英美报刊选读论文
北京首钢工学院-生物中考试题
《美英报刊选读》课程论文
Title:
A Brief Analysis of the
English Economic News’ Headline
Class:09级英语3班
Name: xxx
Student Number:
xxxxxxxxxxx
Teacher: xxx
Date: Oct. 21, 2011
A Brief Analysis of the
English Economic News’ Headline
Abstract：
Headline is a key factor of the
economic news, featuring unique stylistic
characteristics. This paper, based on the
functional stylistic theory, makes a tentative
study of the economic news’ headline from the
perspective of grammatical
characteristics,
news vocabulary and rhetoric feature.
Key
words：
Economic news, title, stylistic
characteristics, context
Part 1
Introduction
In
journalistic language,
the research of the features of the economic news’
headline is
comparatively few, but it is an
extremely important area. There are two reasons:
1. Economy is tied up with everyone, economic
activities related to all aspects of social life,
and
the subject matter of economic news is
widespread but it is difficult to drive. Today,
economic
news focus on the people’s livelihood
and gradually become an indispensable part of our
lives.
And it has a prominent position in the
press.
2. Headline is the eye of news, people
usually concentrate on headline when they read.
The most
important function of headline is can
reveal the substance of news succinctly so that
readers
can get as much information as
possible in shortest time.
Part 2 The
stylistic characteristics of economic news’
English headline
The economic news English as
a kind of second type of writing of news English
also follow
the principle of news ABC——the
accuracy(精确), brevity(简洁), clarity(清晰). And
accuracy is
a guarantee and premise of real,
objective and credible. Due to limited by report
object itself and
objective economic
phenomenon, economic news is impressed by its
abstract, profound and
unattractive. In order
to improve the artistry and concordance, the
headline of economic news’
conception and
expression should be changed. The refinement of
headline is the most important
part to decide
the success of news.
According to the analysis
of many corpuses, economic news’ title is unique.
It is make
economic news stand out.
ⅠGrammatical features
1. The sentence
structure of economic news’ English title has
close links with time effect of
news report.
According to the analysis of some corpuses,
economic news’ English titles are written not
more than 15 words. In general, it use present
tense instead of past tense, use indeterminate
form
instead of future tense. And in economic
news, writers usually prefer to use phrases,
simple
sentences and non-finite verb
forms(indeterminate form, gerund and participle)
rather than use
long sentence.
1.1 The
English headline of economic news’ structural
features——phrases, simple sentences
1.1.1
Short sentences title
centre word + post
modifier
e.g. China’s trade friction to
continue this year
Foreign invested firms to
lose tax, land use privileges
premodifier +
centre word
e.g. Oil Companies
Attack Legislation
the Paid Music Service
1.1.2 Sentence-title
complete sentences
e.g. AT&T yields to seal BellSouth deal
More than 70 pct stock investors gain
non-
complete sentences
e.g. FDI in China to remain
steady this year Ministry of Commerce
HK, NY-
listed China Mobile to return to mainland stock
market
1.2 The greatest feature of economic
news——ellipsis of function words
Omit all the
words without real meaning can shorten the length
of title. In headline, some
words including
articles, prepositions, conjunctions, possessive
pronouns, verbauxiliary verb be,
etc.
1.2.1 The ellipsis of articles
e.g.
Consumer confidence hits 8-month high
Early
Loss Overcome, Dow Sets a Record
1.2.2 The
ellipsis of conjunction and
e.g. Incomes,
spending rise in November
Belarus resume last-
minute gas talks
1.2.3 The ellipsis of copula
be
e.g. Caller-pays system still far away
17 listed firms under probe for fund misuse
1.2.4 The ellipsis of auxiliary be
e.g.
Succession Pace Stepped Up.
China's economy
seen growing in '07
1.3 The temporal
characteristics of economic news’ English title
1.3.1 The present tense
In general, the
information published in the newspapers has
already happened, so according
to English
grammar should be used in past tense. But it will
give readers an obsolete feeling. So
writers
usually use present tense to enhance the
freshness, reality and immediacy of reports in
form. This tense is called Journalistic
Present Tense in journalism.
e.g. BOC acquires
biggest aircraft leasing firm in Asia
China’s
shoe exports tread more slowly
1.3.2 Non-
present tense
In order to emphasize some kind
of temporal information, headline also be used in
non-present tense.
(1) Simple future tense
Economic news’ English headline usually use be
+ infinitive to express the future tense, and
be can be omitted.
e.g. Huge trade surplus
to be reduced
China to launch 3G project
stably in 2007
(2) Present progressive
Economic news’ English headline usually use be
+ present participle to express what is
happening, and be can be omitted.
e.g. Quality of food products improving
Japan keeps view that economy recovering
2. The use of passive voice
When reading
English newspapers, we can find the headlines of
news prefer to use active
voice rather than
passive voice. Because from the perspective of
rhetoric, active voice is more
vivid and full
of infection. However, when the recipient of the
event or action is more
important than the
performer, we usually use passive voice in
headlines to highlight the object part
to draw
readers’ attention.
e.g. U.S. manufacturing
expanded in December
Retail Sales Last Month
Surprised With Big Rise
3. The special use of
punctuation of economic news’ English titles
3.1 Comma is used to replace conjunction and
e.g. China, U.S. tax authorities reach first
agreement on advance pricing
3.2 Colon usually
be used to separates the theme of title from other
parts. Besides, colon also can
be used to
replace be.
e.g. Private sector shed 40,000
jobs in Dec: report
Survey: Foreign investment
favors E China eastern
3.3 Quotes can be used
to cite.
e.g. Response at dialogue
3.4
Question mark is used to something not sure.
e.g. American’s most deadly job?
Ⅱ
Vocabulary features
1. short words
English economic news’ headline usually use
terse and forceful words so that enhance the
conciseness and readability of news.
e.g.
trim=reduce； vie＝compete； vow=determine
2.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations also known as the
first letter abbreviation. It not only can save
the count of
headwords, but also prompt the
content of news better.
e.g. MOC--Ministry of
Commerce
GDB--Guangdong Development Bank
3. Simplifying words
e.g. EU, U.S.
friction high on int'l agenda
Ⅲ Rhetorical
features
The rhetorical devices in headline is
very abundant, and metaphor is a literary
technique to be
used wider than others. The
common conceptual metaphor in English economic
news are:
navigation metaphors
e.g. CBC
market value soars to world No. 3
U.S.
November new homes sales rise 3.4 pct
2. War
metaphors
e.g. European stock exchange wooed
Chinese firms
Recording Industry Wins Judgment
in Piracy Case
3. Family metaphors
e.g.
Airbus parent considers building in China
Part 3 Conclusion
This
passage based on stylistics and with the help of
relevant discourse, analyzes the stylistic
characteristics of English economic news’
headline in vocabulary, grammar and semantics.
Concise headline will leave a deep impression
on readers. Fresh and alive headline will arouse
the
desire of reading, thus, audibility and
readability can be enhanced.
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