摘要
现在，有很多用英语报道的新闻，但是国际上已经约定熟成一种通用的报道新闻的语言模式，那就是新闻英语。然而，从某种程度上说，新闻中使用的英语和人们日常生活中使用的英语是不一样的。本文就浅析新闻英语语言特征。
关键词：新闻英语特征词汇
Abstract
Today, there are many media reporting news in English, but what they used is a common mode of English news internationally, that is, news English this particular style. However, the language used in English newspapers is quite different from general English to some extent.
Key words: News English Features Words
Contents
Abstract (3)
1．Introduction (5)
2．Understanding the news english (5)
2.1 Definitions of news english (6)
2.2Natures of news english (6)
3．Lexical features of news english (6)
3.1 Short words (7)
3.2 Abbreviations (8)
3.2.1 Acronyms (8)
3.2.2 Clippings (8)
3.3 Frequent use of new words (9)
3.3.1 Sense-shift (9)
3.3.2 Part of Speech Shift (10)
3.4 Borrowed words (10)
3.4.1 Loan words (10)
3.4.2 Proper names of persons or places (11)
3.4.3 Slang (11)
Bibliography (12)
An Analysis of the Linguistic
Features of News English
1Introduction
With increasing international exchange between China and the other parts of the world, language study is becoming an indispensable part in daily life. Especially nowadays, as English has increasingly come into world-wide use, there has arisen an acute need for more information on the language and the ways in which it is used. Reading English newspapers opens a special window for people to be dipped into new things and stories that come forward everyday, and give people the opportunity of picking up language. They are the primary mass medium from which people receive new information. Newspapers have a rich mix of content —news, advice, comics, opinions, puzzles and data. Some people go right for the stock market tables, others to sports or a favorite column ist. Unlike radio and television, people don’t have to wait for what they want. Newspapers are important in people’s lives, and as a medium they adapt to changing lifestyles.
Today, there are many media reporting news in English, but what they used is a common mode of English news internationally, that is, news English this particular style. However, the language used in English newspapers is quite different from general English to some extent. It is a common occurrence that people are often confused with the wide-range new expressions and have no idea about its unique structure and the use of rhetorical devices and so on. Then how can people cope with such linguistic problems to read the English news effectively and understand it accurately. How can journalists write an informative news story? The paper is to give an analysis of the basic linguistic features — lexical features and grammatical features of English news. The main purpose of this paper is to improve reader’s ability to read English news. It is hoped that it will be particularly useful to those who have strong interests in reading English news.
2Understanding of News English
Language is changing constantly, especially in today’s world, the advancement of science and technology, the development of society and civilization, and the complication of our life bring into a lot of new expressions, which frequently appear in news English. Through reading English news, people can not only know the things happening around them but also acquire some knowledge about English, therefore, reading English news is by all means an effective way to learn modern English.
Generally speaking, news English belongs to general English, i.e. the main part of Standard English. As an applied language, it has formed unique features which differ greatly from general English.
2.1 Definition of News English
To figure out the linguistic features of news English, it is necessary to know what news is. The word “News” derives from Greece. In American reporter Joest’s opinions, the word “News” comes from the word “New”. It is clear that freshness is one of the most essential features of news.
Most of the traditional dictionaries share the view that news refers to the report of current events in a newspaper or on radio and television. Here it summarizes two major aspects of the essence of news, that is, real time and by means of mass media, i.e. newspapers, magazines, radio and television. They consistently skip a thriving industry in mass communication: the on-line news, which should not be ignored in the study.
News English belongs to news, it is the news that was written in English. So we know news English very well.
2.2 Natures of News English
From the definitions of news English mentioned, it is not difficult for people to understand the features of news English. English is the general language in the world, so news English is very important in the world. News English is the important news for people to know the world. According to Zheng Baowei (2003), news has four distinctive natures, so the news English also has the four distinctive natures.
First, news English must be true. News is the report of facts which are the basis of news. Without facts there would be no news. Second, news English must be new. It is said that the word “news” comes the word “new”. News English is a kind of information conveyed to the people, but it is not the common information; instead it is about the things in its newest state. Third, news English must be timely. If the true and new facts were not released timely, news English would become old and valueless. Therefore, the mass media must disclose the facts to the masses as soon as possible. Last, news English must be made known to the public. In the modern society, the news English media ate the most important and most-frequently-used channel for people to get to know the outside world. Everyday newspapers, radio broadcast and TV continuously release a large amount of news English, and all the news English is open to the public.
Based on the above definition and natures, people should pay attention to the words and sentences in news English. News English is the applied language, which is different from the ordinary English, it has a distinctive style of language forms and stylistic features.
3Lexical Features of News English
This part will focus mainly on the lexical features of news English. News English has its main task of getting across the message and informing its readers. The language it
uses is, accordingly, different from either the literary language of novels and essays or the persuasive language of advising. News English, therefore, has its own distinctive features. Only after having picked up the basic characteristics of news language, can people have a good command of skills or ways to read news English.
3.1 Short Words
On the one hand, economy in style is a must in English news; on the other, newspapers are written to be read hurriedly by persons of all walks of life. As a result, short words are called for to meet the needs of this kind. In some literature concerned with English news, short words are also named monosyllabic words or midget words. Midget words, the short and dynamic expressions, are preferred by journalists for their rich meaning and concise wording. The high-frequent midge words can be classified into three groups.
First, short words predominate over longer ones. As discussed above, readers show little patience to redundant words. Also they bear a resistance to complicated and long words, which, on the other hand, would be the second choice for news editors if other words are available to convey similar meaning while occupying a bit less space. Now take a look at the following examples which are taken from the American popular magazine, Time.
“AT&T also upped the ante for its CEO, Robert Allen.” (Time, M ar.1, 1993, P49) “Tit-for-Tat strikes highlight the depth of Israeli-Palestinian strife.” (Time)
The underlined words in the sample sentences above, “up” and “strife” are the synonyms of “increase” and “conflict” respectively. Obviously, they take less spa ce in print-out and express the meaning thoroughly. Even though the word “up” used here as a verb is to some extent informal, it does not really contradict the essence of news stated “diversity”, that is, it is “the mix of the serious and the less serious.”Second, single words replace phrases. Some midget words are so frequently appearing in English news that they have formed the specific contextual meaning differentiated from their common usages and even some words come to be exclusively used in news repo rting. A typical example is the word “woo” as used in the following news taken from BBC broadcast. “Arroyo set to woo China on trade: Philippines leader Gloria Arroyo aims to strengthen economic ties with China during a visit to Beijing.” (https://www.doczj.com/doc/4610718990.html,) Here the word “woo” takes the place of the phrase “seek to win”, which is widely used in the genres other than journalistic writing. Also, the replacement sometimes causes difficulties in news-reading if the audience is not sufficiently acquainted with news English. For example, Chinese readers, who know about the basic knowledge of British parties, would still be confused by the following news: “A Tory candidate says even a long-time Labor seat in a Notts former coalfield is a possible target” (https://www.doczj.com/doc/4610718990.html,), because “Tory”, as the substitution for “the British Conservative Party”, is quite new to them.
Last, propositions and particles substitute for phrases or clauses. Propositions are meaningful in their own right, especially for the ones that overlap with adverbs or particles. Grammatically these propositions can function as phrases or clauses in certain contexts. The word class thus is not supposed to be ignored in news English.
Linguists H.L. Mencken and Simeon Potter once pointed out that excessive use of short words is one of the most distinctive characteristics of English news. The following short words often appear in English news:
aim — purpose, object, intention (目的，目标，意图)
ban — prohibition ,restraint, interdict (禁止，遏止，制止)
bid — offer, attempt, endeavor, proposal (出价，试图，努力，建议)
cut — reduction, shortening, curtailment, abridgement (减少，减短，缩减，节略) meet — meeting, assembly, conference, convention (会议，集会，会谈，大会)
key — very important (关键的)
now — at the present time soon — in the neat future
3.2 Abbreviations
As discussed above, simplification is the universal tendency in journalistic writing, which justifies the wide-spread contractions in English news. Here are two main devices of contractions commonly used in journalistic style: acronym and clipping. 3.2.1 Acronyms
Acronym is “a word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and rang ing.”(https://www.doczj.com/doc/4610718990.html,)
The following part is going to take the behind-the-scene’s look at the secret of acronyms applied to journalism since shortening might cause unease and confusion among readers even though they save a bit newspaper or magazine space.
Most of technical and medical terms are in the form of acronyms in news reporting on the ground that the original forms of these terms are usually too complicated for laypersons while the acronyms are much simplified and suited for mass audience. Readers are in fact more comfortable with such words as “DNA”,“LASER” than their original terms of “genetics deoxyribonucleic acid” and “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.
Here are other examples:
CPC — Communist Party of China (中国共产党)
IMF — International Monetary Fund (国际货币基金组织)
WHO — World Health Organization (世界卫生组织)
PC — personal computer (个人电脑)
DINKS — double income, no kids (丁克族)
3.2.2 Clippings
Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part of the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping or shortening. In modern times, people tend to be economical in writing and speech to keep up with the tempo of new life style. To save time one is likely to clip words that are frequently used. There are six types of clipping:
Front clipping: the shortening occurs at the beginning of the word, like bus (from
omnibus).
Back clipping: the shortening occurs at the end of the word, e.g. photo (from photograph).
Front and back clipping: the shortening occurs at both ends of the word, a typical example of which is flu (from influenza).
Middle clipping: the shortening occurs at the middle of the word, for example, motel (from motor hotel).
Phrase clipping: the shortening occurs in phrase, like pub (from public house), pop (from popular music)
Free clipping: the shortening is not strictly in line with a certain rule, such as bike (from bicycle), Aussie (from Australian). (Feng Shimei, 2002:101-102)
Because they are much frequently appearing in news reporting, readers do not feel uncomfortable with the clipped words at all and some of them are so popular that readers would ignore or even forget their original forms.
3.3Frequent Use of New Words
What are new words? This is definitely a hard question which can never be answered satisfactorily, because there is no certain yardstick to measure which words are new. As far as the new words contained in English news are concerned, they are any words, phrases or meanings that come into popular use in English or enjoy a vogue for the appearance of certain social phenomenon, advent of a new technology and the other new phenomena.
Nowadays, new words are entering the English language at an ever-increasing speed. People live in an age of knowledge explosion. With the development of science and technology in the modern society, high-tech products no longer belong exclusively to the science laboratories, but become part of people’s life. It has been gradually found that it is hard to express those new things and ideas with the existing words. In this case, new expressions have been created. The mass media take the responsibility to inform the audiences about the recent development of the technologies that have much impact on them or in which they may show great interest. That is why such news reports are crammed with the words and phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions or the associated concepts. It is well known that language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. In general, new words or expressions ate formed by some lexical devices such as derivation, compounding, initialism or acronym and blending. Apart from that, some new words are from sense-shift of changing the old meaning into new and special one. With the popularity of new words through mass media, some of them have been accepted and collected into dictionaries.
3.3.1 Sense-shift
By sense-shift are meant words which extend new meanings from their original meanings. This is common in English news. For instance, “roommate” shifts from “a
person with whom one shares a room or rooms” to “cohabitant”; the original meaning of the word “gay” is “happy”, but now it is used to refer “homosexual” or “homosexuality”. The meaning has changed completely. All in all, the original meanings of these words have been enlarged or extended, which enrich the news language to a large degree. This is also a distinctive characteristic of modern English.
3.3.2 Part of Speech Shift
In English news, it is a common linguistic phenomenon that shifting the part of speech of a word forms a new meaning. A noun can change into a verb, with an adjective of an adverb can be a verb or a verb changes into a noun, etc. The shifting may not only produce new meanings, but also make sentences simple, novel and vivid. Take the noun “mothball” for example. It means a marble-sized ball, originally of camphor, stored with clothes to repel moths, while in these days, it can be a verb or an adjective, meaning “to remove from active service or to use and put into protective storage”. One more example: “brief” can be used as a verb, which means “to give concise preparatory instructions, information, or advice to” i nstead of its adjective meaning “succinct or concise”.
3.4Borrowed Words
The vividness of the words employed in English news can also be achieved by borrowing loan words, the proper names of persons or places, slang and jargon. In what follows, a detailed analysis of these three respects will be made.
3.4.1 Loan Words
Wide use of loan words is another distinct lexical feature of English news. English grows not only through coinage of new words and employment of existing English words in novel ways, but also through adoption of foreign words and phrases that produce colorful and precise expressions. Some examples follow to illustrate this point.
“Britain has hardened its stance over European Community (EC) economic and political union, indicating the sine qua non of the Maastricht summit next week would be prompt solutions to the most contentious issues.” (The Christian Science Monitor, Dec.5, 1991)
In this piece of news, “sine qua non” is a loan word which comes from Latin and means “绝对必要的条件，必备的资格”.
There are some other loan words that often appear in English news. It is hoped that the following words are helpful to readers when reading English news. For example: From Latin:
ad infinitum 无限的；永远的de facto事实上；实际上；现存的
From German:
blitzpolitik 闪电式外交政策Zeitgeist 时代精神
From French:
envoy 使者；代表；使节coup de main 突击；突袭
From Japanese:
dan 柔道空手道围棋等运动员等级的段Go 围棋
From Russian:
glasnost 公开性；开放intelligentsia 知识分子；知识界
From Chinese:
kung fu 功夫tofu 豆腐
3.4.2 Proper Names of Persons or Places
In English news, reporters would like to use the proper names of persons or places that are widely known or famous among many people to stand for the corresponding country or government or organization. This is a striking feature of English news. For example:
Bonn had also told Damascus it did not intend to impound the tanks and expressed a desire to settle the issue cordially. (The New Zealand Herald, Feb.5, 1992)
The francophone Summit offered Mitterrand government an opportunity to protect French as an international language, a status it is steadily losing to English. (China Daily, Nov.22, 1991)
The underlined parts in the examples above stand for Germany, Syria and France respectively. There are many other examples:
Big Apple 大苹果→纽约市
Hollywood 好莱坞→美国电影业；美国电影界
Fleet Street 舰队街→英国新闻界
White House 白宫→美国政府；美国总统
Zhongnanhai 中南海→中国政府
3.4.3 Slang
Slang is an indispensable part in modern English vocabulary. It plays a crucial role in English expressions. In the last century, especially since WWⅡ, the development of slang has been very fast and the range of its employment is wider and wider. It is common to use a lot of slang in English news.
Bibliography
【1】马朋超. A Case Study on Analysis of the Stylistic Features of News Coverage[J]. 东方企业文化. 2010(15)
【2】张莉. Discourse Analysis of English News-A Contrastive Study of Stylistic Features of Straight News and News Features[J]. 文学界(理论版). 2010(10)
【3】程道才. 专业新闻写作概论[M]. 北京: 中国广播电视出版社, 2002:72-73 【4】翟晶玮. 浅谈新闻英语的文体特点[J]. 科技资讯. 2010(17)
【5】杨丽霞. 新闻报道中模糊语的语用功能[J]. 西北第二民族学院学报, 2005(3).
一、新闻语言特点 第一个特点是具体：（具体形象） 新闻用事实说话，而事实不是抽象的，它由时间、地点、人物、事件经过、事件原因、结果等因素构成，因而新闻语言必须具体，应当少用抽象的概念。这就要求如实地记叙具体人、具体事、具体时间、具体地点、具体经过，也要求具体形象的现场描写、细节描写等。新闻作品更应真实、具体。写得具体。新闻的可信程度就高。 有人认为，要把事实写得具体就得形容，写领导人喜欢用“红光满面、神采奕奕”，写气势喜欢用“排山倒海，乘风破浪”，写精神面貌喜欢用“意气风发、斗志昂扬”……这一类词句其实并不能使人对客观事实有一个切实具体的感受。新闻当然要求写得鲜明、生动，也并不绝对排斥形象和艺术的语言，但必须以能够准确、具体地反映客观事物为前提，不要以为把字典拿来抄了好多华丽辞藻就能够吸引人、感动人。如果只注意字句雕琢，堆砌辞藻；只求文字的华丽，内容却很贫乏，这样的新闻作品难以真正吸引读者、听众，也难以产生强烈的感染力。 写新闻不同于诗词歌赋，从语言的角度来说，总以平实朴素为宜，加之新闻要求完全真实，报纸篇幅有限等原因，写新闻不能采用合理想象和虚构的手法，并应讲究表达上的简练和质朴，因此，新闻报道更多地运用白描手法。尤其是写人物或场面，需要语言上的概括和内容上的具体 第二个特点是准确：（准确鲜明） 新闻必须事实，不能含糊其词，不能模棱两可，不能夸大也不能缩小。因为语言运用不准确而造成新闻失真或歧议的例子在报道中是经常发生的。有的是概念不清楚，如以前出现在报纸上常提到的“苦乐不均”等，现在不提了。还有在宣传农村大好形势时有“政策好，天帮忙，人努力”这三句话流传很广。表面看来，这几句话很生动，似乎很有道理，其实是不准确的，难道过去二十多年，天就不帮忙，人就不努力吗？所以新闻写作中不宜随意运用这些不准确的语言。 有的用含混不请的语句来代替清楚明确的语句。比如，有的新闻写作中喜欢使用“最近”、“不久以前”、“长期以来”等比较含混的字眼来代替可以表明的具体时间；有的用“许多”、“无数”、“广大群众”等比较笼统的语句来代替可以表明的具体数量；有的则用“大概”、“差不多”、“可能”等模棱两可的语句来代替可以具体表明的程度。 第三个特点是简练：（简洁明快） 新闻要求快，要求迅速及时。这就决定了新闻语言要简明扼要、开门见山、直截了当。怎样才能把新闻写得简洁、精炼呢？第一，一条新闻只报道一件事实或只写出一个人物。这样，内容和结构都比较简单，容易做到条理分明、头绪清楚。如果报道的事件比较复杂，牵涉到的人物较多，可以采用分解报道的办法，化长为短，化繁为简。第二，直接写事实。不要穿靴戴帽，要学会精选事实，让事实说话，把事情来龙去脉交代清楚，干净利落。第三，直接叙述事实本身不要作过多的解释。第四个特点是通俗：（通俗易懂） 新闻主观倾向 新闻的一个非常重要的特点就是客观性，它要求新闻真实反映现实，记者的感情色彩丝毫不要带入新闻作品中。因此新闻排斥主观性，表现在话语上，即尽量选用不包含说写者感情、态度或评价的词语、句式等来记事、说明或写人。但是，完全的客观性是不存在的，客
新闻语言的基本特征 第一个特点是具体、准确、简练 新闻用事实说话，而事实不是抽象的，它由时间、地点、人物、事件经过、事件原因、结果等因素构成，因而新闻语言必须具体，应当少用抽象的概念。这就要求如实地记叙具体人、具体事、具体时间、具体地点、具体经过，也要求具体形象的现场描写、细节描写等。 鲁迅先生说过，写文章要“有真意、去粉饰，少做作，勿卖弄”。新闻作品更应真实、具体。写得具体。新闻的可信程度就高。 有人认为，要把事实写得具体就得形容，写领导人喜欢用“红光满面、神采奕奕”，写气势喜欢用“排山倒海，乘风破浪”，写精神面貌喜欢用“意气风发、斗志昂扬”……这一类词句其实并不能使人对客观事实有一个切实具体的感受。新闻当然要求写得鲜明、生动，也并不绝对排斥形象和艺术的语言，但必须以能够准确、具体地反映客观事物为前提，不要以为把字典拿来抄了好多华丽辞藻就能够吸引人、感动人。如果只注意字句雕琢，堆砌辞藻；只求文字的华丽，内容却很贫乏，这样的新闻作品难以真正吸引读者、听众，也难以产生强烈的感染力。 写新闻不同于诗词歌赋，从语言的角度来说，总以平实朴素为宜，加之新闻要求完全真实，报纸篇幅有限等原因，写新闻不能采用合理想象和虚构的手法，并应讲究表达上的简练和质朴，因此，新闻报道更多地运用白描手法。尤其是写人物或场面，需要语言上的概括和内容上的具体。例如写人物通讯《中国工人阶级的先锋战士??铁人王进喜》中用了这样一段文字： 王进喜痛得昏了过去。等他醒过来一看，井架还没有放下，几个工人在围着抢救他。王进喜急了，对大家说：“我又不是泥捏的，哪能碰一下就散了？”说完，猛地站起来举起双手，继续指挥放井架，鲜血从他的裤腿里和鞋袜里渗了出来。这个情节，仅一百字左右，可是王进喜在受伤后顽强表现，中国工人阶级的硬骨头性格 鲜明地刻划出来了。
摘要 现在，有很多用英语报道的新闻，但是国际上已经约定熟成一种通用的报道新闻的语言模式，那就是新闻英语。然而，从某种程度上说，新闻中使用的英语和人们日常生活中使用的英语是不一样的。本文就浅析新闻英语语言特征。 关键词：新闻英语特征词汇
Abstract Today, there are many media reporting news in English, but what they used is a common mode of English news internationally, that is, news English this particular style. However, the language used in English newspapers is quite different from general English to some extent. Key words: News English Features Words
Contents Abstract (3) 1．Introduction (5) 2．Understanding the news english (5) 2.1 Definitions of news english (6) 2.2Natures of news english (6) 3．Lexical features of news english (6) 3.1 Short words (7) 3.2 Abbreviations (8) 3.2.1 Acronyms (8) 3.2.2 Clippings (8) 3.3 Frequent use of new words (9) 3.3.1 Sense-shift (9) 3.3.2 Part of Speech Shift (10) 3.4 Borrowed words (10) 3.4.1 Loan words (10) 3.4.2 Proper names of persons or places (11) 3.4.3 Slang (11) Bibliography (12)
龙源期刊网 https://www.doczj.com/doc/4610718990.html, 浅析新闻报道的语言表达特点 作者：欧阳霞 来源：《今传媒》2011年第10期 摘要：新闻语言在长期实践中形成了自身的语体，具有的特点和规律，也有自身的语言 技巧。新闻的客观性要求报道必须真实，因此，准确性是新闻语言的第一特点。新闻是一种运用最广泛的语体形式，新闻报道必须与受众有较强的接近性，因此，新闻语言必须通俗易懂，明确朴实，具有大众性。而简洁是新闻语言应该拥有的品质，白描则是一种至高的新闻语言境界。新闻语言是独立的综合功能语言，它服务于事实报道，以其质朴、实用的语言形态，富有表现力的语言风格来实现广泛的社会传播。 关键词：新闻语言；准确性；白描性；大众性 中图分类号：G210 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1672-8122（2011）10-0122-02 什么是新闻语言？“新闻语言就是从新闻的角度对全社会进行‘选择’和反映时所用的工具。它的本质是信息传播的语言、报道事实的语言、解释问题的语言、快速交流的语言。”[1]文学是语言的艺术。 那么，新闻是不是语言的艺术？新闻当然也是语言的艺术。“新闻语言可以通过不断地改造完善，成为与其他文学作品相比毫不逊色的语言。——当然是就各有特色而言。[2]”新闻语言，服务于事实的报道，肩负着向受众表述新闻事实、传递新闻信息的使命。新闻语言是一种独立的语言。 一、新闻语言是综合功能语言 语言是在人类长期的生产实践和历史发展中产生、被人用来思维和传递信息的符号系统，人们借助语言保存和传递人类文明的成果，语言是民族的重要特征之一。虽然同一个民族的语言在形式上是相同的，但不同行业的语言却有明显差异，例如学术论文中用科学语言说话；生活中人们沟通用日常语言说话；文学作品用文学语言说话……这说明语言有着不同的功能。商业用语、宗教用语、军事用语、科学用语、外交用语，也包括新闻用语，都是因语言功能不同而产生的语言体式，即语体。所谓语体，就是人们在各种社会活动领域，针对不同对象、不同环境，使用语言进行交际时所形成的习惯用语、常用句式、结构体式等一系列运用语言的特点。传播具有新闻价值的信息时所使用的新闻语言在长期实践中形成了自身的语体，有着独具的特点和规律，也有自身的语言技巧。从语言的外在表现划分，语体可分为书面语体和口语体
第一章英语新闻标题的特点 新闻一般由标题、导语、主体、背景和结尾组成。新闻可以没有导语和背景, 但是不能没有标题。标题对于新闻就像眼睛对于人一样重要, 它是新闻内容的集中和概括, 它用简约的文字浓缩了新闻报道中最精华、最值得关注的内容。人们说: “题好一半文”, 这正强调了新闻标题的重要性, 如同做事, 英语有谚云: “A good beginning ishalf the battle.”一则好的新闻标题能给新闻报道锦上添花, 起到画龙点睛吸引观众注意力的作用。在国际报道中, 英语新闻占了相当大的比重, 而标题又被视作英语新闻报道全文的精炼概括。为了吸引读者的关注, 编辑们往往采用各种手法以提升新闻标题的吸引力。英语新闻标题在措词、语法、修辞等方面的特点比较鲜明突出。 1.1 措词 在英语中, 新闻标题称为"headlines", 居于新闻报道主体内容之上, 在报刊杂志中, 其版面空间是相当宝贵的, 应当尽量以最小的篇幅容纳最大的信息量, 这就对英语新闻标题的措词提出了很高的要求。 首先, 英语新闻标题中广泛使用名词和简短小词(midget words) 。为节省笔墨和空间, 标题中的虚词( 又是包括系动词be) 被省去, 剩下的主要是实词, 特别是名词。而名词具有很强的表意功能, 信息量大, 同时又具有广泛的语法兼容性(grammaticality), 它可以充当多种词类, 如形容词、动词、副词等的角色, 也可以以简约明了的形式和结构表达完整句法概念, 例如:The Columbine Tapes 影带惊魂 The Population surprise 人口下降( the decrease of the population surprises people) Superkids? 超级儿童之谜(can supermen create superkids?) 力求用有限的文字来表达清楚新闻的内容,英语新闻标题除了使用名词之外, 还偏爱选用那些短小精悍或字母较少的词。这些短小易懂、形象生动的措词不仅能增强新闻的简洁性和可读性, 而且还能调解美化版面节约篇幅, 例如: aid = assistance( 帮助) body = committee/commission( 机构, 委员会)