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 do 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.
2 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. 1 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. What is a headline? .1 Definitions of a headline .2 A headline and the headlines.
Functions of headlines in English news .1 The function of introducing the topic of a news .2 The function of attracting the attention of readers.3 The function of conveying the writer’s attitude towards the facts reported .4 The function of presenting news reporter’s style of writing. 10 Chapter II: Features of English news headlines. General characteristics of English news headlines. Types of English news headlines.
Structural features of headlines in English news. Use of words. Use of phrases .3 Type of sentence. 27 Chapter III: Analysis on the differences in English news headlines and Vietnamese equivalents.
The use of the verb tenses .1 Using the simple present tense .2 Using the future tense. The use of the lexical choice. Adding some background information in the Vietnamese headlines equivalent.2 Adding related information. Omitting some information in Vietnamese headlines equivalent.
Recovering the omitted articles. The use of colon. 46 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.
Some proposed techniques for translating English news headlines. 51 PART III: CONCLUSION. 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 1. 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: 1 - 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: 2 • 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. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. 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 invented a new word (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 4 (http://bbc.com/news, February 22, 2016) Headlines do not reveal a sufficient amount of information in their content. They do 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.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: 5 • A headline is a heading at the top of an article or page in a newspaper or magazine. • The headline are the main points of a television or radio news broadcast, read out before the full broadcast and summerized at the end. Functions of headlines in English news 2.1 The function of introducing the topic of a news Being put at the top of news, a headline catches the first sight of readers, and informs the the main content of the news. In other words, the content of news is expessed shortly and generally by its headline.
A headline describes the essence of a complicated news in a few words. The aim is to enable readers to have access to information constantly and easily. [1:9] Iceland takes action on dangerous tourist attractions (http://bbc.com, January 15,2016) [1:10] German footballers 'black up' in protest at racist attack (http://bbc. 2016) [1:11] Northern Mariana Islands rush to restrict gun access (http://bbc.com, March 10, 2016) Thousands of news and articles of all fields are issued each day.
Readers certainly have the habit of scanning through all headlines to choose their favorite news. For example, those who are interested in health issues will surely find such headlines as: [1:12] Painful legacy of Ebola in Liberia 6 (http://bbc.com, March 3, 2015) [1:13] Health Check: Treating medical emergencies in space (http://bbc.com, January 1, 2016) [1:14] The pigeon will see you now (http://bbc.com, February 14, 2016) Those who pay attention to education and family find it interesting with these headlines: [1:15] School urged to combat sexist bullying (http://bbc.com, January 2, 2016) [1:16] Thousands of police visits 'criminalise' children in care homes (http://bbc.com, July 4,2015) [1:17] Why are South African students so angry? (http://bbc.com, July 4, 2015) [1:18] Toddlers 'need early years teachers in nurseries' After the above headlines, it is clear that the introduction of content of news presented in its headline serves as a signal that enables readers to immediately get news in accordance with their concern and hobby.2 The function of attracting the attention of readers Apart from introducing the topic of a news, a headline also draws attention of readers. A headline is a line set in a large type to make it salient. It has only some seconds to draw readers’ attention, writers make headlines as ambiguous and confusing as possible so that the readers are curious to know content of the whole news.