中文题目:浅析英语新闻标题的特点及其汉译策略英文题目: A Study on Features and Translation of English News HeadlinesContentsAbstract(in Chinese) (Ⅰ)Abstract(in English) (Ⅱ)I. Introduction (1)II. A Brief Introduction on News Headlines (3)2.1 The definition of news headlines (3)2.2 The functions of news headlines (3)2.3 The classification of news headlines (4)III. The Features of English News Headlines (5)3.1 Lexical features of English news headlines (5)3.1.1 Preference for short words (5)3.1.2 Wide use of abbreviations (6)3.1.3 Flexible use of journalistic coinages (7)3.1.4 Flexible use of vogue words (7)3.1.5 Emotive words (8)3.2 Grammatical features of English news headlines (8)3.2.1 Omission (9)3.2.2Tense (10)3.2.3 Voice (10)3.2.4 Punctuation (11)3.3 Rhetorical features of English news headlines (11)IV. The Techniques of Translating English News Headlines (13)4.1 Literal translation (13)4.2 Balance translation (13)4.2.1 Adding words (14)4.2.2 Cutting words (14)4.2.3 Applying famous sayings and poem lines of English and Chinese (15)4.3 Adding connotations in the translation (15)4.4 Application of the original rhetoric into translation (16)4.5 Application of slangs and proverbs (17)V. Conclusion (18)Works Cited (20)Acknowledgements (21)摘要本文旨在通过透析英文新闻标题的特点及其汉译特点，来帮助人们更好地理解和欣赏英文新闻标题。

英语新闻在中西方交流上起重大作用，作为一条英文新闻的首要部分，英语新闻标题的质量通常决定读者是否会继续读完新闻的整个段落。

由于新闻文体的特殊性，英语新闻标题在其长期的发展中形成了独具特色的标题语言。

为了翻译好英语标题，翻译工作者不仅要熟知新闻标题的特点，同时还要掌握一定的翻译技巧使英语新闻标题以汉语的形式重现在中国读者面前。

本文在吸取前人的研究经验的基础上，结合报纸，媒体等手段，提出自己的观点。

本文首先介绍研究的主题及其重要性；其次介绍新闻标题的定义、功能以及分类；再次介绍英文新闻标题的措辞、语法和修辞特点；接着总结英语新闻标题的最佳汉译策略；最后对本研究总结并提出此研究中不足的地方。

关键词：英语新闻标题；特点；汉译策略AbstractThis paper aims to reveal the features and translation strategies of English news headlines so as to help readers understand and appreciate English news headlines. English news plays a crucial role in the communication between the east and the west. The quality of the article’s headlines mostly decides whether the people would continue to read the whole passage. Due to the special style of news, its headlines have long developed their own unique characteristics. In order to translate the English headlines well, translators are required to grasp the depth of the features of English headlines, and at the same time apply a variety of translation techniques to reappear the original meaning to Chinese readers. This thesis comes up with a new perspective by concluding study results from former distinguished experts and looking into materials from media and books etc. Firstly, this paper focuses on introducing the subject and significance of the study; secondly this paper lays emphasis on the definition, function and classification of news headlines; thirdly, it focuses on the lexical features, grammatical features, rhetorical features and how to use the punctuation in English news headlines; then it focuses on the E-C translation of English news headlines; at last it sums up the core view of the study and puts forward with the insufficiency of the paper.Key words：English news headlines; Features; E-C translation strategyA Study on Features and Translation of English news HeadlinesSong Dandan(Faculty of Humanities, Tianjin Agricultural University)I. IntroductionWith the deepening of the opening up, the opportunity for communication between China and the outer world is increasing. To let the whole world get to know China better, a lot of information must be disseminated through the news media. A very real problem confronting people will soon be found is that whether they like or not, an increasing number of English newspapers, radio and television drama are burst into China. “A well known fact is that to learn English better only through reading some text books or some classic writings is far from enough.”(Li Xin 5) English is developing and updating continuously. There is no better means than English newspapers and other media to have a detail record on the changes in English. An easy way to master modern English is through journalistic English. Journalistic English is suitable for the newspapers, broadcasting, television, Internet and other forms of news reports, and is one of the most practical style in modern English, and is one of the criteria of the standard English language as well.A piece of English news is composed of a headline, a lead and a body. A headline is an integral part of news. The most important function of news headlines is to reveal to the readers the main content of the news with the concise and clear language in order that the readers would get the most information from it with the least time. In most cases, a news headline determines whether this piece of news would be read or passed by the readers. Among all kinds of reports in newspaper, how to attract readers is the main target of the news editors. Editors not only have to appeal the readers with attractive headlines, but also manage to set the headlines into the limited space. In order to achieve these, the news headlines must be brief, accurate and eye-catching. Because of these requirements, English news headlines have formed the unique characteristics.When reading the pieces of news, the readers not only have to be able to understand the news headlines, but also should develop the ability to appreciate and translate them.Only then can people get a better and accurate understanding of the vocabulary, grammar and rhetoric used in the headlines, thus get the true meaning. When it comes to the translation of English news headlines, there are three aspects should be taken into consideration. The first is to get an accurate understanding of the headline and appreciate the beauty of the headlines. The second is trying to reflect the features of the headlines and increase the readability. The third is that the translators should pay much attention to the readers’ability to accept the translation of the English news headlines. Besides that, the language used in translation should not be too ordinary or too elegant.There are similarities and differences between Chinese news headlines and English news headlines. This paper mainly focuses on the main characteristics of English news headlines, including the lexical features, grammatical features and rhetorical features. There are similarities and differences between Chinese news headlines and English news headlines. As for the translation techniques, there are two requirements. The first is general requirement, the other one is the language used in the translation.II. A Brief Introduction on News HeadlinesWhere there are people, there is news. Nowadays people are leading a fast-paced life. People are in such a rush in their life that they seldom see through every article; instead, people usually just flit across the paper and only catch a glimpse of the headlines of articles. If the title appeals to them, people will stop to read its content; if not, they will just skip over it to another. So an eye-catching headline is indispensable and vital to a successful news report. As is discussed that news headline plays a crucial and special part of a news report, it is important to know its definition, function and classification.2.1 The definition of news headlinesWhen reading a newspaper, one should first read a headline. Then what is a headline? How can people study on the headline if they even do not know what a headline is. So in the following there are different versions of definition of headline. The first is news headline is a head of newspaper story or article, usually printed in large type and devised to summarize, give essential information about, or interest readers in reading the story or article that follows. And there is another definition that a headline is a caption printed at the top of a page or article in a newspaper, usually in large heavy letters and often summarizing the content that follows it.Then two points can be found that are shared in the most definitions. The first is headline is a jargon of the newspaper. The second is a headline summarizes or makes comments on the news contents that follow. What’s more, headlines are always the most striking point of the total paper, fascinating readers to go through the whole pages.2.2 The functions of news headlinesAs it is known, news stories should carry importance, timeliness, unusualness and interest. As the pace of life is getting faster and faster, everything seems to be bidding for people’s attention, and newspapers are no exceptions. So a headline must lure its readers to spend enough time on the lead, if not the whole story. Even in the same and single newspaper, a better headline is likely to draw more attention to the specific story among those on the same page. “So a headline, if effectively made, must meet three requirements, to capture the essence of the event, to attract readers’ attention and to beautify the page on which it appears.”(Lu Juan 14) Thus can be drawn that the functions of news headlinescontain three parts, the first is to help sell or advertise the news, the second is to summary the whole story, and the third is to facelift the physical appearance of a newspaper.2.3 The classification of news headlinesIf people read newspapers a lot, they will find that there are so many headlines appearing in different forms. A brief classification of news headlines is given in the following. Things will be different when seen from different angles. So it is with news headline classification. On different bases, news headline can be divided into different categories. According to the nature of headlines, it can be divided into straight headlines, question headlines, quotation headlines and feature headlines. Headline may have three parts; namely, the kicker, the main head and the deck. So according to the forms of headlines, it can be divided into single-deck headlines and multi-deck headlines.III. The Features of English News HeadlinesA Chinese usually can not catch a clear meaning of English news headlines or even feel in a loss if it is the first time to read English news. It is because English news headlines possess unique characteristics.3.1 Lexical features of English news headlines“According to the role of the headline itself, also in order to meet the request of the time, editors always strive to indicate the main idea with limited words.”(Xie Yujie 71)On this account, the chosen words must be succinct, exoteric and simple.3.1.1 Preference for short words“Less word, less space and more information is one of the principles of English news headlines.”(Zhang Jian 5) English news paper headlines often use short, accurate and vivid words instead of vague and abstract words. On one hand, these easily understandable words can increase the readability of the headline; on the other hand, they can reduce the space. With the purpose of nice and balance, editors use words with fewer syllables but with more extensive meaning. Such as “abandon” is not usually used in the news headlines. Instead “drop, give up, quit, skip or yield” were chosen. Another example is blast, crash, ram or smash is usually take the place of explode. There are some instances of news headlines containing this feature.(4) US refuse to back environment fund. Back in this news means support.(5) Easing traffic tops Beijing work agenda. Top here means easing traffic was made the first place in Beijing work agenda.(6) A Top Libyan Official Appears to Defect, as Rebels Defend Recent Gains. Top here means senior.It has been lasting several years to use short words in news headlines. It is the outstanding characteristic of using very short words in headlines. Many of the vocabularies in headlines are Anglo-Saxon words which are oral, simple, plain and lively. What’s more, they have been accepted by the public. Here are some examples of verbs usually used in English news headlines: aid = help/ assist, alter = change, ban = prohibit/ forbid, foil = prevent from, lop = diminish, map = work out, moot = discuss and so on.“Besides, short nouns with few letters are often found in English news headlines.”(LvYingna 214) For example, “accord” usually takes the place of “agreement”, “aim” is used to replace “purpose”. Here is a collection of nouns usually used in English news headlines. Ace = champion, aid- = assistance, arms = weapons, body = committee/ commission, clash = controversy, cool = uninterested, cop = policeman, deal = agreement, down = decrease, drive = campaign, envoy = ambassador, fete = celebration, firm = company, flop = failure, jobless = unemployment, man = representative, mart = market, nod = approval and so on.3.1.2 Wide use of abbreviationsEnglish news headlines must have the power to attract readers and indicate the main idea of the whole news, so editors pay much emphasis on concise. “As the column in the newspaper is narrow, choosing a long word is offensive to the eye. For this reason, abbreviations are largely used in English news headlines.”(Xu Wenmei 52)There are two kinds of abbreviations. “One is known as acronym, which means a proper noun that is constituted of two or more words and is extracted from the first letter of these nouns.”(Zhang Jian 6) The first letters from every word of the proper noun must be capitalized, which is used to take the place of the long and tedious words or phrases. In such way, the number of the words of the news headline can be cut down. In general, there are 3 kinds of acronym frequently seen in the papers. The first one is abbreviations for organizations and institutes, such as, UNESCO means United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, CPPCC means Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The second is for common things, for example, IELTS means International English Language Testing System, AIDS means acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The third is for occupations, posts and titles of posts, such as, DINKS means double income, no kids, and CEO means Chief Executive Officer.The other one is shortened words. It means shorten words by cutting the “head” or the “tail”, which is extracting a noun’s prefix or suffix with the same principle of cutting down the number of words to save space. As commonly used, these words can be understood by readers at the first sight. The ways of shortening words are like this, firstly, eliminate the head, such as ad is equal to advertisement, uni means university, mod means modern. Secondly, eliminate the tail, for example, cello means violoncello, chute means parachute. Thirdly, keep the middle part, for example, flu means influenza. Fourthly, eliminate themiddle part, for example, nat means nationalist. The last way is irregular cutting, such as bike means bicycle, mike is come from microphone, bookie means bookmaker.3.1.3 Flexible use of journalistic coinages“The vitality of English news language lies in “new”. The modern world is changing rapidly, so new social phenomenon, new ideology and new invents are all needed new words to name them.”(Gao Wen 70) These new objects burst into news firstly. News is to broaden our horizon and help people keep pace with times and spread all the new things. Language is continuously developing and thousands of new words may be showed in the newspaper or other media. They are reflected in the English news headlines firstly.Combining two or more words into a new word makes a compound word. With the advantages of vivid expression and extraordinary formation, these new words are so popular in news headlines, hence to be called “journalistic coinages”, which are also called “once words”. In choosing words, English news language possesses obvious spirit of originality, which makes tremendous influence to the development of English. The emergence of these new words was accompanied with specific political, economic and social environment. Therefore, with obvious sociality, these journalistic coinages can be understood only through the clues in the news’ body. These coinages are usually created by omitting several syllables among them, connecting them into one coherently. Such as smog = smoke + fog, newscast = news + broadcast, atobomb = atom + bomb, cinemanufacturer = cinema manufacturer, fruice = fruit + juice, slanguage = slang language. An English news headline goes like this, “Obama must use Reaganomics to save economy”, the word “Reaganomics”means Reagan Economics. By using coinages, authors cannot only save space, but also can add pleasure and novelty to the headlines.3.1.4 Flexible use of vogue wordsNews reporters keep a close contact with social development and people’s daily life, each new thing, new phenomenon and new perspective usually appeared in the news media firstly, and then transmitted to the public. The vogue words’ appearance is based on these new objects. In headlines, there exist lots of vogue words which reflect the developing trace of the society and can be divided into two categories. One is old words with novelmeanings. These kinds of words have already been endowed with new connotation, which may be sharply different from the existing meaning. For example, “clone”means “an individual organism or cell so produced” and then it extended to be “copy”; the original meaning of “bug” is “a small insect”, but now it refers to “an error in a computer program or system”. Another one is vogue words. With the development of Internet, a great deal of new words about Internet and computer appeared. These words are usually composed of newly emerged prefixes and other words, such as e-, cyber-, web-, and techno-. For example,，cyberspeak(网络用语), webmaster(网络用户)，netizen（网民），bio-safety(生物安全)，techno-millionaire(高科技百万富翁).3.1.5 Emotive wordsIt is widely believed that the objectivity is one of the basic principles of the news reports. Absolute objectivity, however, does not exist in the news reports. For news reporters, it is not easy to conceal their potential views and attitudes. Their viewpoint may be manifested in other forms indirectly. What’s more, no matter news agency, newspaper or reporters, they all have their own political, economic, social and cultural background; they tend to serve for their country, nation and social strata. Even from the same country or same social strata, editors’ reports inevitably have their own emotion because of different characters, different educational backgrounds and different experiences. Moreover, the purpose of news report is not only to make readers get the idea of the whole article, but more important is to attract readers and influence them. Thus with emotive words in news can better cause readers’resonance, here are some examples of this kind: “Hussein and Mobs Virtually Empty Iraq’s Prisons”. The news’content is about the decision of acclaiming crimes made by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. So it should be “the prisoners emptied the prison”. But the editor used the word “mob”, which alluded that Saddam’s decision was wrong. The reporter from the New York Times even bracketed Saddam and mob together in this headline. Mob in English is a derogatory term. The reporter of this piece of news is not objective, because he is American and certainly on American’s side.3.2 Grammatical features of English news headlinesEnglish news headlines are required to be concise, not confined to normal pattern, taking the least length to convey as much information as possible. “To meet requirements, editors sometimes have to break the traditional grammatical rules and form title’s unique characteristics.”(Xu Wenmei 52) From the grammatical point of view, English news headlines have a set of unique grammar, which is different from the common grammar. English news scholars term it headlines.3.2.1 OmissionOmission is one of the most pervasive and most vital traits in news headlines. The original title is a complete sentence, but in order to play a concise effect and highlight the key messages, the editors often delete some grammatical items or words, especially function words. What the readers can see most commonly are the omissions of articles, linking verbs, auxiliary verbs and conjunctions.Article is a kind of function word. As the most typical qualifier, it cannot be used independently, and can only be attached to a noun to help explain the meaning of the term. For example,(7) Top Pakistan judge dismissed after refusing to take oath. The original sentence is a top Pakistan judge dismissed after refusing to take oath.There is no doubt that “be”and auxiliary verbs play important roles in English sentences, which make up the foundation of various forms and usages of English. However, they have no practical meanings, and for the requirement of being concise, they are cut out in most cases. Such as,(8) Shoppers becoming smarter. The original sentence is shoppers are becoming smarter. This news is about Chinese shoppers have become far smarter than their western counterparts at checking product information online before taking the plunge.(9) China’s economic planner confident in economy. The original sentence is China’s economic planner is confident in economy.A Conjunction is an uninflected function word that serves to conjoin words or phrases or clauses or sentences. It is also a kind of function word. Pronoun is function words that are used to replace a noun or noun phrase. Both of them make no sense to the sentence. Sothey can be cut out of the headlines. A comma usually instead of a conjunction after the conjunction was cut. Such as, “US, Vietnam resume talks.” The original sentence should be US and Vietnam resumes talks. As for the cutting out of pronoun, here is an example, “Irish group kills ex-chief.” It should be Irish group kills its ex-chief.It is common to find article, conjunction, pronoun and some grammatical items and so forth. This is mainly for two reasons. The first is for the integrity of some certain idioms and phases. The second is for beautifying the form of headlines by filling blanks.3.2.2TenseIt is known that verbs have a tense change in English and so does English headlines. However, English headlines are supposed to be concise so that editors can not take all forms of tenses into news. So English news headlines have developed their own special features of tense to be able to convey the exact meaning of news vividly and convey a sense of timing by using verbs. There are three tenses that are frequently used in English news headlines, present tense, future tense and present continuous tense.Typically, the news media reported are things mostly have occurred. However, the editor will choose the present tense in the title to not only save space, but also to enhance freshness and immediacy. Here is an example to support it:(10)Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez dies from cancer: VPThe original headline should be “Vice-president announced that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez died from cancer in a military hospital in Caracas.As for the news which is happening, the editors will choose the present continuous tense. However, the auxiliary verb “be” is often omitted. So, it is often to see the form of present participle to indicate the present continuous tense. For example:(11) Beijing revising housing rules.Referring to the future, the structure “be + to do”is much more preferred than the structure “will + do”in headlines, and the auxiliary verb “be”is omitted to save space. Hence, infinitive in news headlines can reflect the future actions. Examples are as follows:(12) China to double wind power generation capacity.(13) Employers ready to pay fines in battle over Obama healthcare la w.3.2.3 VoicePeople who extensively read English newspapers or journals may notice that theactive voice is used more frequently than the passive voice. From the perspective of rhetoric, the active is more colorful and appealing, and the meaning it expressed is more forward and powerful. Here is an example:(14)Women make better business decisions than men.Researchers have found that women’s abilities to make fair decisions when competing interests are at stake make them better corporate leaders. It is easy to see that this news’main character is women, so active voice here expresses the main idea more direct and powerful than passive voice.Passive voice is used when the receiver of an action is more important than the performer. It aims to attract readers. However, the auxiliary “be” is omitted and only the past participle remains. Here is an example:(15) Baby killed by Jilin SUV thief.This headline used passive voice. The aim is to highlight the victim is an baby, and to catch people’s eye.3.2.4 PunctuationPeople can rarely find punctuation in headlines. Punctuation only appear in the headlines for two reasons. Firstly, they are used to save space. Secondly, they can arouse readers’attention or curiosity. There are much punctuation used in headlines, such as comma, colon, parentheses, quotation marks and so forth. Here are some examples:(16) Boy, 14, killed in protests.The headline used comma. Comma is absolutely the most familiar punctuation. Apart its basic function of small stops in a sentence, it’s mainly used to replace the conjunctions such as and, but and so on, and also can save space.(17) South Africa: over 25% of schoolgirls HIV positive.(18) Don’t panic, mitt Romney!3.3 Rhetorical features of English news headlinesNews must be universally absorbing and intriguing. And both vividness and humor are also the primary features of the headline. In order to achieve those effects, journalists often employ some techniques to add flavor to the language of the headline. Rhetoric happens tobe an important means to achieve this goal. English news always adopts various rhetorical ways. Such as metaphor and simile, personification, parody, pun, irony, alliteration and so on. Here are some examples in headlines which used rhetoric.(19) Another Bubble Burst. This time in the tea market.This news used alliteration. The repetition of the initial sound makes sentences lively and fluently, which enhances the poetic sense of the news headline, which calls readers’attention and memory.(20) U.S. regulator’s Russian roulette.This news used metaphor. Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger. So the reporter uses Russian roulette to describe a very dangerous situation.(21) Courage knows no gender.This headline used personification. It makes the headline more vivid and attractive, and also enhances the readability.IV. The Techniques of Translating English News HeadlinesIt is well known that translation is at the first sight a change of language forms. Translating English news headlines requires translators not only to translate one language to another, but also gain a collection of knowledge covering the history of English countries, their cultures and background. News headline is a newspaper jargon, therefore, it must be characterized by its journalistic particularity. Besides, what people read newspaper for is to try to know news from all over the world so that they can know more of the outer countries on the earth. So, it is a bridge for mutual understanding, but how can people succeed in the communication? It needs translation.4.1 Literal translation“If the expression of the English headlines is similar to the expression of it in Chinese, and its significance is clear, it is better to choose literal translation.”(Liu Chunzhi 89) In this way, the translation will not confuse the readers. Literal translation can not only keep the style of the original news, but also can express the meaning. As it is mentioned before, women make better business decisions than men. It is translated into 女性更善于做决策。