language features of headlines

Supplementary material of language features: News headline1. Major functions of a headlineTo attract the reader‟s attentionTo summarize the storyTo help the reader index the contents of the pageTo depict the mood of the storyTo help set the tone of the newspaperTo provide adequate typographic (排版、印刷上的) reliefNot every headline can accomplish each of the above-listed tasks, but reports and editors who write headlines with these goals in mind will write better headlines than those who ignore them.2. Types1）摘要(narrative headline)：这类标题提纲挈领，高度概括出新闻的主要内容，常用肯定句形式。

如：a. Girls Die in Blazeb. Taiwan Recognizes Mainland Currency2）设问(interrogative headline)：A. 表明未来可能发生某事。

如：OPEC to Raise Oil Output?B. 对某事的真实性表示怀疑。

如：A Europe “With One V oice”? (欧盟国家能真正用一个声音说话吗？)C. 说理。

如：Murder on Campus: Can It Be Averted?3）引语式标题(quotation headline)。

英语新闻标题的语言特点【摘要】英语新闻标题的语言特点主要体现在简洁明了、准确传达信息、吸引读者注意力、使用动词和形容词丰富语言以及遵循特定的语法规则等方面。

新闻标题需要用简练的语言准确地概括文章内容，使读者在第一时间就能理解主题。

新闻标题要吸引读者注意力，引发阅读兴趣，从而增加阅读量。

使用动词和形容词丰富语言能够让标题更生动形象，让读者在第一时间感受到文章的氛围和内容。

遵循特定的语法规则也是英语新闻标题的重要特点，以确保标题表达准确、清晰。

英语新闻标题的语言特点可以通过多种方式体现，以吸引读者、传达信息为主要目的。

【关键词】英语新闻标题、语言特点、简洁明了、准确传达信息、吸引读者注意力、动词、形容词、丰富语言、特定的语法规则、体现。

1. 引言1.1 英语新闻标题的语言特点Introduction:The language used in English news headlines is crucial in capturing the attention of readers and conveying information effectively. This particular style of writing is known for its brevity,clarity, and use of dynamic language to engage the audience. By following specific grammatical rules and focusing on key elements such as verbs and adjectives, news headlines are ableto deliver messages quickly and efficiently. In this article, we will explore the language features of English news headlines, including their simplicity, accuracy, ability to attract readers, richness in vocabulary, and adherence to grammatical conventions. These characteristics work together to create headlines that are not only informative but also engaging, making them a powerful tool for communicating news and events to a wide audience. Overall, the language features of English news headlines can be expressed in various ways, each contributing to the overall impact and effectiveness of the headline.2. 正文2.1 简洁明了"简洁明了"是英语新闻标题的重要特点之一。

Language Features of Newspaper Headlines1. Lexical Features1) Preference for Short WordsEnglish language newspaper headlines often use short words to replace long ones. There are many words you have seen before, but when they are used in newspaper headlines they carry meanings that are quite unfamiliar to you.e.g. hit, harm, hurt, ruin or wreck ------ damagedrop, give up, quit, skip or yield ------abandonblast, crash, ram or smash -------explodeEurope Holds Talks to End Tension in Yugoslavia (End = Finish) (The Chicago Tribune, Dec.20, 1991)World eyes mid-East peace talks (eyes = watches / observes) (The Daily Star, Nov.5, 1991) Additionally, short nouns are often used in newspaper headlines, for example, accord(agreement), aid (assistant), aim (purpose),rally (a mass assembly), drive (campaign),and talk (negotiation).2) Wide use of initials (缩写词) (or acronyms首字母缩略词) Afr. Ltd.They are mainly put into three categories.3) 组织机关等专有名词的简称4) 常见事物的名称ABM = anti-ballistic missileDJI = Dow-Jones IndexTOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign LanguageUFO = unidentified flying object5)表示人们的职业或职务的名词DJ = disk jockey (音乐节目主持人)DINKS = double income, no kidsMP = member of parliamentTP = traffic policeman6) Wide use of abbreviations (or shortened words) (节缩词)·formed by clipping or shortening.·used not only in headlines·used in bodies of news reports.(1) 留头去尾Ad --- advertisementAuto --- automobileBach – bachelorBiz --- business(2) 截头留尾Chute --- parachuteCopter --- helicopterDozer --- bulldozerQuake --- earthquake(3) 截去头尾，保留中间Flu --- influenzaFridge / freezer --- refrigeratorTec --- detectiveVic --- convict(4) 截去中间，保留首尾Nat‟l --- nationalDept --- departmentCom‟l--- commercialC‟tee --- committee(5) 不规则裁剪词Bike --- bicycleAussie --- AustralianHanky --- handkerchiefTelly --- television7) Use of journalistic coinages (生造词)（由两个或两个以上的词组合而成的新词，构成复合词；将常用的词组连贯在一起，省去其中的若干个音节，合二为一）Smog = smoke + fog motelBlacketeer = black marketerCinemanufacturer = cinema + manufacturerPolitburo = political bureauZhengzhou Municiple8) Frequent omission of certain wordsHeadlins generally leave out certain words, especially articles, personal pronouns, this, that, and verb to be. The word “and” is often replaced by a comma.e.g. Woman kills her husband and herself(A woman killed her husband and herself.)D. Grammatical FeaturesJournalistic English is called headlinese (标题语言), and it has its own grammatical features.1. Omission (Pp 42-43)A headline is originally a complete sentence, but to make it concise, some grammatical parts or words are frequently left out, especially the function words, such as articles, personal pronouns, this, that, and, to be, etc.2. Use of Heavily Modified Nominal Groups3. TensesThe tenses frequently used in headlines are: simple present tense, present future tense, and present progressive tense.1)The simple present tense is widely used to describesomething happening in the present or in the past.The tense is used to save space and increase freshness (新鲜感) and immediacy(直接感).e.g. Longevity star Dies at 110 (The Asian WallStreet Journal 亚洲华尔街日报, Jan. 3, 1992)2) To refer to the future, the structure …be + to do‟ is more frequently used in headlines, and the word …be‟ is often omitted to save space.e.g. Japan to help elderly jobless (= Japan is to help the elderly jobless) (The Financial Times, Jan. 27, 2000)3) The present progressive tense is sometimes used, mostly to describe something that is developing, and the auxiliary is often omitted.e.g. Thames approaching danger level4. V oicesActive voice is generally used in headlines, because rhetorically it makes headlines more colorful andappealing. Passive constructions are also sometimes used in headlines to draw readers‟ attention, however the auxiliary is omitted and only the past participle is left.e.g. Identities of hijack suspects released (= The identities of the hijack suspects are released) (The Financial Times, Sept. 16, 2001)5. PunctuationsThe purpose of using punctuations in headlines is to draw readers‟ attention. The frequently used punctuations are: comma, semi-comma, question marks, quotation marks, and colon, and full stops are seldom used.1) comma = ande.g. Australia, US Seek More Ways to Promote Trade (= Australia and US Seek More Ways to Promote Trade) (The New York Times, Jan. 5, 1992)2) A dash is used after a quote, which has not quotation marks, to introduce the addresser.e.g. Little anti-US feeling --- diplomat (= A diplomat says that there is little anti-US feeling) (The South China Morning Post, Oct. 30, 1991)3) A colon is used before a quote, meaning “say” orreplacing “be”.e.g Bush: US V ows to Cure Recessionary Woes (= Bush Says that US V ows to Cure Recessionary Woes) (The Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 5, 1991)Koreans: Grumpy toward America (= Koreans are Grumpy Toward America)E. Rhetorical FeaturesTo achieve vividness and humor and to entice (persuade) and appeal to more readers, various rhetorical devices are employed in headlines.1.Alliteration2.Rhyme3.Metaphor4.Pun5.Euphemism6.Antithesis7.Parody2.Understanding Headlines With the Help of Background Knowledge3.Homeworka. Try to remember the main points discussed during the classb. Do the exercises on Page 52-63c. Read the complementary materiald. Find newspapers to read, such as China Daily, The21st Century, online news reports。

The Influences of Cultureon Chinese and English Headlines1. Introduction (1)2. Definition of headline (2)3. Linguistic features of headlines (3)3.1 Usage of notional words in headlines (4)3.2 Omission of function words in headlines (5)3.3 Usage of proverbs and idioms in headlines (6)4. The comparison of Chinese and English headlines on cultural differences (7)4.1 The development of headline (7)4.1.1 The development of Chinese headlines (8)4.1.2 The development of English headlines (8)4.2 Characters of Chinese and English affect headlines (9)4.3 Politics and headlines (10)4.4 Social value and headlines (13)4.4.1 Social ideology affects headlines (13)4.4.2 Orientation of worship effects headlines (14)4.5 Thinking modes and headlines (15)4.6 Religion and headlines (17)5. Conclusion (18)References (20)1. IntroductionWith the development of modern technology, all messages and new things are represented in mass media and one of the traditional media for transmitting is newspaper. Newspaper is becoming more and more indispensable to people’s life. It is a vital means for people to know the world; it reports the latest events at home and abroad. As the “eyes” and “windows” of news, headlines have received people’s attention all the time, because they play an important part in news report and draw readers’ attention fir st. A good headline not only adds the finishing touch to a piece of news, but also can touch the hearts of readers and attract readers; what’s moreheadlines can guide readers to get more information.People know that a good headline has almost spoken out the event. That is to say, a headline is a piece of news. Thus, it is self-evident that headlines are very important for news report. Many scholars have done researches on news headlines, such as English news headlines, Chinese news headlines, the translation of headlines, etc. However, most of the researches are from the perspectives of stylistic features of Chinese and English headlines and few of them concern the perspective of cultural differences. Therefore, this paper begins with the definition and linguistic features of the headlines, then turns to discuss the effect of cultural differences in politics, ideology, belief and ways of thinking on English and Chinese headlines, helping readers to understand their cultural differences and improving readers’ reading ability to decode headlines of newspaper.2. Definition of headlineThe peculiarity of headlines has drawn a good deal of attention, both journalistic and linguistic. Simple as it seems to be, it is a form of expression having many standards to be met and requirements to be fulfilled so that the headline writer is in fact engaged in producing a literary art. It requires a good mastery of the language used as well as many skills. Thus a comparison of headlines between two different languages is actually the comparison between two different cultures. Before comparing Chinese and English headlines, it is necessary to give a clear definition ofheadline. After consulting definitions given by scholars both at home and abroad, it is easy to see that their definitions share some common elements as follows:A. “Headline” is a jargon of the newspaper；B. A headline summaries or makes comments on the news contents that follow.Once more, on the basis of the definitions provided, a working definition of headline, which is applicable to both English and Chinese, can be given as follows:A headline is a line or lines of concise words outside a newspaper story or article, which is usually printed in large amount or with different types and devised to summarize or make comments on its contents.3. Linguistic features of headlinesHeadline is, in a sense, an advertisement for the story. A good headline will reach out and grab readers. When it is bright, informative, clear and accurate, its readers can be hooked. They read on, and that’s the whole object. Writing good hea dlines is almost an art. It is also one of the most difficult and demanding parts of a writer’s job. If a reporter said in thirty words or less a headline writer might have to say in six words or less. Good headline writing is an art practiced under the pressure of deadlines. So every headline writer will follow some general principles techniques to practice. In the following part, three typical lexical features of headlines writing both in Chinese and English will be discussed, helping readers to catch information more easily.3.1 Usage of notional words in headlinesV ocabulary is the building materials of language, so it plays an important role in language; it is quite necessary to have some knowledge about it. Headline without correct usage of vocabulary may sometimes bring a hard time to the readers.In English news, headlines often contain noun phrases with no verbs. A noun phrase describes a noun; another common headline form is a string of three, four or more nouns together. These can be difficult because the words do not come together with verbs or adjectives. Sometimes, these take places of other adjective, participle or subordinate clauses. Here are some examples of using a noun or noun phrase headlines:(1) Petrol price fears (The Times, Oct 21, 2001)(2) Best High Schools Spring Update (The US News, May 16, 2008)(3) L.A.'s Salvation Army offers poverty simulation (Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2008)In the case of noun strings, it's helpful to try to connect the ideas by reading backwards. For example: in “Mustang Referral Customer Complaint”,by reading backwards, people can guess that: there is a complaint made by a customer about a referral program for Mustang cars.Comparatively, the key of writing a good headline in Chinese news paper is to use common verbs. Seven out of ten titles contain common verbs. Appropriate usage of verbs can increase the effect and improve an ability to express titles of newspaper. This point can be well illustrated in the following examples.(4) 职业歌手决战CETV（《人民日报》2004年7月17日）(5) 欢歌激情涌巴黎（《人民日报》海外版2004年7月28日）(6) 买房后还要砸多少“银子”？(《人民日报》2006年2月16日）3.2 Omission of function words in headlinesEconomy and compression are the most important features of headlines. In order to meet the need of a large amount of information in modern society, editors cut the number of words in one piece of news so as to save writing space place and add more information. This phenomenon can be seen in both Chinese and English headlines. For example, function words with no real meaning are usually will be omitted in writing headlines. However, there are various omissions in different languages, but they play the same role.In English headlines, most words deleted are function words. They are often articles, link verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary words and pronouns, For instance:(7) Top Indian hotel angry at BBC (The Sunday Times, July 26, 1987)(A Top Indian hotel angry at The BBC)(8) 37 Killed in Italian plane crash (The Sunday Times, July 26, 1987)(37 Killed in an Italian plane crash)(9) Couple spared jail over rail deaths (The Times, Sept 19, 2001)(The Couple spared jail over rail deaths)However, the articles in the heads of feature stories and commentaries are oftenneeded and accepted as follows:(10) Is this a losing battle against fear itself? (The Times, Oct 16, 2001)(11) The Jew who wed a Nazi (The Times, Aug 3, 2001)“The” here should be here for the definite connection.Yet, in Chinese headlines, there are no articles and link verbs. Similarly, apart from the omissible words above, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns can also be omitted. For example:(12) 扑面而来中国风（《人民日报》2004年4月2日）（扑面而来的中国风）(13)《勇往直前》柏林捧金熊（《人民日报》2004年2月17日）（电影《勇往直前》在柏林捧金熊）(14)平常心写出不平常文章（《人民日报》2004年2月17日）（用一颗平常心写出不平常的文章）3.3 Usage of proverbs and idioms in headlinesLiterary quotations, proverbs, wisdoms, idioms are inexhaustible traditional resource of headlines, the connotation of proverbs and idioms are rich, their images are vivid, their forms are symmetrical. Using such features in headlines can add to the colorfulness and diversification of headlines. Sometimes an idiom can summarize a complete idea. Therefore idioms have become another characteristic of headline vocabulary. This point can be indicated from the given examples below.(15) 弹精竭虑精益求精(《光明日报》2005年1月22日）(16) 十年磨一剑, 创新炼成“金”（《郑州日报》2005年12月11日）(17) Talk of a bid puts Greggs on a roll (The Times Oct 19, 2001)(18) Bulgari steals a match with novel play (The Times Oct 21, 2001)4. The comparison of Chinese and English headlines on cultural differencesHeadline is a particularly rich source of information in the field of culture. This is because that title does not stand for explanations or definitions, but depend on the reader’s instant reorganization of the cultural field; what’s more, allusions, issues, and cultural references are all necessary to identify the contents of the articles. They thus rely on a stock of cultural knowledge. Representations and models of reality must be assumed to be widespread in the society if the headlines are meaningful. Therefore,i t’s necessary to analyze the cultural connotation in headlines.4.1 The development of headlineThe development of headlines is along with the media, which is tightly related to history, society, politics, economy and environment. This is one important reason why Chinese and English headlines are different.4.1.1 The development of Chinese headlinesThe earliest newspaper in China was the official newspaper DiBao found sometime between 714 AD and 741 AD. According to Sun Kezhi of the Tang Dynasty, the newspapers of the Tang Dynasty had no headlines. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, there were some changes in items, periods of publication, etc. However, up to then, there were still no headlines.Since Chongzheng Years, the last years of the Ming Dynasty, typography came into use in the newspaper, so the circulation of Di Bao, later called Jing Bao, began to increase. Besides the official printing, non-governmental printing and selling also contributed to the spread of the newspaper. Yet it was until in 1905 when Shen Bao began an innovation, headlines possessed some characteristics of modern ones.4.1.2 The development of English headlinesThe first modern newspaper, the Daily Courant, appeared in England in 1702. Modern as it was, it was still without headlines. From the American Revolution right up to the Spanish–American War days, the departmental headlines could be found in the American newspapers. However, the most commonly used form was the label head–a general and indefinite statement without verbs, or captions the same one being used repeatedly.Just as in China, no line of demarcation is evident between the days of the label head and the days of the modern English headline. The earliest modern headline already existed in the age of label heads. However, it was the outburst of yellowjournalism between 1892 and 1914 that led to the revolution of headlines and opened up a broad way to modern headlines, which developed gradually into today’s form. 4.2 Characters of Chinese and English affect headlinesBoth Chinese and English headlines can condense and point out the gist of news, but as to the breadth and depth reports, Chinese headlines stand out of English headlines. Such as, Liberation Daily quoted the headline of a report on Hong Kong’s return in Xin hua News Agency are as follow:(19) 中华民族的盛事世界和平与正义事业得胜利—香港今回归祖国怀抱（《解放日报》1997年7月1日）As the same day, there are three words in the banner headline of China daily (English edition) are:(20) HOME AT LAST (China Daily, July1, 1997)Take another example, Columbia, US space shuttle broke up in air on Feb.2, 2003. These following headlines are about that:(21)“哥伦比亚”解体坠毁官方称没有迹象表明与恐怖活动有关(《新闻晚报》2003年2月2日)(22) No evidence of terrorism In loss of shuttle Columbia: US officials (The Guardian, Feb.2, 2003)With the comparison of the above headlines, it can be concluded that Chinese headlines are inclined to totality, which focus on the content of news. By contrast, English headlines seem report by the way of accentuation, which is weak in breadthand depth reporting. In some extent, Chinese headline is a mini-story in capsule form and English headline is a skeleton of the news.The reason Chinese character is monosyllabic language, each word is monosyllabic but ideographic, its size looks the same; yet English character is multi-syllabic, and its length is different. Thus within the same limited space, Chinese headlines haves have a better summarization of news contents, compared with English headlines, which contributes to Chinese totality and English accentuation. Sometimes when the news gist is not so complicated and allows more space for the headlines than is needed; Chinese headline writers may turn to figures of speech to fill in the space or to perfect the headlines so as to make them impressive. English headline writers are unlikely to seek rhetorical devices for help because each English letter takes up different space unit. More words could only add to the difficulty of word counting. 4.3 Politics and headlinesPolitics always plays an important part in social life, which also has an impact on the production and dissemination of news. For example, in England, the first copy of the newspaper “Stamp Duty”, which was published in 1712, emerged to protect the authorities of British Royal; reflected and propagandized the royal ideology and interest. In China modern history, the first batch of newspaper was started by missionaries from the United Kingdom in 1900s, such as《察世俗每月统计考》、《字林西报》, these papers reflected the political situation of that time. After the May 4th Movement, founder of the《新青年》and《共产党》also reported the politicalcircumstances. Likewise, nowadays western headlines get a great impact on politics too, she reflects the position of national government and under the control of them, so she has a strong political inclination. For example:(23) U.S. Tells Moscow to Tone down Rhetoric on Georgia (The Times, Sept 7, 2004)(24) U.S. Won’t Reply to Iran Letter, Wants Real (The Sunday Times, July 16, 2007)(25) Progress on Nuclear Issue (The US News, May 16, 2008)(26) A Cold War Approach on Iran (The Times Oct 21, 2001)Those titles are all selected from English and American journals, which have shown strong political preference. The first one tells that the American was dissatisfied with Moscow government. The others present the American uncompromising stand to Iran about nuclear weapons. Those writing condition is very common in Chinese headlines. For instance:(27) 陈水扁输掉大半辈子资本(中国台湾网2006年05月30日)(28) 台军演习: 被美抛弃怎么办(《环球时报》2007年11月23日)The political inclination of the above-mentioned headlines’ was obvious. She declares the strong stand of Chinese government against Taiwan independence, together with sarcasm to military maneuvers of Taiwan. So it is easy to see that every government has tried to make full use of newspaper to influence the public viewpoint, and headlines of the newspaper are charged with the most important tasks, helping the reader to catch government position at a glance.Through the headlines, the government can have an impact on the public. The public’s viewpoints in turn often feed back by the headlines which will convey to thegovernment. Such as:(29) Our Con Man in Iraq (The Guardian, Feb 2, 2002)(30) Working...and Poor (The US News, May 16, 2005)The two headlines are succinct in style yet rich in content, conveying the standpoints of the author and the American people. In “Our Con Man in Iraq”, five short words showed that the American public query the validity of government who was on the excuse of nuclear thereat and use force to control them. The next one reflected American workers were dissatisfied with the terms of the working condition and low salary.In contrast to English headlines which are always published without reservation, Chinese headlines are inclined to be implicit. This is the character influenced by the tradition of Chinese culture. Chinese people are all affected by golden mean of the school and Chinese traditional political systems. However, with the institutional reform of economy and politics, more and more headlines tend to reflect the problems that the public have shown concern sharply. For example:(31) 两大校长诘问教育不公平（《南方周末》2006年4月14日）(32) 中国消费者对旅游服务满意度不高（《青年参考》2006年3月25日）(33) 学术著作为何出版难（《人民日报》2006年11月8日）From the examples above, government can show her position and point of views through the title; headlines at this time play the role of as a guidance of politics. On the other hand, the public through the headlines can also convey the public wishes to their government, to raise the concern of Government and community.4.4 Social value and headlinesXiao Jianchun (2002: 14), notes that traditional values as a major part of traditional culture are a system of what people form a given culture hold the world, society and life. So the editors try to associate the news with traditional values of people. The best or the most effective headlines are those that best express and affirm core cultural values.4.4.1 Social ideology affects headlinesSocial ideology is the form of expression of social consciousness in real life, including a person’s thought, view, artistic culture, etc. It is known to all that China is a socialist country yet English spoken countries are most capitalist. There are discrepancies between those different ideology countries, so do people’s outlooks on the world, life and values. The Chinese people pursue principles that collective interests always come first than individual interests, and individual is subordinated to collective. In capital countries, people take the imitative in personality, individual interests and selfishness. These features are often placed in the headlines. For instance:(34) Facing Death, Kevorkian Has Regrets (The US News, Sept.11, 2001)(35) Bird Flu: Protect Your Family（China Daily, June 16,2006）The first one described Kevorkian’s regretful mood when facing with death in salvage of the hurricane. The second one told that: when facing bird flu, protecting family member first.4.4.2 Orientation of worship effects headlinesAffected strongly by Confucianism, the worship for power or monarchical power is included in the traditional values (Jia Yuxin: 512-513). Power and solidarity relationships are a universal phenomenon existing in several of societies. However, different societies generally have different attitudes toward these two, that is, power may be more important in one culture, while solidarity may be more important in another culture. The Chinese social structure is basically hierarchical or vertical in nature and the principle of REN and LI help reinforce the symmetrical relationship by editing the maintenance of differences between people. Power relationship is the predominant norm or value orientation in the important value orientation in the western culture.Each member of the western society, comparatively speaking, enjoys independence and equality, which lays the foundation for the establishment of solidarity relationship. The differences of value are clearly reflected in a wide range of headlines. For instance, the poor or disadvantaged groups are seldom public in Chinese headline, unless there is something related to happen to the government. Instead, the officers are always appearing in headline over and over again.(36) 贾庆林出席山郁夫艺术展开幕式（《新华日报》2008年4月17日）To be sure that thousands of people have attended the opening ceremony, yet only the standing committee Jia Qinglin was public on the headline.(37) 王金山会见深圳华强集团董事长梁光伟（《新华日报》2008年4月17日）Liang Guangwei is the chairman of the board; a famous person in China, hisname was on the headline.In English news, the situation is on the opposite. Individual person and capitalist both have no relationship with the government but often appear on the headlines. When it comes to other importance in American values, individualism and money become what lots of commercial news appeal to. Individualism includes many aspects, such as individual dignity, individual freedom, self-satisfaction, privacy and something like this.(38) Myles Quin likes to collect stuff-most of all good yarns (Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2004)(39) House passes $54B in tax breaks, energy incentives (The Times, May 21, 2008) 4.5 Thinking modes and headlinesThe modes of thinking between English and Chinese people are rather different. This results in the different writing styles of English and Chinese headlines, which pander to their respective reader’s tastes. It has been pointed out that “many Chinese people prefer indirect style” (Wang Zhenya, 1999: 339). In other words, the Chinese people get used to approaching a topic in a spiral way, by indirection and by beating around the bush. In fact they assume that by resorting to an affective or emotional method they are creating a shared context in which others would certainly figure out the most important points. This could be traced back to ancient Chinese dialectical works in which the authors turned to allegory, simile, metaphor, etc., to state their ideas. Such a spiral way of thinking naturally will affect their appreciation ofheadlines. That is, those headlines making use of figurative language tend to be admired. The English people, just in contrast, favor direct styles, the linear way of writing. When they are writing, they are inclined to come quickly to the core of a message. Therefore, what impresses English readers most is plain, direct headlines. By “plain” we mean that English headlines make use of only a few figures of speech, compared with Chinese headlines which give readers room for imagination rather than letting the meanings sink in immediately and effortlessly. Those features reflect on the headlines:(40) Biden’s Son Headed to Ira q in 2008 (The US News, Feb3, 2008)(41) Blair Hires Clinton Lawyer to Seek Multimillion (The Times, Oct 19, 2001)(42) Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years (Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2004)(43) Biggest Donor Areas Go for Demes (The US News, July 3, 2001)These kinds of news are common in American society. The front one said that one child of a leader in Democratic Party had attended the arms and headed to Iraq in 2008. The second one told people that Blair was to invite the lawyer of Clinton to seek multimillion. The third one showed the rising of suicide in American army. All of these had reported the concrete situation of American in different sides. People can receive the information by the specific headlines and make their own judgments as well as express his own opinion freely. Those headlines are good at analyzing the factors in rational cognition.(44) 七个光棍与一个村庄的故事(《人民日报》2007年08月02日)(45) 春风又绿玉门关(《光明日报》2007年08月02日)(46) 房改, 照亮有家的路(《人民日报》2007年08月02日)The Chinese thinking mode that people take “twist” as beauty was displayed on the three titles. The first one reported the change of a poor country, seven bachelors are all building up family fortunes, getting married and leading a happy life. The second one reported the establishment of forest park in Gobi Desert of Gansu province. After several years hard work and protection, a great many trees have planted Yemen guan, which is true of “春风又绿玉门关”. The third headline told the situation that: under the reform of house, more and more people can afford to buy house. Here, it can be fully understood that Chinese people have the spiral way of thinking on headlines.4.6 Religion and headlinesIt is known to all that no matter in geographical distribution, or in the number of people’s belief, Christianity is the most universal religion, particularly in European countries, where most people are Christian. Christianity is concentrated on the ethics, morals, pure and justice, but the Christian forbade others to critic her and she strong excluded pagan.Today, the American governments and some European countries more or less have been influenced by Christian Thought; they often interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, which can be taken as the most powerful example to explain their Christ belief. Chinese people’s belie f is mainly Buddhists; Buddhism is particular about the karma and tolerance; she has no religious exclusion and hatred. At themeanwhile, she is on the influence of Confucianism and often refracted kinds of styles like: gentle kindhearted industrious and fugal etc. Therefore, religious differences not only affect people's world view, but also affected media and headlines.(47) Be Careful! China is Waking Up (The US News, July 3, 2006)(48) How close is Iran to Getting a Nuclear Bomb? (The US News, July 4, 2005)It can view the western News headlines were impacted by religious. The first one showed American government enforced vigilance to the rising of China and she express their reject and hostility to Chinese. The following example embodied anxious and dissatisfaction of American to Iran. These analyze a phenomenon that Christian excluded and distrust other different ideology nations.Looking at the following Chinese headlines:(49) 巴拿马表示将努力维护世界和平与正义（新华网2006年11月08日）(50) 美国欢迎政治解决达尔富尔问题（《光明日报》2007年8月9日）(51) “两岸同胞携手迎奥运” 青年交流活动将在京举办（《人民日报》2007年08月08日）From those above headlines above, it is clear to see that the Chinese news headlines are subject to different ideological impact.5. ConclusionNews is an important resource as well as a way of attracting audiences keen to be informed of the events taking place in the world; Headline is the essential part of newsreporting.Thus studies on headlines have intrigued great interest of many scholars both at home and abroad, but a systematic comparative study on influences of culture difference in English and Chinese headlines is still to be done. Due to this very fact, it is to be made an attempt to achieve a systematic study on influence of culture difference of headlines.In this paper, the thesis begins with definition of headline, then analyzes typical linguistic features of headline writing, on which basis, I turn to trace the development of headlines is to be traced, discussing the cultural differences between the east and the west influence headlines in traditional culture, politics, social ideology，measure of social value, thinking mode and religion.This thesis is just a beginning of a long and hard work. The ultimate purpose of the present paper is to call for more attention to the comparative study of cultural difference on English and Chinese headline. It is hoped that the analysis of cultural differences can contributes to the cultivation of students’ cross-cultural awareness and helps people to understand the English news headlines better and get more messages.ReferencesDominck, R. Joseph. 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