Lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines in english electronic newspapers

Lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines in english electronic newspapers Nguyễn Thị Ánh Tuyết Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS.. The study is carried out to investi

Lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines in english electronic newspapers

Nguyễn Thị Ánh Tuyết

Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: Linguistics; Mã Số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Minh Cường M.A

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This study analyzes some forms of linguistic ambiguity in English in a specific

register, English electronic newspaper headlines In particular, the focus of the research is on examples of lexical and syntactic ambiguity that result in sources of unintentional humor The study is based on a corpus of 52 humorous headlines originating from different electronic newspapers headlines especially the BBC and the New York Times from 2005 to 2011 The linguistic phenomena that contribute to create this kind of semantic confusion in electronic headlines will be analyzed and divided into the two main categories of lexical and structural ambiguity, and examples from the corpus will be discussed for each category The result shows that ambiguity is the source of humor in headlines and it occurs popularly to two fields of language: lexicology and syntax On a total of 52 ambiguous headlines, the majority was found

to be ambiguous on a structural level (60 78percent), while the rest (39.22 percent) presents some sort of lexical ambiguity In any case, homonymy, polysymy and the distinctive features of newspaper headlines which often own loaded words and omit grammar signals are considered the origin of ambiguity in humorous electronic headlines

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Từ vựng; Hài hước; Báo điện tử

Content:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

Chapter 2: A general Description of Electronic Newspaper Headlines 16

2 1 Electronic Newspapers ……… …….16

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

PART 3: CONCLUSION……….………….38

1 Major Findings from the Research ……….………38

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

1

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)

2

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

3

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

4

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

5

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

41

REFERENCES

 Books

1 Allen &Unwin Vinay, J.P and Darbelnet, J (1973), Newspaper Headlines Londress

2 Alison Ross (2002), the Language of Humor, London and New York: Routledge, pp

3-40

3 Attardo, S (1994) Linguistic Theories of Humor Berlin, New York: Mouton De

Gruyter

4 Didier Ward, M (2002), Journalism Online, Oxford, Great Britain, pp 202

5 Dong, Nguyen Thi Van (2001), A Study of Socio-cultural Headlines in English Press,

VNU, Hanoi, PP 46

6 Fromkin, V.A (1983), An Introduction in Language, Australia Edition, pp 207

7 Geoffrey Leech (1987) Semantics, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books

8 Hirst, G (1987) Semantic Interpretation and The Resolution of Ambiguity, Cambridge

University Press

9 James R Huford and Brendan Heasley (1983), Semantics: A Course Boook, University

Press, Cambridge, pp 121-148

10 John Lyons (1995), Linguistic Semantics, University Press, Cambridge, pp.55-58

11 Massey, BL & Levy, MR (1999), Interactivity, online journalism, and English-

language Web newspapers in Asia, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly,

vol 76, no 1, p 138

12 McLoughlin, L 2000 The Language of Magazines London: Routledge

13 Peter Roach (1983) English Phonetics and Phonology, University Press, Cambridge,

pp 109

14 Quirk, R., Greenbaum, (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language,

Longman, London

15 Reah, D (1998) The Language ofNewspapers London and New York: Routledge

16 Steve Sultanoff (1995) Therapeutic Humor, Vol IX, 3, p 1-2

17 Stageberg, N C (1970), Ambiguity in College Writing, In W L Anderson, & N C