A study on english news headlines

DECLARATION Title: A study on English news headlines I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s works without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, 22 January, 2016 Student Supervisor ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude for everyone who helped us during the graduation essay starting with endless thanks for my supervisor M.A Nguyen Thi Thu Huong who did not keep any effort in encouraging me to a great job, providing me with valuable information and advices to be better each time Such continuous support and kind communication had a great effect regarding to feel interesting about what I am working on Furthermore, I would like to thank all the teachers for the interesting lectures they presented which had great benefit for me At last, we would like to thank all the people who helped, supported and encouraged us to successfully finish the graduation project Moreover, the shortcomings in this study are unavoidable Therefore, I highly appreciate sympathy and suggestions from the teachers and friends Ha Noi, April 2016 Nguyen Thi Giang Content DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ABBREVIATIONS PART I: INTRODUCTION PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND What is a headline? 1.1 Definitions of a headline 1.2 A headline and the headlines Functions of headlines in English news 2.1 The function of introducing the topic of a news 1.2 The function of attracting the attention of readers 2.3 The function of conveying the writer’s attitude towards the facts reported 2.4 The function of presenting news reporter’s style of writing 10 Chapter II: Features of English news headlines 11 General characteristics of English news headlines 11 1.1 Lexical characteristics 11 1.2 Grammatical Characteristics 13 Types of English news headlines 16 2.1 Descriptive headlines 16 2.2 Allusive headlines 18 Structural features of headlines in English news 21 3.1 Use of words 21 3.2 Use of phrases 23 3.3 Type of sentence 25 3.3.1 Statement headlines 25 3.3.2 Question headlines 25 3.3.3 Command headlines 27 3.3.4 Exclamation headlines 27 Chapter III: Analysis on the differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents 29 The use of the verb tenses 29 1.1 Using the simple present tense 29 1.2 Using the future tense 31 The use of the lexical choice 32 Adding some background information in the Vietnamese headlines equivalent 39 3.1 Adding title 39 3.2 Adding related information 40 Omitting some information in Vietnamese headlines equivalent 44 Recovering the omitted articles 45 The use of colon 46 Chapter IV: Implication of the study for the Vietnamese learners in understanding and translating the English news headlines 48 Some possible problems encountered by learners in understanding English news headlines 48 Some proposed techniques for translating English news headlines 51 PART III: CONCLUSION 54 REFERENCES 56 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Omitted elements in English news headlines Table 2: Distinctive vocabulary with special short words in English news headlines Figure 1: Structural presentation of an English noun phrase ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source language TL: Target language e.g: For example vs: Versus i.e: That is PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Among all existing language of the world today, English seems to be more dominant than any others It has many fields what we need to study In the process of studying English, I find it interesting when dealing with the English news headlines English news plays a capital role in the communication for information between East and West, and it can bring us a great deal of latest information from the world covering almost every field in our daily work and life Therefore, reading English news is becoming a main access to the world information As the capital part of a piece of English news, headlines of English news are always the first places where one‘s eyes would stay, so that whether the people would continue to read the whole passage is mostly decided on the quality of the article‘s headline To make it nice and absorbing, many modifiers and embellishment are applied to both the structure and language of the headline, which the adverse add difficulties and obscurity to the people who have little knowledge about the features of English news headlines The paper aims to introduce the English news headline and to analyze their structrural features and to propose some solutions for problematic headlines to help readers understand and be able to translate English news headlines into Vietnamese Aims of the study These are some aims of the research: - Analyzing general characteristics of English news headlines and different types of headlines of English news together with their structural features - Finding out the differences between English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents to help Vietnamese learners have better understanding and translation of English news headlines Scope of the study The following delimitations are important in order to shape the present research and to establish the boundaries of the research: Firstly, the study is restricted to titles of feature articles in the newspaper This choice is made in order to investigate how writer caption the titles of feature articles to arouse interest in their readers Secondly, BBC, VOA News, The Guardian, New York Post and The Reuters are chosen for this research because these are read by a great deal of people around the world and as such they cover a wide range of news items The research focuses on some general characteristics, types, structures in formulating headlines in English news Method of the study The research is carried out by applying the qualitative and contrastive analysis from a variety of news headlines Features of English news headlines are described in a contrastive way The differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents are pointed out Design of the study The dissertation is organized in three parts: • The first part, which is the “INTRODUCTION”, highlights the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study • The “DEVELOPMENT” part includes four chapters: Chapter one: theoretical background which introduces definition and functions of the headlines in English news Chapter two: features of English news headlines include general chacteristics which consist of lexical and grammartical characteristics Next, there are three types of headlines in English news: descriptive headlines, allusive headlines, informative headlines.Then, structural features of English news headlines are use of words, use of phrases, types of sentence such as statement headlines, question headlines, command headlines, exclamation headlines Chapter three: an analysis on the differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents Chapter four: implication of the study for Vietnamese learners in understanding and translating English news headlines • The last part , the “CONCLUSION” highlights the key findings of the study It also gives a conclusion to the study and presents the implications of the findings Also, some recommendations for further research are presented in the last part PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND What is a headline? 1.1 Definitions of a headline The notion of headline can be found in all dictionaries of English language But this study only takes definitions of headline in most-read dictionaries The first definition is taken from Cambridge English Dictionary: “a line of words printed in large letters as the title of a story in a newspaper, or the main points of the news that are broadcast on television or radio” Similarly, The Free Dictionary defines the term a headline as follows: a a phrase at the top of a newspaper or magazine article indicating the subject of the article, usually in larger and heavier type b a line at the top of a page indicating the title, page number, etc According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: “a headline is a line of words printed in large letters at the top of a page or an article, esp in a newspaper” Conclusion, a headline is understood as a head of a newspaper story or article usually printed in large type and giving the gist of the story or article that follows [1:1] How an eight-year-old boy (http://bbc.com/news, February 24, 2016) [1:2] Mystery over Paris siege ballon letter (http://bbc.com/news, February 16, 2016) [1:3]Winter is Trumping on Games of Throne invented a new word (http://bbc.com/news, February 22, 2016) Headlines not reveal a sufficient amount of information in their content They so in order to encourage readers into reading further They should be vague to arouse curiosity and draw attention In order to use space economically headlines employ a special type of language called block language The definition of this term is language structures – typical of headlines, slogans, lists, titles, and text messages (including tweets) – make up only words that are essential to convey a message The term block language was introduced by H.Straumann in Newspaper Headlines: A Study of Linguistic Method (1935) [1:6] Cop Shot (http://nypost.com, July 26, 2015) [1:7] Frosted Cupcake Sparks Airport Terror Alert (http://nypost.com, July 26, 2015) [1:8] Two killed, 15 injured in central Somalia mosque blast (http://reuters.com, February 28, 2016) In the sentence above, the subject and the verb “to be” are omitted The full sentence is “Two people were killed, 15 others were injured in the central Somalia mosque blast”.The reporter informs not only the number of injured and killed people, but the reason of this problem as well The reporter wants to express that the disaster has serious effects shown through the number of victims Besides the expressive function, this headline has informative function which refers to the news in the sentence 1.2 A headline and the headlines A headline and the headlines are not the same with different usages and meanings Let’s have a look at the definition of a headline in comparison with that of the headlines: (NEW YORK: As the US goverment steps to the center of the financial crisis, crafting plans to take ownership of up to $700 billion worth of bad mortgages, a pair of simple questions rise to the force: Will this intervention finally be enough to restore the order? And what will this grand rescue cost US taxpayers?) Vietnamese equivalent: Kế hoach cứu nguy 700 tỉ đô la: hiệu hay không? English headline: [3:20] America’s government comes to the rescue of a giant insurance company (http://reuters.com, December 21, 2015) (The US government stepped in Tuesday to rescue American International Group Inc, one of the world’s largest insurers, with an $85 billion injection of taxpayer money Under the deal, the government will get a 79.9 percent stake in AIG and the right to remove senior management.) Vietnamese equivalent: Chinhs phủ Mỹ giải cứu AIG English headlines sometimes convey limited information, which challenges readers Also, a phrase often plays the role of either subject or predicate in Vietnamese sentence Therefore, more information is inserted into phrases to make sentence with enough information English headline: [3:21] Comparing cities 42 (When trying to find the best place to live, it is always a good idea to compare cities; after all, when you go to buy a car or a house or any big ticket item, you usually try out a few models or visit a few houses before you decide) Vietnamese equivalent: Thành phố đắt đỏ giới? English headline: [3:22] Burgeoning bourgeoisie (http://reuters.com, February 12, 2016) (For the first time in history more than half the world is middle-class, thanks to rapid growth in emerging countries John Parker reports the crowd surges back and forth, hands above heads, mobile-phone cameras snapping one of Brazil’s best-known samba bands) Vietnamese equivalent: Lần lịch sử, diện trung lưu chiếm nửa giới English headline: [3:23] Examining the candidates (http://voanews.com, July 24, 2015) (As the financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top of voter’s concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls But among those who study economics for a living, Mr.Obama’s lead is much more commanding A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority- at times by overwhelming margins-believe Mr.Obama has the superior economic plan) Vietnamese equivalent: Các nhà kinh tế “cân đong” Obama McCain 43 Omitting some information in Vietnamese headlines equivalent Apart from adding some necessary information, omitting details which are not very important sometimes appears to be an effective strategy In some cases, to meet the strict requirements of space some information is not included in the translation if the omissions cause no misunderstanding of the headline Headlines on newspapers or news are presented with the body of the news on the same page Headlines on electronic news, on the other hand, are presented together in the form of links without attaching to the body Nevertheless, some main headlines introduce important content In order to attract readers it is crucial for headlines to be impressive If all key information is revealed in the headlines, the readers are not likely to read the whole news As a result, a good headline is believed to be concise, to introduce the news vividly without giving too specific information English headline: [3:24] Greek cities hit by fresh rioting (http://reuters.com, January 21, 2016) Vietnamese equivalent: Tiếp tục xảy bạo loạn Hi Lạp English headline: [3:25] Rome gets hotel made from rubbish (http://bbc.com, June 2, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: 44 Khách sạn làm từ rác Recovering the omitted articles As mentioned in the previous part, articles “a”, “an”, “the” are among the words omitted most frequently in English news headlines The omission of the articles seems to pose no difficulties for readers in understanding the headlines since the readers can refer to the form of the noun to know whether it is plural or singular English headline: [3:26] Bank official shot at Washington National Zoo (http://bbc.com, January 30, 2016) Vietnamese equivalent: Một nhân viên ngân hàng bị bắn chết vườn thú quốc gia Because “Bank official” is in singular form, the full sentence is A bank official was shot at Washington National Zoo Nevertheless, in Vietnamese numeral cardinal plays a vital role in denoting the number of noun, singular or plural If the cardinal was omitted, the translation would be: “Nhân viên ngân hàng bị bắn chết vườn thú quốc gia Washington” The omission might cause misunderstanding for Vietnamese that some officials were shot at Washington National Zoo As a result, omitted articles are recovered and translated into “một” to avoid ambiguity 45 “Một nhân viên ngân hàng bị bắn chết vườn thú quốc gia Washington” The use of colon In headlines containing colon, the first part tends to be a name, an event or a place, introducing the general information The following part of the headline is the main content Oshima and Hogue (2001:259) presented five ways to use a colon: introducing a list, introducing a quotation longer than three lines, introducing the subtitle of a book, an article or a play, indicating the time of day by putting the number for hours or minutes, opening a formal letter 9.33% percent of 100 selected headlines contain colon The use of the colon allows the reporter to give more information and to shorten the headline at the same time because no verb is required between the two parts English headline: [3:27] Citibank: Teerering since 1812 (http://voanews.com February 21, 2016) Vietnamese equivalent: Ngân hàng Citibank thành lập từ năm 1812 English headline: [3:28] Clinton: US stand shouder-to-shoulder with Mexico in fight (http://nypost.com, June 23, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: Mĩ sát cánh Mexico chiến chống nạn buôn ma túy English headline: [3:29] Flu crisis: World response 46 (http://nypost.com, June 23, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: Phản ứng giới với đại dịch cúm These two examples can be understood as Clinton said US would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mexico in fight against drug gangs and the world response to the flu crisis It can be said that the use of the colon to introduce direct speech and more specific information is effective without causing misunderstanding For this reason, there is an increasing trend of using colon in Vietnamese headlines Many Vietnamese headlines include colon even no colon is used in the source headlines English headline: [3:30] Half-way from rags to riches (http://nypost.com, January 21, 2016) Vietnamese equivalent: Việt Nam: nửa chặng đường từ đói nghèo tới giàu mạnh English headlines: [3:31] Asia’s other miracle (http://nypost.com, January 21, 2016) Vietnamese equivalent: Việt Nam: Điều thần kì Châu Á 47 Chapter IV: Implication of the study for the Vietnamese learners in understanding and translating the English news headlines Some possible problems encountered by learners in understanding English news headlines It is believed that to read well, understand correctly a source language (SL) news into a real target language (TL) is difficult, and to look for an equivalent headline to SL headline provided that a TL headline must be achieved, which is more demanding and challenging Only readers with rich background and experience can this perfectly Although English is considered as an international language, none can deny that English language is diverse and complicated to some extent That is the reason why a translator must understand well this language There are a lot of problems relating to translating, reading English news headlines The most noticeable one is the ambiguity of the SL text, the sub-standard in SL text, the level of naturalness, abbreviation, idioms, slang, dialect, foreign words These language phenomena are frequently appeared in English news headlines in particular Most English news headlines carry a great deal of lexical and grammatical ambiguities which may be linguistic A linguistic ambiguity may enrich the headlines as both meanings may be intended While lexical ambiguities are more common, grammatical ambiguities arise when the relationship word group or classes in a large unit are not clear, i.e, one does not know “what goes with what” To understand English news headlines, semantic translation is likely to be suitable It is important to keep the SL text’s truth or facts of the matter 48 [4:1] Two Soviet ships collide, one dies (http://voanews.com, January 2, 2016) Anaphoric reference ambiguity: normally a pronoun like “one” would refer to the nearest explicitly mentioned noun, here ship, rather than the implied noun sailor or passenger An alternative analysis could describe it as category ambiguity, numeric quantifier vs pronoun [4:2] Safety experts say that school bus passengers should be belted (http://bbc.com, March 24, 2016) Belted has two interpretations: “hit with a belt” or “secured with a (seat) belt” (lexical ambiguity) [4:3] Drunk gets nine months in violin case (http://bbc.com, March 24, 2016) Case has two interpretations: “container” or “court-case” (lexical ambiguity) A type of linguistic ambiguity is due to what would usually be called polysemy; that is, not to the fact that two or more items have the same exponent that single item has more than one meaning Strictly speaking, the term polysemy is misleading It is not a case of one item having several meanings, but one of the items has a wide or general contextual meaning, recovering specific situational features In any given situation, only one out of this wide ranges of potentially, or linguistically, relevant feature is functionally relevant [4:4] Iraqi head seeks arms (http://bbc.com, January 24, 2016) 49 Amusing juxtaposition of two polysemous words, head “chief” and arms “weapons” Another problem in reading, understanding correctly English news headlines is culture Cultural difference may be seen as the most difficult factor Culture is often defined as the way of life and its manifestation that is peculiar to that uses a particular language as its means of expression Each nation has its own way of expression, and thus, the culture gaps arise When metaphor amid metonymy appear in context, some kinds of associations and references are required due to different ways of thinking of different concepts The readers meet with many difficulties in reading English news headlines in particular [4:5] World War III for Oscar (http://bbc.com, July 21, 2015) World War I and II ended and have been, up to now, a terrible time and nightmare to people around the world, the journalists compares the nomination for Oscar prize with the “World War” and called it “World War III” [4:6] Hollywood eyes China (http://bbc.com, July 21, 2015) Metonymy is used in headline writing to save space; Hollywood refers to the famous movie studio of America which is salivating over the potential to entertain mainland China, home to more than one billion people about one-fifth of the world’s population 50 Some proposed techniques for translating English news headlines Caught by readers at the very first sight, headlines are required to be as lean and attractive as possible For the sake of a concise headline, writers often shorten a complete sentence or phrase by omitting some of the elements A shortened headline does not mean the one which is not understandable Although it is somewhat shortened, the headline must convey the idea of the whole article as well as the writer’s attitude towards an incident A language varies from one to another and it is very difficult to introduce a fixed technique for translating headlines However, we can still point out the general method It is believed that semantic translation tends to be the most preferable advantage in reproducing an idea from SL into TL To translate SL headlines, semantic translation is the most favourable method English headline: [4:7] A light at the end of the tunnel? (http://reuters.com, June 21, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: Ánh sáng cuối đường hầm? English headline: [4:8] The cause of inflation (http://reuters.com, June 21, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: 51 Nguyên nhân lạm phát Though semantic translation is the most favourable method, it does not mean that it is the only method to translate headlines For those consist of “untranslatable words” or the proper equivalence of which can not be found, communicative translation can be applied The main point here is how to preserve the future and the spirit of the SL’s with the aim to help readers to understand it in the same way as the writer’s intention English headline: [4:9] Apple announces Iphone (http://bbc.com, June 8, 2010) Vietnamese equivalent: Apple trình làng Iphone hệ thứ That is what really makes sense in the message the headline can bring, and for translation, this also appears to be the most important aim during its produce Therefore word choice skills become one important technique of translation If a headline expresses contrast, the faithful translation will be most effectively applied For example, as for the headline quoted from Vietan Notebook - Murray Herbert [4:10] Savers vs spenders, help or hindrance? (http://bbc.com, June 6, 2015) It is possibly translated as “Người dành dụm, kẻ tiêu hoang, giúp đỡ hay gây trở ngại?” Word choice skills help the translator to choose a very 52 suitable word “người” for “dành dụm” and “kẻ” for “tiêu hoang” through which the writer’s attitude is clearly expressed The level of naturalness plays a very important role in translating and marks a significant goal for the translation process In all communicative translation, naturalness is essential, that is why the TL is required to be the translator’s language of common usage Translators then might have to change the meaning and form of the source headlines to make the translation natural and readable English headline: [4:11] Pacific islands “are not sinking” (http://bbc.com, June 21, 2015) Vietnamese equivalent: Các hịn đảo vùng Thái Bình Dương lớn dần lên 53 PART III: CONCLUSION Based on the results of the study, English news headlines possess four main functions The first function is the introduction of thematic content of the following news, which serves as a signal of informative orientation to readers and captures the reader’s attention at their first sight This is the second function of English news headlines Another third function that a news headline performs is conveying the writer’s attitude to the facts reported This third function has been discovered to be closely related to the fourth one: presenting the news reporter’s style of writing However, the two latter functions not always meet the requirement of objectivity in reporting news This can be explained that language serves as the basic tool for communication Additionally, features of English news headlines include: - General characteristics of English news headlines - Types of English news headlines - Strutural features of English news headlines Moreover, the analysis on the differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalent goes as follow: - The use of the verb tense - The use of the lexical choice - Adding some background information in the Vietnamese headlines equivalents - Recovering the omitted articles 54 - Omitting some information in the Vietnamese headlines equivalent - The use of colon Finally, implication of the study for the Vietnamese learners in understanding and translating English news headlines analyzes: - Some possible problems encounterd by learners in understanding English news headlines - Some proposed techniques for translating English news headlines In short, limited budget of time and knowledge prevents this study from covering all general characteristics of English headlines and structural features in English news headlines Accordingly, many related topics left untouched Besides, the analysis on the differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents are worth studying Therefore, students who are interested in this field may wish to compare and contrast English and Vietnamese headlines 55 REFERENCES Nguyen, S.M & Do, A.Đ & Bui T.D Bài giảng lý thuyết thực hành báo chí trực tuyến Nguyen, T.G (2006) Dẫn luận ngôn ngữ Hanoi: Giao duc Newmark, P (1988a) A Textbook of Translation Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1973) A University of English Grammar Oxford: Oxford University Press Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S, Leech y Svartviet, J (1985) A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language Londress: Longman Straumann, H (1935) Newspaper Headlines Londress: Allen & Unwin 56