lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines in english electronic newspapers = sự không rõ ràng về nghĩa của từ và cấu trúc trong tiêu đề hài hước trên báo điện tử tiếng anh

The study is carried out to investigate some main forms of linguistic ambiguity in a specific register, humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers... Aim of the Study: The aim o

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1.Rationale …… ……… …… 1

2.Aim of the Study ……… 2

3.Scope of the Study ……….……… 3

4.Method of the Study ……… ……… 4

5.Design of the Study ……… 5

PART 2- DEVELOPMENT ……… 6

Chapter 1 – Theoretical Background 6

1.1 Ambiguity in English ……….…… 6

1.1.1 Concepts of Ambiguity ……… ……….…… 6

1.1.2 Types of Ambiguity ……….….7

1.1.2.1 Lexical Ambiguity ……… 7

1.1.2.2 Structural Ambiguity ……… …… 9

1.1.2.2.1 Class Ambiguity ……… …… 11

1.1.2.2.2 Syntactic Ambiguity ……….…… 12

1.1.2.3 Phonological Ambiguity ……… 12

1.2 Humor in Language ……… ……….… 13

2.1 Definition of Humor ……….……… 13

2.2 Context of Humor ……… ……….13

2.2 What is meant by Headlines? ……….……….…16

2.2.1 What is a Headline? ……… …… ……17

2.2.2 The Differences between a Headline and the Headlines ……….… 17

2.3 Functions of Headlines……….……… ……18

2.4 The Language of Headlines ……… … 19

2.4.1 The Vocabulary of the Headline Writer ……… ………19

2.4.2 Language Devices in Headlines……….20

2.4.3 What the Headline Writer Omits ……….21

2.4.4 How the Headline Writer Reorganizes Language ……… 22

Chapter 3: The Study 24

3.1 Methodology ……… ……… 24

3.1.1 Samples ……… ……….… 24

3.1.2 Procedure ……… ……….… 24

3.2 Data analysis ……… ……… …… 25

3.2.1 Lexical Ambiguity in English Electronic newspapers Headlines …… 25

3.2.1.1 Nouns ……… ……… 25

3.2.1.2 Verbs ……… ……… 28

3.2.1.3 Prepositions ……… ……….…30

3.2.2 Structural Ambiguity in English Electronic newspapers Headlines …… 31

3.2.2.1Class ambiguity……… ……….…….31

3.2.2 Syntactic Ambiguity ……… ………… … 33

3.3 Implications ……… ……… 36

2 Suggestions for Journalists and Translators ….……… … …….… 38 2.1 To Journalists ……… … 38 2.2 To Translators……….……… … 39

3 Suggestions for Teachers and Learners of English in Vietnam … ………… 39 3.1 To Teachers of English ……… … 39 3.2 To Learners of English ……… … 39

4 Suggestions for Further Study ……….……… 40

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In today‘s hectic world one of the most important factors is information The means of information provision are quite different which can be summarized in one word: mass media The media is the whole body of communications that reach large numbers of the public via radio, television, movies, magazines, newspapers and the World Wide Web Conventionally, it

is believed that newspapers have more readers than any other kind of written text According

to Van Dijk (1986: 156), "for most citizens, news is perhaps the type of written discourse with which they are confronted most frequently." With the introduction of modern technology and the emergence of Internet, the traditional newspapers have changed in many ways In stead of the only existence of print press, electronic or online newspapers have marked a milestone in media and become very popular to the public in modern life It has a variety of forms to present information ranging from an electronic edition of the printed newspaper, search engines to search for news topics of interest to news websites which enable the user to browse items organized in subject categories and sub-categories in given menus Therefore, electronic newspapers not only attract internet citizens with their independent forms but also satisfy readers of traditional press with electronic edition of printed ones

Among means of language, it can‘t be denied that English has become the international language bridge used dominantly in a large number of electronic newspapers It makes a great help in transferring written information from country to country universally Therefore, English electronic newspapers not only play a very significant role in broadening knowledge and culture but also provide a beneficial unlimited source of materials for English learners all over the world

It can‘t be denied that it is headline, which summarizes the content of a story, and entices an audience into reading the article, that have the highest readership According to Ungerer (2000: 48), "a headline describes the essence of a complicated news story in a few words It informs quickly and accurately and arouses the reader's curiosity." Newspaper

headlines are particularly important for the way readers comprehend a news text, ―they are markers that monitor attention, perception and the reading process‖ (Van Dijk, 1988)

Nevertheless, many students of English find that electronic newspaper headlines are especially difficult to understand Obviously, it is not just a matter of vocabulary; even the style of writing is different from any other text they have met in their studies ―The language of headlines is special and has its own characteristics on the lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical

levels for its brevity, attractiveness, and clarity‖(Reah 1998, 14)

The lack of clarity or clearness in the way headlines formed lexically and structurally creates the biggest obstacle to process of interpretation, even leads to misunderstanding in many cases According to Stageberg, ―ambiguity is an ever-present peril to clearness of expression‖(1998:501) The existence of ambiguity in electronic newspapers headlines makes themselves become humorous linguistically

FARMER BILL DIES IN HOUSE (From the BBC, October 27, 2009)

Multiple ambiguities exist in the above headline Bill could be a proper name instead

of 'legislative proposal'; then, depending on the interpretation of the grammatical subject, die

could be taken literally or figuratively and House can be interpreted as home or 'House of

Commons' Therefore, humorous headlines which readers perceive as funny for the possibility

to interpret them in more than one way have recently become an interesting linguistic phenomenon on Internet There are many websites specializing in listing these kinds of headlines from various online newspapers For example, the web http://www.fun-with-words.com/ambiguous_headlines.html, http://www.squidoo.com/funniest-headlines, or http://jn10.co.uk/stories/newspaper-headlines.php However, this thing is usually done for the sake of entertainment alone and no attempt is made to analyze the linguistic characteristics that make them humorous The study is carried out to investigate some main forms of linguistic ambiguity in a specific register, humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers

2 Aim of the Study:

The aim of this study is to make an inquiry into the nature of ambiguity in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers systematically The focus of the research is on examples of lexical and structural ambiguity that result in sources of humor Therefore, the research not only presents a scientific description about the ambiguity and gives a satisfactory explanation about the linguistic characteristics that make English electronic newspapers headlines humorous

To achieve this aim, the author will make an attempt to examine the nature of linguistic ambiguity and explore the notion of humor as well as the context of humor in language The distinctive features of electronic newspapers headlines will also be described briefly so as to give guidelines for analyzing lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines During the study process, the following research questions will be raised for investigation:

1 What are linguistic ambiguity and the notion of humor in language?

2 What are the distinctive features of electronic newspapers headlines?

3 How is lexical ambiguity exploited in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers?

4 How is structural ambiguity exploited in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers?

Through this study, the author would like to provide non-native readers especially English learners with a profound and appropriate insight into ambiguity which will make a help for them to eliminate gradually the difficulties in understanding English electronic newspapers headlines The study also aims at making some contribution to journalists, to translators, to teachers and to learners of English in Vietnam by giving some suggestions basing on the results of the investigation

3 Scope of the Study

Since ―one of the goals of a semantic theory is to describe and explain ambiguities in words and sentences‖ (Jame Hurford and Brendan Heasley 1983:121), this study only attempts

to investigate lexical and structural ambiguities in a specific register, electronic newspaper headlines However, the research does not mention to headlines in general but only a restricted number of humorous ones from two websites http://mrtea.all.fivegeeks.net/headlines.html and http://www.crashblossoms.com/archives/date/2009/10 which specialize in listing ambiguous headlines in both British English electronic newspapers and in American English electronic newspapers during a period of 6 years from 2005 to 2011 are selected to study Although the difference of cultures between Great Britain and America can influence differently on the way

the humor is created in headlines, this factor of culture is outside the scope of this study

It is also important to note that the concept of humorous headlines in this study is interpreted as ambiguous ones which readers perceive as funny for the possibility to interpret them in more than one way Therefore, the author of this thesis distinguishes between headlines containing linguistic ambiguity and those that simply report funny or incredible stories However, if linguistic ambiguity created in headlines is writers‘ intention is also not the focus of this thesis

Within the area of humorous headlines, the study will only focus on a corpus of 52 English electronic headlines selected from the collection available on the two above websites

4 Method of the Study

As the study set its main objective to be investigating the nature of ambiguity in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers, it is explanatory research which begins with a phenomenon and seeks to describe and explain it The study is conducted in an inductive approach where data is collected from English electronic newspapers to describe lexical and structural ambiguity as a natural linguistic process To achieve the result of the research, the author of this thesis focuses on analyzing 52 humorous headlines founded in two websites http://mrtea.all.fivegeeks.net/headlines.html and http://www.crashblossoms.com/archives/date/2009/10 which specialize in listing ambiguous headlines in both British English electronic newspapers and in American English electronic newspapers from 2005 to 2011

In the exploration of nature of ambiguity in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers, linguistic theory on ambiguity developed by James R Huford and Brendan Heasley, Norman C Stageberg, linguistic theory on language of humor by Alison Ross, the research on the language of newspapers by Danuta Reah are adopted as the theoretical framework

5 Design of the Study

This study is composed of three main parts

The first part titled ―INTRODUCTION‖ introduces the rationale, the aims the scope and methodology of the study

The second part named ―DEVELOPMENT‖ includes three main chapters

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the theoretical background of the study Its focus is

on introducing important concepts such ambiguity, types of ambiguity and the notion of humor in language as well as its context

Chapter 2 presents a general description of headlines in English electronic newspapers which deal with the definition of headlines, the functions of headlines and their general characteristics

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study which investigates the nature of ambiguity in humorous headlines in English electronic newspapers A classification of the different types of ambiguity founded in electronic headlines and some implications basing on the result of the study are presented in this chapter

Part 3 is the CONCLUSION of the study which summarizes the main content of the research and giving some suggestions for journalists, translators, teachers and learners of English in Vietnam

to say something about the nature of ambiguity, the author of this thesis will try her best to give an explicit notion of ambiguity in which the definition of ambiguity and its main kinds will be discussed in details

1.1.1 Concepts of Ambiguity

Ambiguity (from the Latin adjective ambiguous, i.e uncertain) means double

or multiple meanings According to Norman C Stageberg ―When a given word or language structure can have two or more definite meanings in its context, we say that it is ambiguous‖ (1968: 19)

James R Huford and Brendan Heasley looks ―a word or a sentence is ambiguous when

it has more than one sense‖ (1983:121)

Geoffrey Leech (1987) states ―ambiguity is a one-many relation between syntax and sense.‖

The online dictionary named Wikipedia also defines that ―Ambiguity is the property of being ambiguous‖ and ―a word, a phrase, or sentence, called ambiguous if it can be interpreted

in more than one way.‖(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ambiguity)

In general, ambiguity can be understood as the presence of more than one

meaning in words, phrases and sentences In the case of words and phrases, ―a word or phrase

is ambiguous if it has two (or more) synonyms that are not themselves synonyms of each

other.‖ (James R Huford 1983:122)For example, Trunk is synonymous with elephant‘s

proboscis and with chest, but they are not synonyms of each other, so trunk is ambiguous Similarly, coach is synonymous with trainer and with charabanc (or bus) but they are not synonyms of each other, so coach is ambiguous

In the case of sentence, ―a sentence is ambiguous if it has two (or more) paraphrases which are not themselves paraphrases of each other‖ (James R Huford 1983:121) For example: We saw her duck is a paraphrase of we saw her lower than her head and of we saw the duck belonging to her, and these last two sentences are not themselves paraphrases of each other Therefore we saw her duck is ambiguous

1.1.2 Types of Ambiguity

Ambiguity in English are caused by different sources such as polysymy and homonymy (Palmer 1981:102; Huford 1983:123), sound links (Peter Roach 1983:109), obscure reference and sentence structure (Norman C Stageberg 1971:232) These sources of this linguistic phenomenon show that ambiguity can occur through three fields of language: lexicology, syntax and phonology As a result, ambiguity can be classified into three main kinds: lexical ambiguity, structural ambiguity and phonological ambiguity Most linguists differentiate between two most typical types: lexical and structural ambiguity, with the former referring to ambiguity conveyed through polysemous words/homophonous strings and the latter to phenomena of class ambiguity and syntactic ambiguity

two different ways which are not paraphrases of each other as follows:

(1a)Paraphrase one: The captain corrected the inventory

(1b)Paraphrase two: The captain corrected the tilt

The word arms in the following example is also a case of lexical ambiguity: (2) his legs were broken so he put away his arms (Hoang, Truong Tat 1993:89) We can understand arms as

part of body and as tool (the gun) to fight

In brief, lexical ambiguity is conveyed by "a word with more than one possible meaning in a context.‖ Meaning" hereby refers to whatever should be captured by a good dictionary

It is very significant to note that lexical ambiguity that Huford illustrates is a class ambiguity in which, unlike in structural ambiguity, the lexical item does not change part

same-of speech

Huford also points out the origin of lexical ambiguity is polysymy and homonymy (1983:123) Therefore, it is necessary to make a distinction between polysymy and homonymy which has basically to do with the closeness, or relatedness of the senses of the ambiguous words

1.1.2.1.1 Polysymy

The issue of polysymy is mainly the problem of interrelation and interdependence of the various meanings of the same word Not only do different words have different meanings but the same word may also have a set of different meanings For instance, the word ―bank‖ has several distinct lexical definitions, including ―financial institution‖ and ―edge of a river‖

Hufford defines ―a case of polysymy is one where a word has several very closely

related senses.‖ Mouth (of a river vs of an animal (1983:123) is an example of polysymy The

two senses are clearly related by the concepts of an opening from the interior of some solid mass to the outside, and of a place of issue at the end of some long narrow channel

1.1.2.1.2 Homonymy

According to Huford, ―case of homonymy is one of an ambiguous word, whose different senses are far apart from each other and not obviously related to each other in any way‖ (1983:123) Cases of homonymy seem definitely to be matters of mere accident or

coincidence Mug (drinking vessel vs gullible person) would be a clear case of homonymy

because there is no obvious conceptual connection between its two meanings

It is important to differentiate between absolute homonymy and partial homonymy Absolute homonyms will have to satisfy the following three conditions:

(i) they will be unrelated in meaning;

(ii) all their forms will be identical;

(iii) the identical forms will be grammatically equivalent

(John Lyons 1995:55)

“Bank” (financial institution vs side of a river )or ―sole” (bottom of foot vs kind of fisht or shoe) can serve as typical examples of absolute homonyms If only two in the three conditions are satisfied (including condition (i)), then we have partial hyponyms Let‘s consider the following example: They found hospitals and charitable institutions(John Lyons 1995: 56) The word found in this sentence can be interpreted as a form of find or a form of found In the former case, the tense of the sentence is past simple whereas the latter is simple

present Therefore, although they are identical in sound and spelling, they are not

grammatically equivalent Obviously, this is a case of partial homonymy

When referring to homonymy, John Lyons states that “ambiguity which results from absolute homonymy cannot be eliminated by manipulating the grammatical environment in this way But, it is quite possible for the partial homonymy of two lexemes rarely or never to result in ambiguity.” (John Lyons 1995:57) For example, the partial homonymy of the adjective last (as in last week) and the verb last (as in Bricks last a long time) rarely produces

ambiguiy Therefore, the grammatical equivalence of homonyms usually creates lexical ambiguity

In a word, lexical ambiguity occurs when two or more meanings of a single word or expression are applicable in a given context It stems from the existence of polysemy and homonymy Whereas homonymy (whether absolute or partial) is always unrelated in meanings, polysymy (multiple meaning) is a property of single lexemes which have several

very closely related senses

For example, visiting relatives can be boring (James R Huford 1983:121) It is

obvious that this sentence is structurally ambiguous because its grammatical structure permits more than one interpretation although there is no the existence of any ambiguous words It can

be understood either It can be boring to relatives or relatives who are visiting can be boring Similarly, the thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table (James R Huford 1983:122) can be interpreted either it was crouching under the table that bothered Bill or the creature that bothered Bill was crouching under the table

Structural ambiguity is basically a question of ―what goes with what‖ in a sentense, (James R Huford 1983:122) and this can be shown by diagrams of various sorts We will mention one such diagramming technique, constituency diagrams which will present with square bracket around the relevant parts of the sentence (or phrase)

It is easy to recognize the phrase old men and women (James R Huford 1983:128) is structurally ambiguous because it is synonymous with women and old men and with old men and old women We represent these two senses with square brackets thus:

Old men and women Diagram 1: [old men] and women Diagram 2: old [men and women]

The first diagram indicates that old modifies only men, and the second indicates that old modifies the whole phrase men and women

In this way, we can represent two possible senses of the noun phrase a fat ladies‟ man (

Norman C Stageberg, 1970) as follows:

a fat ladies‟ man Diagram 3: a [fat ladies]‟ man Diagram 4: a fat [ ladies‟ man ]

The third diagram indicates that fat modifies only ladies, whereas the fourth indicates that fat modifies only man

When referring to structural ambiguity, Norman C Stageberg also agrees with James Huford that it derives ―from the grammar of English, not from the different meaning of

individual words (Norman C Stageberg 1968: 232-239) Jame Huford‘s question ―what goes with what‖ is analyzed by Norman C Stageberg more specifically He states that structural ambiguity can result from the arrangement of words and structures, or from grammatical classification of words Therefore, structural ambiguity is subdivided into two main kinds such

as syntactic ambiguity and class ambiguity

which functions as a noun in this sentence makes it structurally ambiguous

In another example, ―Squad helps dog bite victim”(Alison Ross, 2002:20), this is a

headline of the news about a police squad helping the victim of a dog bite In the intended meaning "bite" is the noun modified by another noun (dog), while in the second case it is the

bare infinitive following the verb "helps." Therefore, this headline can be interpreted either a police squad helping the victim of a dog bite or the police squad assisting a dog in biting a person

1.1.2.2.2 Syntactic Ambiguity

The first kind is syntactic ambiguity Syntactic ambiguity occurs when the arrangement

of words in a grammatical structure permits two or more meanings to emerge

For example, a fat ladies‟ man The arrangement of words in this noun-phrase

structure is adjective+noun+noun When this grammatical sequence occurs, the adjective can

modify either the first or the second noun Therefore, this phrase can be interpreted or a man for fat ladies or a fat man for ladies

Another syntactically ambiguous structure is this one: present or past participle + noun

For example, frightening people in the sentence “Patent medicines are sold by frightening people” can be a verb + its object—that is, someone frightens people But it can also be an

adjective + a noun—that is, the people who sell are very frightening And here is a similar

case: The ladies of the Walnut Street Mission have discarded clothes They invite you to come and inspect them

Still another syntactic ambiguity occurs to prepositional phrase which modifies an immediately preceding noun phrase or a verb These problems are mainly related to the placement of the modifier depending on the different interpretations Consider the two

possible interpretations of "Can I try on the red dress in the window?" If the preposition phrase

"in the window" is interpreted as attached to the noun phrase "the red dress," then the sentence

is a perfectly normal request by a customer who wants to try on the dress that she saw in the

window If, on the other hand, we interpret the preposition phrase as attached to the verb, then

the woman is asking to try on the dress while standing in the store's window This sentence well exemplifies the possible applications of structural ambiguity for humorous purposes

Can I try on the red dress in the window?

Diagram 5: Can I try on [the red dress in the

very good effect of humor for the jokes The following story can serve as an instance

“How is bread made?” – asked the White Queen

“I know that!” Alice cried eagerly.“You take some flour….”

“Where do you pick the flower?” The White Queen asked

“In the garden or in the hedges” (Fromkin, V.A 1983:207)

The humor in this story is based on two sets of homophones: Flower - flour which are

pronounced the same but spelt differently However, the possibilities for confusion can happen only in spoken language, as the two words look quite distinct when they are written down Therefore, phonological ambiguity is outside the scope of this study which only focuses on

Steve Sultanoff (1995 )defines “humor is the experience of incongruity” and “humor

is comprised of three components: wit, mirth, and laughter.” (Wit is the cognitive experience, mirth the emotional experience, and laughter the physiological experience)

Another definition of humor quoted in The language of Humor by Allison Ross also

states humor is ―something that makes a person laugh or smile‖

However, exceptions can be found in these definitions It is possible to claim that something is humorous, even though no one laughed at the time and it can often happen that people laugh but someone can claim ‗that is not funny.‘ ―Smiling and laughter can also be a

sign of fear or embarrassment‖ (Allison Ross, 2002: 1) Despite the objections, the response

is an important factor in counting something as humor

1.2.2 Context of Humor

It is important to note that we only focus on ‗verbal humor‘ which is the most tangible and perhaps the most widely researched form of humor Although other forms of humor (e.g visual or situational) have also received attention of research community, the writer of this thesis only concentrates her work on the linguistic expressions of humor

When mentioning to context for humor, the incongruity theory which focuses on the

element of surprise is adopted It states that ―humor is created out of a conflict between what is

expected and what actually occurs in the joke.‖ (Alison Ross, 2002: 7) This accounts for the

most obvious feature of much humor: an ambiguity, which deliberately misleads the audience, followed by a punchline

“Do you believe in clubs for young people?”

“Only when kindness fails” (Alison Ross, 2002: 7)

It is reasonable to understand the word ―clubs‖ in the sense of ―leisure groups‖ but the punchline shows that it was referring to ―weapons‖

A dictionary definition of incongruous is: ―inconsistent; not fitting well together; disjointed; unsuitable‖, which all sound like negative terms Unintentional humor may well be caused by some lapse in expression, but deliberate humor is carefully planned, often to exact wording and timing In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (Crystal 1987) David Crystal comments: ―variations in self-expression are most noticeable in those areas of language use where great care is being taken, such as literature and humor.‖ The lapse in the

previous example happens on the part of the tellee, who has failed to grasp the intended sense

In this way, humor breaks an important rule of language use that ―we should try to

communicate as clearly as possible‖(Alison Ross, 2002: 8) The examples of humor in this

part use the possibilities for ambiguity in the words or structure of language In such examples

of humor the term incongruity refers to the possibility for two meanings being understood

from the utterance This is often called a pun The humor often has the following elements:

- There is a conflict between what is expected and what actually occurs in the joke

- The conflict is caused by an ambiguity at some levels of language

- The punchline is surprising, as it is not the expected interpretation, but it resolves

the conflict For example, “Have you got a light, Mac?”

“No, but I‟ve got a dark brown overcoat.”

(Alison Ross, 2002: 8)

In the joke quoted above, there is an ambiguity at the level of lexis and phonology, as

there are two possible meanings for each of the words light and Mac/mac There is also an ambiguity in syntax: the listener interprets the structure as finishing on the noun light, with the name of the person added on The punchline shows that light mac should be regarded as an

adjective + noun unit

In a nutshell, this part moves towards a definition of what counts as humor and considers the factors that make us laugh This part also focuses on the context for humor in

which some basic concepts such incongruity or pun and conditions of humor are discussed in

details

Chapter 2 – A General Description of Headlines in English

newspapers The MSN can be taken as an example of electronic newspapers

Besides, an electronic newspaper is also a self-contained, reusable, and refreshable version of a traditional newspaper that acquires and holds information electronically

Therefore, electronic newspapers are often associated with an existing newspaper in print The BBC, the New York Times, the Guardian or the Chicago Sun Times are examples of electronic

newspapers in this case In a word, electronic newspapers can be defined as ―a newspaper existing on line or separately or as a version of a printed periodical‖

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electronicnews) Most electronic newspapers do not have enumeration but they do have chronology, and many of them maintain archives of back issues online

According to Massey, BL & Levy, MR (1999), electronic newspapers have a variety

of forms to present information ranging from an electronic edition of the printed newspaper, search engines to search for news topics of interest to news websites which enable the user to

browse items organized in subject categories and sub-categories in given menus Most electronic newspapers do not have enumeration, though they do have chronology, and many maintain archives of back issues online

Electronic newspapers own typical features Ward, (2002: 202) claimed that striking characteristics of online news include hypertext, multimedia and interactivity Hyperlinks can

be used to navigate through a news website and to connect the web-user to related content This related content may be located in the web pages of the news site or somewhere in the World Wide Web The use of multimedia is another vital element of online journalism News

stories published on the web can be complemented with graphics, photographs, animations or video clips Interactivity is another characteristic of online newspapers It allows users to move through the sites to topics of specific interest by clicking on relevant hyperlinks

2.2 What is meant by Headlines?

2.2.1 What is a Headline?

In most general terms, a headline is text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it However, besides the up-mentioned function, newspaper headings are also aimed at catching reader‘s attention 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 in a newspaper” (Hornby A.S et al, 1999:551)

Many linguists seem to be interested in the concept of headline Rober Grimmer (1997)

proposed that the word headline is ―a head of newspaper story or article printed in large type and devised to summarize the story or article that follows ‖ (p497)

Dunata Reah (2002) defined ―the headline is a unique type of text It has a range of functions that specifically dictate its shape, content and structure, and it operates within a range of restrictions that limit the freedom of the writer ‖ (p13)

The followings are some examples of newspaper headlines quoted in BBC News on November, 23rd , 2011

 Amanda Knox 'murder knife' tests

 'Disappointment' over Iran talks

 UK bank inquiry head urges reforms

 Algeria police break up protest

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/)

In brief, from the original literal meaning, headlines can be understood the short tittles above newspaper articles which are often written in bold, and in a larger size than the article discourse to catch the readers‘ attention

2.2.2 The Differences between a Headline and the Headlines

It is necessary to distinguish a headline with the term the headlines At first glance,

both terms seem to refer to the same thing with the same sound of ‗headline‘ However, in fact, they are used differently with different grammatical forms and different meanings Let‘s

have a look at the definition of a headline in comparison with that of the headlines:

o A headline is the title of a newspaper story, printed in large letters at the top of the story

o The headlines are also the main points of the news which are read on radio or television, e.g „And now for the main headlines again‟

(Cobuild English Learner‘s Dictionary, Larrousse; 1992:445)

The two definitions above show clear differences between a headline and the headlines First of all, they differ in the fact that the former can be used in the form of both singular (a headline) and plural([the] headlines), whereas the latter is always used in plural form with definite article the Another difference lies in the semantic field The first term

refers to the heading which is a part of a news item and carries the topic of the news discourse

while the headlines refer to ―a brief summary of the most important items of news on TV or

on radio‖ (Hornby A.S et al, 1999:551)

The second function of headlines is to introduce content of articles Like any title, every headline is aimed at introducing the news item, no matter whether it directly deals with the content of the discourse or indirectly represents the topic of the news through an image In other words, the content and the topic of an article can be expressed shortly and generally by

its headline Another function of headlines is that ―they are written to influence the opinion of the reader” (Dunata Reah, 2002:28) There is no dout that all the facts in news items should

be reported exactly and objectively Morever, the news writers should not impose his/her

personal ideas on the readership However, the latter requirement hardly happens in reality and the writer‘s attitude expressed in his/her article influences the opinion of the reader very strongly For example, after the death of the Princess of Wales, newspapers became a lot more cautious about intruding into the privacy of the Royal family, particularly that of Prince Edward His name occurred frequently in many newspaper headlines such as:

1 EDWARD GOES SHOOTING AS THE WORLD MOURNS

2 I GOT IT WRONG OVER WILLS, SAYS EDWARD

3 STUPID SOPHIE GAGGED BY THE PALACE

4 DAFT UNCLE ED STRIKES AGAIN

5 ‗DIM‘ EDWARD GIVES TABLOIDS THE LAST LAUGH

The focus of the story is Prince Edward Although the naming strategies adopted may appear friendly – first name, nickname – they are in fact hostile The name is modified by

adjectives such as „stupid‟, „daft‟, and „dim‟ The short form ‗ED‘ is not one used by the

prince or his fmily, it is imposed informality by the newspapers and denotes a lack of respect Prince William, on the other hand, is named by his family nickname, ‗WILLS‘, indicating a friendly or sympathetic response

To sum up, headlines are designed not only to grab a reader's attention, introduce

content of a news item but also to influence the opinion of the reader “This mix of functions immediately presents a problem: headlines can often , in their attempt to attract a reader to a story, be ambiguous or confusing” (Dunata Reah, 2002:19)

2.4 The Language of Headlines

2.4.1 The Vocabulary of the Headline Writer

The language of the newspapers headlines is quite special which is normally very brief, elliptical and compressed Overtime, headline writers have developed a vocabulary that fulfils the requirements of the headline, using words that are short, attention-getting and effective Many of words that are ‗typical‘ of the headline are probably rarely found outside this

particular text type The following table gives some examples of distinctive vocabularies which are used frequently in newspaper headlines

(Dong, Nguyen Thi Van 2001:46)

2.4.2 Language Devices in Headlines

To attract the reader‘s interest, headline writers use a range of language devices to make their headlines memorable and striking The following headlines can serves as instances

of some devices in action

Group 1- Word and meaning Group 2 – Loaded word

1 AISLE NOT MARRY YOU

2 UP BEFORE THE BEAK

3 LABOUR BANKS ON CEREBRITY

SUPPORT

4 TITANIC KATE GOES ON DIET

1‗COVER-UP‘OUTCRY OVER FOOT AND MOUTH PROBE

2 THE STREETS OF CARNAGE

3 GENIUS REV BUTCHERED AT CHURCH

4 DYING SUE‘S CANCER RAP

Word and meaning

All the headlines in group1 play on the potential for ambiguity that can exist in the

relationship between word and meaning For example, the word aisle is a homophone (i.g is identical in sound) of the phrase I‟ll Headline 3, a story about the funding of the Labour Party contains an ambiguous use of the word bank This word is a polysemy which can be a noun

meaning an establishment where money is deposited but it can also be a verb meaning to depend on – the factual meaning required by the story A serious social issue is therefore

headlined by a linguistic joke Headline 2 makes use of the fact that the word beak is a

homonym It can mean the jaws of a bird, but it is also a slang term for magistrate or judge Michael Barrymore has been attacked by a swan, but he is also facing a criminal investigation

Headline 4 makes use of metaphorical associations Titanic means ‗of enormous size‘, but it

also refers to the film of that name, in which actress, Kate Winslett starred Winslett had recerntly been in the news because she had gained weight

2.4.3 What the Headline Writer Omits

It can‘t be denied that English newspaper headlines which are compressed and condensed have their own special rules and regulations It is because, as Fairclough (1995)

says, "headlines have distinctive syntactic properties, which make them a grammatical oddity"

(p 21) The headline writer needs to include the factual detail of the story in a way that will attract the reader‘s attention Given space is limited, lexical words (words that have meaning such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) are far more useful to the writer than

grammatical words (words that signal grammatical relationships, such as determiners – the, a, this, that, etc., auxiliary verbs be, have, do) But “it can occasionally lead to ambiguity, as

many lexical words depend on grammatical words to establish which word class they are.”

(Dunata Reah, 2002:19) This can lead to ambiguous headlines such as:

1 BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLAND ISLANDS

2 LUNG CANCER IN WOMEN MUSHROOMS

3 RED TAPE HOLDS UP NEW BRIDGE

4 POLICE BEGIN CAMPAIGN TO RUN DOWN RAYWALKERS

5 PROSTITUTES APPEAL TO POPE

6 SQUAD HELP DOG BITE VICTIM

(Dunata Reah, 2002:19)

The first two headlines are difficult to interpret because the word class of „left‟ and

„mushrooms‟ isn‘t clear, and the context leads the reader towards the wrong choice The reader

is likely to make the obvious interpretation of „British left‟ as Subject and Verb in a sentence

However, it is intended as a noun phrase The word „mushrooms‟ is most frequently used as a noun This expectation leads the reader to see „women mushrooms‟ as a noun phrase In this case, „mushrooms‟ is being used as a verb, giving structure:

Lung cancer in women mushrooms

S V

In headlines 3 and 4, the ambiguity is caused by the different possible meanings of the

phrases „hold up‟ and „run down‟ Something similar is happening in headline 6 It is not possible to tell whether the verb used is the phrasal verb „appeal to‟ or the single verb

„appeal‟ In headline 5, the ambiguity occurs because of the different but closely linked meanings of „make‟ In headline 7, It is impossible to tell if ‗dog bite victim‘ is a noun phrase

In the headline, it looks more like a noun followed by a verb and direct object

In general, the absence of grammatical words in headlines obviously decreases the clarity of meaning and leads to ambiguity in many cases

2.4.4 How the Headline Writer Reorganizes Language

In order to produce punchy, economical texts, headline writers also plays about with

the standard order of words and phrases According to Dunata Reah (2002), “they often put information into the modifier slot in the noun phrase, to produce a form of shorthand that is