73、><p>　　Yen is Japanese monitory unit. </p><p>　　4.2 Use of rhetoric in headlines </p><p>　　The English headlines use various rhetoric methods to attract readers. </p><p>　

74、　4.2.1 Metaphor </p><p>　　E.g. A House in Two Parts </p><p>　　This is a headline of a report discussing Canadian country system. This report introduce main existing differences in language, law，

75、culture and concept between English speaking Canada and French speaking Canada. Thereby illustrate the unsteady Canadian system. “A House in Two Part” is suitable as well as vivid. </p><p>　　4.2.2 Contrast &

76、lt;/p><p>　　E.g. U.S. is Long on Game Shows，Short on Foreign News </p><p>　　This is a press on U.S. TV program. It is distinctly contrast and irony. </p><p>　　4.2.3 Alliteration and Co

77、nsonance </p><p>　　E.g. Soldiers Salary Soars </p><p>　　“S” is the beginning letter of every words，and this is alliteration. 　　Alliteration and rhyme here sounds well and give a special atmosph

78、ere to catch readers’ eyes.. </p><p>　　4.2.4 Puns </p><p>　　Puns are often in irony，humorous headlines. If they are used properly, this trend would be stronger. </p><p>　　E.g. “Afri

79、can Statesman Still Sowing Seeds for Future” </p><p>　　“This report is about Julius Nyerere，president of Tanzania，who is sowing seeds happily in his hometown where is far from big cities after retired. But A

80、frica is unsteady thus many international leaders go all the way to learn from him the ways of saving a country. So he is still sowing seeds for the future of Africa. ‘Sowing seeds’ is a pun in this headline.” </p>

81、<p>　　4.2.5 Metonymy </p><p>　　When using metonymy, the person or the thing a writer want to write are not shown directly in a headline，but by borrowing other things connected to indicate them indirec

82、tly. </p><p>　　E.g. Uncle Sam’s Island </p><p>　　Uncle Sam is nearly known to all. It is another informal saying of American government or Americans. </p><p>　　Metonymy can avoid re

83、peating certain words and strengthen the affection，so it is used largely in modern newspaper，even some of metonymies become public words, such as White House, Bucking Ham Palace, Downing Street, Motor City, and so on. &l

84、t;/p><p>　　4.2.6 Paradox </p><p>　　E.g. Surgery Without the Surgery?! </p><p>　　A paradox can make readers think from two－side ways and let them understand news deeply. To understand t

85、his kind of headline well we should chew them twice or even more. </p><p>　　As we have mentioned, news title is a part of news, the more flexibly the rhetoric is used in news title writing, the more attracti

86、ve and eye-catching the news will be to the readers. So to learn of the rhetoric use in news title is important in the command of news English. </p><p>　　4.3 Tense and voice of headline </p><p>

87、　　Verbs show actions. A piece of news will be reinforced if a verb is used properly. But the tenses of verbs are always difficult for foreign readers to understand. Headlines must be short and accurate, so the verbs in t

88、hem have special tense showing methods. English headlines do not use past tense but present tense to make readers feel they are in the situation and the news is in time, this called Journalistic Present Tense, the same a

89、s Historical Present Tense in literature. Above all, headlines</p><p>　　4.3.1 Use of the simple present tense </p><p>　　In news, present tense is often used to describe things happened just now,

90、 that is to say, it is used to replace past tense. 　　English learners should pay attention to this situation, do not consider present tense in headlines as they usually are. </p><p>　　E.g. Comeback Gives Ch

91、ina A Sensational Thomas Cap Win </p><p>　　(The Comeback gave China a sensational Thomas Cup Win.) </p><p>　　4.3.2 Use of the simple future tense </p><p>　　The simple future tense d

92、escribes things will be happen in the future. The forms of future tense are “will (shall) do”, “be going to do”, “be to do”, “be about to do” and so on. But in English headlines “be to do” form in which “be” is omitted i

93、s used most. So in headlines “to do” forms express writers’ prediction of future trends. </p><p>　　E.g. Last Two Iraq Hostages to Go Free </p><p>　　(The last two hostages in Iraq are to Go Free.

94、) </p><p>　　4.3.3 Use of the present progressive tense </p><p>　　Present Progressive Tense emphasizes certain thing is doing at present time and its result is not known at now. Also “be” is usua

95、lly omitted for the need of shortness. </p><p>　　(1) e.g. Sino--British Partnership Progressing </p><p>　　(Sino--British Partnership is Progressing) </p><p>　　(2) e.g. Signs of Rift

96、s Appearing in Argentina’s Junta </p><p>　　(The signs of rifts are appearing in Argentina’s Junta.) </p><p>　　4.3.4 Use of passive voice </p><p>　　When verbs in headlines should use

97、 passive voice, the “be” in “be + participle” form and the operator followed “by” are usually omitted. Thus the only left past participle can give a passive meaning directly in headlines, thus learners must not confused

98、passive voice as past tense. </p><p>　　E.g. 12 Reported Killed in a Suicide Bomb </p><p>　　(It was reported that 12 person was killed in a suicide bomb.) </p><p>　　In fact，after lea

99、rners read more，they will found active voice is used far more than passive voice. Only when object is emphasized，passive voice is used. </p><p>　　Tense and voice of a headline can be concluded in one sentenc

100、e，present participle can express the progressive meaning, past participle the passive voice，infinitive form the future tense. </p><p>　　(1) e.g. Gun－Safety Education Facing Many Hurdles </p><p>

101、　　(2) e.g. Aircraft Carrier Named After President Reagan </p><p>　　(3) e.g. House To Vote on Ergonomics Rules </p><p>　　It should be noted that other tense at times are used in oration or questi

102、on headlines. </p><p>　　(1) e.g. We Won’t Quit </p><p>　　(2) e.g. Tones Planned to Kill Bush？ </p><p>　　These tenses are mainly used to emphasize the time. </p><p>　　In

103、 short, the tenses and voices used in English news title are not as rich as the Chinese ones. But the limited choice in tense and voice while writing English news title won’t influence the exact expression of news inform