The Syntactic and Lexical Features of English and Vietnamese Newspaper Headlines A Contrastive Analysis

The Syntactic and Lexical Features of English and Vietnamese Newspaper Headlines: A Contrastive Analysis Phạm Hồng Phượng Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS.. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ Năm bả

The Syntactic and Lexical Features of English and Vietnamese Newspaper Headlines: A

Contrastive Analysis

Phạm Hồng Phượng

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: Considering the absence of contrasting English and Vietnamese newspaper

headlines, this study was an attempt to conduct a contrastive analysis between the newspaper headlines of English and Vietnamese languages in order to explore how they are different The analysis was based on a four-day corpus of the headlines Utilizing contrastive analysis, the researcher analyzed the variability of syntactic and lexical features across and within the English and Vietnamese headlines It was concluded that they are similar in using headlines by simple sentences, noun phrases, and dynamic verbs with active structure Different characteristics can be found in the use of functional headlines, non-finite clauses, verbless clauses, modification in nominal headlines, some parts of speech, and omission of words This study has pedagogical implications for teaching journalistic English and translation

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Từ vựng; Cú pháp

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT - i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - iii

LIST OF TABLES - iv

ABSTRACT - v

PART A: INTRODUCTION -

1 Rationale of the study -

2 Objectives of the study -

3 Research questions -

4 Scope of the study -

5 Methods of the study -

6 Design of the study -

PART B: DEVELOPMENT -

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Literature review -

1.1.1 Language of headlines -

1.1.2 Complexity in headlines -

1.1.3 Typical features of headlines -

1.1.4 Contrastive analyses on headlines -

1.1.5 Studies on headlines in Vietnam -

1.2 Theoretical background -

1.2.1 Newspaper headlines -

1.2.1.1 Concepts of headlines -

1.2.1.2 Functions of headlines -

1.2.2 Syntactic and lexical features -

1.2.2.1 Syntactic features -

1.2.2.2 Lexical features -

CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS ON COLLECTED NEWSPAPER HEADLINES -

2.1 Materials -

1

2

2

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3

4

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6

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2.2 Procedure -

2.3 Data analysis -

2.3.1 First level of analysis -

2.3.1.1 Structural headline types -

2.3.1.2 Functional headline types -

2.3.2 Second level of analysis -

2.3.2.1 Parts of speech in sample headlines -

2.3.2.2 Omissions in headlines -

2.4 Summary -

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS -

3.1 Similar features of English and Vietnamese newspaper

headlines - 3.1.1 Syntactic similarities -

3.1.2 Lexical similarities -

3.2 Different features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines -

3.2.1 Syntactic differences -

3.2.2 Lexical differences -

3.3 Pedagogical implications -

3.3.1 Implications for teaching journalistic English -

3.3.2 Implications for teaching translation -

3.4 Summary -

PART C: CONCLUSION -

1 Recapitulation -

2 Limitations of the study -

3 Suggestions for further studies

-REFERENCES

-APPENDIX -

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26

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I

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It is undeniable that our country has been moving towards globalization and trade liberalization To be successful, we have opened to welcome foreign investment for many years and now we still need to continuously understand the political and economic situations of other countries In such a situation, information has played a vital role up to now Newspapers are one of the most popular means of transmitting information which has attracted a great number of readers

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" Reading

newspapers in English, in fact, has always been an interest of English learners Newspapers are everywhere but how to read in an easy way to understand is still a problem Moreover,

as teachers of English, how to teach students to translate, to write and to understand English press in an effective way is really a big question

In a newspaper, it is the headline that has the highest readership It is always the first thing that everyone notices when picking up a newspaper It serves as a guide for readers that helps decide whether to continue on reading the whole report or to skip onto another one Each headline summarizes the content of a story, and entices an audience into reading the article 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)

Many students of English find that 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 (Danuta R., 1998) These language features pose a great challenge to foreign learners of English when they begin to read English newspapers

The key to ease the difficulty of this special genre lies on the comparison between foreign and native languages (Connor, 1996) Thereby, this study is conducted to investigate the similar and different features in the newspaper headlines of English and

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Vietnamese languages From the findings, I hope partly to guide Vietnamese learners and teachers of English towards the effective way of mastering English

2 Objectives of the study

In the light of Contrastive Analysis, this study attempts to contrast English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines, which concentrates on the following objectives:

 Studying the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines;

 Contrastively comparing the newspaper headlines of the two languages syntactically and lexically to find the similarities and mainly differences between them;

 Drawing out the practical applications in English language teaching and translation

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the objectives, during the process of carrying the research, the following research questions are raised for exploration:

1 What are the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines?

2 What are the similarities and differences in the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines?

3 What pedagogical implications does the study have for Vietnamese teachers of English?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limit in time and within the framework of an M.A thesis, it is impossible for a study to deal with all the features of language theory and practice in depth This study, therefore, only focuses on some syntactic and lexical features found in the newspapers headlines of English and Vietnamese to see how they are different

5 Methods of the study

In the thesis, the main methods used are description and contrastive comparison of the two languages in newspaper headlines including:

 Describing the syntactic and lexical features in the English and Vietnamese headlines

collected from The New York Times and Hà Nội Mới newspapers

 Contrastively comparing those features in English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines with concrete contrasting techniques, namely, analysis and statistics

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6 Design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts:

Part A is the introduction which shows the reasons why the topic is chosen, what

the study aims at as well as the scope of the study and some outlook on methodology

Part B consists of 3 chapters Chapter 1 discusses the review of related literature

and theoretical background of every matter mentioned in the title of the study Chapter 2 and 3 are the analysis of the headlines selected, the major findings and discussions with some implications for learning and teaching English

Part C is the conclusion which presents the recapitulation of the study, the

limitations of the study and some suggestions for further researches

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REFERENCES

In English:

1 Ánh, Bùi Nguyệt 2003 Some Discourse Features of Newspaper Headlines and

Articles in English M.A Thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi University

of Foreign Languages and International Studies

2 Mc Arthur, T.1992 The Oxford Companion To The English Language Oxford:

Oxford University Press

3 Baddock, B 1988 SCOOP: Communicative Activities with British and American

Newspapers New York: Prentice Hall

4 Bell, A 1991 The Language of News Media Oxford: Blackwell publishers

5 Biber, Douglas, et al 1999 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English

Harlow: Pearson

6 Bích, Nguyễn 2009 English – Vietnamese translation of electronic news

headlines M.A Thesis Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Foreign

Languages and International Studies

7 Brisau, A 1969 Complex sentence structure in headlines: Cambridge University

Press

8 Connor, U 1996 Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross Cultural Aspects of Second

Language Writing: Cambridge University Press

9 Crystal, D 1992 An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages

Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

10 Crystal, D 2006 Language and the Internet: Cambridge University Press

11 Danuta, R 1998 The Language of Newspapers London and New York: Routledge

12 Develotte, C., & Rechniewski, E 2000 Discourse analysis of newspaper

headlines: A methodological framework for research into national representations

10 Jan 2002 <http://wgfms.ncl.ac.uk/ titles.htm.>

13 Fallahi, M 1991 Contrastive Linguistics and Analysis of Errors Vol 1 Tehran:

Iran University Press

14 Gimmer, R 1997 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary G&C Marriam Co

15 Leech, G., & Svartvik, J 1994 A Communicative Grammar of English London:

Longman

16 Leech, G.N 2006 A Glossary of English Grammar Edinburgh University Press

17 Lefevere, A 1992 Translation, History, Culture New York: Routledge

18 Mardh, I 1980 Headlines on the Grammar of English Front Page Headlines

Lund: Gleerup

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

20 Murphy, R 1997 Grammar in Use New York: Cambridge University Press

21 Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svatvik, J 1985 A Comprehensive

Grammar of the English Language London: Longman Publisher

22 Radford, A 1997 Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction N K.: Cambridge University

Press

23 Sanderson, P 1999 Using Newspapers in the Classroom New York: Cambridge

University Press

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24 Scollon, R 2000 Generic variability in news stories in Chinese and English: A

contrastive discourse study of five days' newspapers Journal of Pragmatics, 32,

761-791

25 Sinclair, J 1998 English Language Dictionary London

26 Straumann, H 1935 Newspaper Headlines A Study in Linguistic Method London

27 Maggie, T 1998 Understanding Syntax Oxford University Press

28 Trang, Phan Vũ Thùy 2008 A study on translating English newspaper headlines

into Vietnamese newspaper headlines on Dantri online newspaper M.A Thesis

Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies

29 Turner, G W 1972 The grammar of newspaper headlines containing the

preposition on in the sense 'about' Linguistics, 87, 71-86

30 Ungerer, F (Ed.) 2000 English Media Texts - Past and Present Language and

Textual Structure Philadelphia PA: John Benjamins

31 Van Dijk, T A 1986 News Schemata New York: Dans Cooper and Greenbaum

32 Van Dijk, T A 1988 News as Discourse Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum

33 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/

In Vietnamese:

1 Diệp Quang Ban & Hoàng Văn Thung 2009 Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, Tập 1 Nhà xuất

bản Giáo dục

2 Diệp Quang Ban 2009 Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, Tập 2 Nhà xuất bản giáo dục

3 Nguyễn Tài Cẩn 1999 Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt: Tiếng – Từ Ghép – Đoản Ngữ Nhà

xuất bản Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội

4 Đỗ Hữu Châu 2007 Giáo Trình Từ Vựng Học Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất bản Đại học sư phạm

5 Đỗ Hữu Châu 1999 Từ Vựng – Ngữ Nghĩa Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục

6 Nguyễn Thiện Giáp 1999 Từ Vựng Tiếng Việtt Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục

7 Cao Xuân Hạo 1991 Ngữ Pháp Chức Năng Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội

8 Nguyễn Chí Hòa 2009 Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt Thực Hành Nhà xuất bản Đại học

Quốc gia Hà Nội

9 Trần Hữu Mạnh 2007 Ngôn Ngữ Học Đối Chiếu Cú Pháp Tiếng Anh – Tiếng Việt

Nhà xuất bản Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội

10 Trần Hữu Mạnh 2005 Danh Ngữ và Vấn Đề Danh Hóa Trong Tiếng Anh và Tiếng

Việt Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội

11 Hoàng Trọng Phiến 1996 Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất bản Đại học Quốc gia

Hà Nội

12 Website: http://hanoimoi.com.vn/