【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 r pages. A dull headline makes a dull page. But when headlines are well written and well placed in forms that have been 6 thoughtfully designed, the pages are clear and good looking. In other words, the headlines can break the monotony of a newspaper page and serve as an eyereleaser for the readers. Linguistic Features of English News Headlines In order to understand an English news headline, we must know the features of them. We can study its features from the lexical and grammatical level. Lexical features of English news headlines News headlines require a high degree of brevity, which leads to the special lexical preference. The most distinctive aspects of news headlines in lexical preference are listed as follow: Short words or midget words English news headlines often use short words to replace long ones. Usually, English newspaper has not enough space for the headlines. And that is to say, the space for headlines is very limited, so using short word can save a lot of space. Besides, short words or midget words have much larger semantic category, and are also more lively and flexible. News reporter or writer prefers short words to long ones due to one journalistic principle: “Saying a lot in least space”. (Mencher Melvin, 1994:324) The following are some of the most frequent used short word in English news headlines. aidhelp/assist endterminate nodapproval blastexplode Besides verbs, which are usually seen in English newspaper headline, short nouns are also very mon in English newspaper headlines. For example, acechampion coppoliceman firmpany tiesrelations 7 In general, short words can convey and describe their own meanings more vividly and relevantly. In addition to the effectiveness and forcefulness, short words are used in the headline in order to save the space. Conversion of parts of speech As is known that conversion of parts of speech is mon in English news headlines. There are some short nouns, which are used as verbs or other parts of speech. The following words seem simple, but please pay attention to their parts of speech, which are used unusually. （ 1） bag(n.)v. China bagged 11of 12 gold medals in table 轉(zhuǎn)動詞 （ 2） table( n.)v. Eight countries tabled a proposal on measures to reduce the risk of Abbreviations and acronyms Abbreviations and acronyms are frequently used in news headlines. Abbreviation is the shortened form of certain words of many letters. Acronym is made of the first letter of many words for a certain unit of meaning. They are used instead of plicated and long words, thus saving more space and balancing the sentence structure. In English newspapers the mon types of abbreviation are initialing, clipping and acronymizing. . BBCBritish Broadcasting Corporation FBIFederal Bureau of Investigation VIPVery Important People Vogue words Because a newspaper is to inform the reader of the latest news, any new objects or ideas, or hot topics should be included in it. Headlines, the gist of the news, would certainly reveal them in order to catch the reader, s attention. As a 8 result, vogue words bee an indispensable part of headlines vocabulary. . （ 1） Restaurant as a front for money laundering(洗錢 ). （ 2） Foot and mouth curbs (口蹄疫 ) may cause herbs to starve. Grammatical features of English news headlines Headline has its own grammatical features. When those rules are violated, they make the readers feel confused. Besides, an English news headline distinguishes itself from other styles of writing by its special characteristics on the grammar level. These characteristics can be classified as the following: tense, omission, voice and punctuation. tense As is known that English news headlines are of high brevity, not all tenses are used in news headlines. The most monly used tenses in English news headlines are the simple present tense and the present progressive tense. Usually in a news report, what is reported actually happened in the past, but present tense is preferred to make the readers feel freshness and immediacy and to save more space without “ed”. （ 1） Bomb Kills two (=The bomb killed two people) （ 2） Rail Chaos Getting Worse (=The rail chaos is getting worse) Omission From the point of view of syntax, the most obvious feature of headlines is omission. The headlines can be shortened by omitting all the functional words including articles, prepositions, conjunctions and copulative verb “be”. . （ 1） Republican to push farm housing (=The Republican Party is to push the farm housing) （ 2） Deposits, loans rising in HK (=The deposits and loans are rising in 9 Hong Kong) Voice Headline writers prefer the active voice to the passive, in other words, writing headlines with somebody saying something or doing something rather than having it told to them or done to them. But sometimes passive voice is used because the acceptor is much more important than the operator of an act in order to call the readers, attention. When the passive voice is used, the verb “to be” is always omitted. Journalist fired in spy debate (=A journalist is fired in a spy debate) Punctuation Not all punctuation can be found in English news headlines. When a certain punctuation is used in English news headlines, it is used to differentiate parts of a plex sentence and to save more space using a punctuation instead of a word. Comma is used to replace the conjunction “and”. Dash is usually used before an indirect quotation. Colon is not only used before a direct quotation instead of the word “say”, but also used to replace the word “be”. . （ 1） Australia, US Seek More Ways to Promote Trade (=Australia and US Seek More Ways to Promote Trade) （ 2） Bush: US Vows to Cure Recessionary Woes (=Bush Says that US Vows to Cure Recessionary Woes) This chapter b