英语新闻标题的特色及其翻译

2021年1月26日发(作者：出局)










英语新闻标题的特色及其翻译


Features and Translation of
English News Headlines


















Abstract:
In English news, a headline is an inseparable component which serves as the role
of
eyes.
This
thesis
focuses
on
introducing
some
translation
strategies
based
on
the features of English news headlines. Firstly, this thesis provides the background
knowledge
and
necessity
of
translating
English
news
headlines;
secondly,
it
discusses
the
features
of
English
news
headlines,
including
lexical
features,
punctuation features, rhetorical features and grammatical features. On the basis of
analyzing
the
similarities
and
differences
of
English
news
headlines
and
the
Chinese ones, the principles of translating English news headlines are advocated.
Finally, this thesis offers some techniques in
translating English news headlines
according
to
the
four
aspects
of
its
features.
And
this
thesis
tries
to
give
useful
suggestions for the translation of English news headlines, so as to make it possible
for the Chinese readers to learn about the world by using the headlines.
Key words:
English news headlines; features; translation


摘

要：
在英语新闻中，
标题是一个重要组成部分，它是新闻的眼睛 。本文结合英语新闻标题的
主要特点，通过具体的例子，介绍了英语新闻标题的翻译技巧。首先，本文简 述了翻译
英语新闻标题的背景和必要性；其次，本文论述了英语新闻标题在措辞、标点、修辞和
语法等方面的特点；
再次，
在分析中英文标题的异同之后
,
本文提出了翻译 英语新闻标
题的原则，
探讨了英语新闻标题的翻译技巧。
本文通过对英语新闻标题特点 的研究及对
其翻译策略的透析，
为英语新闻标题的翻译提供可鉴之策，
使国内读者能够 用新闻标题
更好地了解世界。

关键词：
英语新闻标题；特色；翻译










Contents

I. Introduction
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II. Literature Review
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A. The features of English news headlines
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1. The lexical features of English news headlines
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a. Abbreviations
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b. Midget words
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c. New words and vogue wor ds
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d. Loan words
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2. The punctuation features of English news headlines
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a. Commas
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b. Colons
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c. Dashes
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3. The rhetorical features of English news headlines
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a. Alliteration and r hyme
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b. Metaphor
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c. Pun
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d. Allusion
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e. Exaggeration………
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4. The grammatical features of English news headlines
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a. Omissions
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b. Tenses
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c. Voice
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B. The principles of translating English news headlines
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III. Translation Techniques of English News Headlines
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A. Dealing with the lexical features
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1. Literal translation
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2. Free translation
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3. Amplification
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4. Omission
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5. Conversion
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B. Dealing with the punctuation feat ures
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C. Dealing with the rhetorical features
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D. Dealing with the grammatical features
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1. Dealing with omissions
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2. Dealing with tenses and voice
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IV. Conclusion
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Works Cited
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Features and Translation of English News Headlines

I. Introduction

Having entered into the twenty-first century, the connection between China and the
other parts of the world is becoming more and more inseparable. Therefore, the Chinese
news undertaking is rapidly developing under the influence of English news. It is known
to all that more and more people get to know the world not just from books, but from other
media,
such
as
newspapers,
radio,
television
and
Internet.
They
believe
that
the
information from the news reporting is reliable. However, much of the international news
reporting
is
originally
English
edition
while
many
people
in
China
do
not
understand
English
very
well.
Hence,
it
is
no
doubt
that
translating
English
news
into
Chinese
is
necessary
for
the
people
in
China
to
acquire
the
information
they
need
timely
and
conveniently.

Since
news
reporting
is
of
great
importance
to
many
people,
a
good
headline
can
demonstrate
the
reli
ability
of
the
news
and
attract
readers’
attention.
As
the
eye
of
the
news, a headline sits in a position to capture the essence of the event. Through headlines
readers can have a
“
bird
’
s view
”
on the key information in news reports. A good headline,
generally
speaking,
includes
such
features
as
lexical
features,
punctuation
features,
rhetorical features and grammatical features. Put it in detail, first, as for words selection,
such
items
as
acronym,
new
words
and
midget
words
are
commonly
chosen
for
the
headlines. Second, not all punctuations could appear in headlines, and the frequently used
ones like comma, colon, and dash also indicate specific meaning of the headlines. Third,
in order to lead force to an idea, to heighten effect or to create atmosphere, headlines are
usually
written
figuratively.
Finally,
the
limited
space
of
newspaper
demands
that
headlines should be concise and brief, and therefore it has developed its own grammatical
style.
The
major
difference
of
the
grammar
rules
used
for
daily
English
and
news
headlines
lies
in
the
frequent
omission
of
functional
words(article,
auxiliary
verbs,
conjunctions
and
so
on),
and
unique
practice
of
tenses,
voice
and
non-predicate
verbs.
Such features of English news headlines as mentioned above are essential and critical for
readers to understand the connotations of news headlines, and also are the difficulties and
problems needed settling in translating English news headlines.



This
thesis
will
introduce
some
translation
techniques
based
on
these
features
of
English news headlines in newspapers and magazines.

II. Literature Review

第

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Features and Translation of English News Headlines

This
part
focuses
on
a
brief
literature
review
of
the
lexical,
punctuation,
rhetorical
and
grammatical
features
of
English
news
headlines
and
the
principles
of
translating
English news headlines.

A. The features of English news headlines

1. The lexical features of English news headlines
a. Abbreviations

Plenty of abbreviations are used in English news headlines. Abbreviations are words
that are clipped from the other long words (Ding 11). They can save the space, express
more ideas and help the readers to comprehend the news easily (Yuan and Tian 33). It is
considered that English news journalists broadly use the following kinds of abbreviations:
(1) Clipped words:

Calif. Judge Orders Enron to Hand over Documents (Calif. = California);
Feds Seek Fast OK for Water Release (Feds = federal biologists);
Armenian Gov’t Will Close TV Station (Gov’t = government).

(2) Initialisms:
WTC Flag Returned to NY Delegation

(WTC=the World Trade Center, NY=New York);

Charity Gives $$ 1.8 M to NYC Schools

(M = million; NYC = New York City)
(3) Acronyms: Acronyms are words formed by the initial letters of a group of words
and read syllable by syllable. For instance, APEC= Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation,
NATO= the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

b. Midget words

Midget words refer to the simple-structured but actively functioning words. Midget
words include midget nouns with large information capacity. For example: aide = assistant.
All the scholars who study English news have mentioned this. Midget words are verbs or
nouns
that
are
shorter
and
have
fewer
syllables
but
more
vividly
employed
in
news
headlines to make it easier for readers to understand. For example, the word “cut” is often
us
ed to replace “abridgement” and “shortening curtailment”. This is one of the “Synonyms
of All Work” illustrated by Liu Miqing (82
-84). The reason why people use them is that
they can express the meanings flexibly, briefly and vividly.


c. New words and vogue words

These
words
are
newly
coined
lexical
units
including
new
words,
expressions,
or
第

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Features and Translation of English News Headlines

usages. There are two types of them in news headlines:

(1) Old Words with new sense

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
o
r system”.

(2) Journalistic coinages

As the swift development of science and technology, more and more new words are
born to the world, such as cyber bank, e-mail, e-commerce, cyberspace, bio-chips and so
on.

d. Loan words
Due to English news readers are of different cultural levels, journalists are asked to
use words that are vividly and can be comprehended by the vast majority of people. The
most effective way is to use loan words from different fields that are familiar to people.
Those loan words used widely by the journalists can be divided into three types: (1) Loan
words of places and buildings and the names of heads of the government to replace the
country’s
name
or
the
government
and
related
institutions.

(2)
Loan
words
of
sports,
military affairs, economy, technology, literature and entertainment.

Journalists adopt these loan words to show that journalistic language is in harmony
with the modern life and adapt to the taste of all kinds of readers to arouse their sense of
togetherness. In this way, journalists can also express the idea accurately.

2. The punctuation features of English news headlines
News headlines are always simplified in structure; accordingly, punctuations play a
very
important
role
in
news
headlines.
More
often
than
not,
certain
punctuation
can
be
very
effective.
Translators
should
pay
attention
to
the
concrete
meaning
of
these
punctuations while translating them.
Punctuations are often used to save space and indicate the relations of the component
part in headlines:

a. Commas



Commas express the stop between the compound ingredients in news headlines and it
is also used to replace
the word “and” in order to save space. For example, “Australia, U.S.
Seek More Ways to Promote Trade” (=Australia and U.S. Seek More Ways to Promote
Trade)

第

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Features and Translation of English News Headlines

b. Colons

In English news headlines, the most eye-catching information is always put in front,
and then some supplement information is drawn out to make up the subject after colons.
Look at the examples:
The $$ 2 billion Makeover: Australia’ s Olympi
c City Gets Ready for the Games (
二
十亿美元的大改造：澳大利亚的奥林匹克城准备迎接奥运会
)
When Colons are used to show the source of a quotation, that is, equal to the Chinese
word “
说
”
，
in English it can be put in head of or after the speaker, while in Chinese it can
only be put after the speaker. For example:
Renminbi to Remain Reliable, Strong: Li (
李鹏说人民币保持可靠和坚挺
)
c. Dashes

Dashes are used to separate each independent clause in the news headlines. They are
used in front or after the quotations that are without colons (Yuan and Tian 30). Dashes
are
frequently
used
to
draw
out
the
speaker
before
or
after
the
subscript
without
the
quotation marks. For example:

Labor Council Face Bankruptcy
－
Officials (
官员们说劳动党委员会面临崩溃
)
3. The rhetorical features of English news headlines
A headline implies its meaning and is made to produce more striking effect and reach
the
requirement
of
brevity
by
means
of
figures
of
speech
such
as
alliteration,
rhyme,
metaphor,
pun,
allusion,
exaggeration,
humor,
sarcasm,
repetition,
compounding,
slang,
and
so
on.
Among
all
those
figures
of
speech,
the
following
rhetorical
devices
will
be
illustrated.
a. Alliteration and rhyme
Alliteration
and
rhyme
are
often
used
in
English
news
headlines
to
create
the
demeanor effect
and bring to reader’s attention and interest. It is h
ard to get accordance
with the original alliteration and rhyme in translation, so certain figure patterns must often
be substituted for the proper expressions of Chinese. For instance:
(1) Soldiers Salaries Soar (alliteration)
士兵薪水剧增

(2) Desperate Need, Desperate Deed. (rhyme)
燃眉之机，十万火急

This
translation
shows
the
good
understanding
of
original
text,
and
Chinese
words
“
机
”

and “
急
”
get up to the rhyme effect.
(3) The Sister vs. World Taunts! Tautrums! Talents!
姐妹对垒全世界

辱骂！奚落！天才！

“
This
title
with
three
harmonics
is
uneasy
to
understand.
On
the
one
hand,
it
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Features and Translation of English News Headlines

expresses
the
intensively
competitive
rhythm
of
sports;
on
the
other,
it
indicates
the
highlight of the subject. It is well known that U.S. is a society with strong compatibility,
but as for the black sisters who may draw little attention in the tennis world almost ruled
by the white; this rhyme title in
Times
actually shows the strong effect caused by the black
sisters
”
(Tu 67).
b. Metaphor
A
metaphor
always
makes
a
comparison
between
two
unlike
elements,
and
this
comparison
is
implied
rather
than
stated
(Feng
166).
Proper
use
of
metaphor
in
news
headlines can produce vivid and striking effect and attract more readers. For example:
(1) Middle East: A Cradle of Terror
中东—恐怖主义的摇篮

(2) Russian Reform: Old Wine in New Bottle
俄罗斯改革—新瓶装陈酒

(3) Carlo Ponti in Hot Water Again
卡洛，庞蒂再陷困境

(
“
in hot water
”
means
“
in trouble
”
)
c. Pun
Pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meaning, or of words having
the same sound but different meaning.
“
To pun is to play on words, or rather to play with
the
form
and
meaning
of
words,
for
a
witty
or
humorous
effect
”
(Feng

221).
When
translating these kinds of words or phrases, the translation must be in accordance with the
context of the particular message. For example:
(1) Soccer Kicks off with Violence
足球开踢，拳打脚踢

(2) No Bellas
寥寥粉黛诺贝尔

“‘No
Bellas
’
and
‘
Nobel
’
are homophones, and
‘
Bella
’
is a girl
’
s name. The title gets
two meaning at the same time: for hundred
years rare females have got the Nobel Prize
and the translator uses Chinese rhetoric metonymy, making the translation more implicit
”

(Zou 54).


(3) Climbers Hold Summit Talks
登山运动员会师峰顶

“
The original meaning of
‘
Summit Talks
’

is
‘
首脑会议
’

in
Chinese. But
this news
report concerned the situation that China, Japan and the Nepalese three national destinies
mobilized to Mount Qomolangma
”
(Tu 68). The pun here gives a rise to the expression.
d. Allusion
Allusions refer to well-known persons, things, or events. And the writers think they
are familiar to their readers. Allusions serve to add clarity and significance to ideas and
descriptions.
Since
these
allusions
are
quite
familiar
to
readers,
the
translation
can
also
copy the original translating form. For example:
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