中英新闻标题翻译论文.doc

ContentsAbstract English.iiAbstract Chinese. iiiIntroduction.1Chapter 1 Brief Introduction of English News Headlines.3 1.1 Definition of English News Headlines.3 1.2 Functions of English News Headlines.4 1.3 Features of English News Headlines.6Chapter 2 Comparison Between Chinese and English News Headlines.10 2.1 Differences between Chinese and English News Headlines.10 2.2 Similarities between Chinese and English News headlines.15Chapter 3 Translation of English News Headlines.16 3.1 Difficulties of English News Headlines Translation.16 3.2 A Brief Review on Translation Criteria.17 3.3 Criteria of English News Headlines Translation.18 3.4 Strategies and Tactics of English News Headlines Translation.20Conclusion.25Bibliography.26 Abstract With the gradual deepening of the opening policy and the entry into theWTO the Chinese people are more eager to know the world and to be known bythe world. A large amount of information is transmitted by news mediaespecially English news reports. Headline is the essential part of news report. As few people have enoughtime to read the news from the very beginning to the end most readers try toknow as much information as they can in the shortest possible time. It can beseen that the headline plays a very important role in news reporting. So weshould pay more attention to the translation of news headline. This paper is composed of three parts. This paper focuses on introducingsome translating skills according to the features of English news headlines. Thedefinition function classification and features of English news headline arepresented in chapter one. In chapter two the differences and similarities areexplained and examples are cited to support it. The problems existed in Englishnews headline translation are introduced in the last chapter. Then this paperintroduces three criteria such as truthfulness clarity and accuracy and tacticssuch as literal translation free translation addition，conversion and reduction. Inthe end this paper makes a conclusion of the content which is introduced in thispaper. In a word this paper tries to find a suitable way of English news headlinetranslation through the discussion of the features functions and the criteria ofEnglish news headline translation.Key words: journalistic English headlines features criteria translation tactics 摘 要 随着改革开放的进一步深化以及中国加入世界贸易组织，中国与西方国家的交流与联系也越来越频繁。中国需要更多的了解世界，世界也需要更好的了解中国。其中有大量的信息必须通过新闻媒体进行传递，这种信息传递的最重要的一条途径是阅读英语新闻报道。因此英语新闻报道的翻译理所当然地成为这种相互交流的重要途径。 而标题是新闻报道最关键的部分，因为大多数读者都希望能在最短的时间内获取最多的信息。由此可见标题在新闻报道中具有独特的地位，因此我们应该更加重视新闻标题的翻译。 本论文共分三章。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。第一章对英语新闻标题做了基本的介绍让读者对英语新闻标题有了初步的了解和认识。第二章主要介绍中英新闻标题的相同点和不同点，并通过实例加以论证。最后一章，也是最重要的一章，首先介绍了在英语新闻标题翻译中存在的问题。最后针对这些问题介绍了英语新闻标题翻译所应遵循的原则包括忠实、准确和清晰及翻译技巧和方法包括直译、意译、增译、省译和转译。在最后对本文所提到的英语新闻标题的翻译原则和技巧以及其它的内容做了总结。 总之，本文试通过对英语新闻标题特征，功能以及翻译原则的探讨，希望能找到一条对新闻英语包括英语标题翻译具有特定翻译规则的途径。关键词：新闻英语；标题；特征；翻译原则；翻译技巧及策略 Introduction Nowadays news is everywhere in our daily life. News keeps us informedof what is going on around us. Newspaper reading has become one of thesethings which people must do in daily life. All this tells us that newspaperEnglish has become more and more important. As an indispensable part of newsheadline plays an important and special role. They are a guide to news content.At the same time they can attract eyeballs of the readers so the quality ofheadlines is very important to news. And the translation of news especially ofits headlines is a big problem. It is difficult for a translator to translate news headlines properly. As isoften seen in newspapers or magazines some translated versions are tooawkward to read. Some are so confusing that the readers do not know what thenews is talking about and can not understand at all. So the quality of thetranslated versions is very important. In fact there have been many books orarticles on news translation. Besides a number of translators at home andabroad have already changed their attention to the study of news translation andachieved some results. Some famous translation scholars in this field such as LiuMiqing 刘 宓 庆 ， Xu Mingwu 许 明 武 Chen Hongwei 陈 宏 薇 ChenMingyao陈明瑶 Zhang jian（张健） and Liu Qizhong（刘其中）have madetheir contribution to the translation of English news headlines. Liu Miqing holdsthat news translation should be accurate and translators should rigorouslycontrol their work. Chen Hongwei argues that translators should be flexible inthe translation because there is no fixed structural mode for news reports. ChenMingyao suggests that adaptation should be used to translate soft news. Zhangjian concludes that there are three steps in news translation i.e. to precisely 1understand news reports to properly handle original characteristics and toconsistently improve news readability. There are other translation scholarsmaking their efforts to translate news or news headlines through comparinglinguistic and cultural characteristics in the East and the West. Today more and more translators have begun to change their attention tothe translation of English news headlines which indicates that news headlinestranslation becomes more and more important. “But until now there has been nopublished textbooks dealing with news translation in China. It is rather rare tofind related articles regarding news translation in academic journals.”刘其中，2004：3 This paper will study the translation of English news headlines whichwill make a great contribution to information transmission and exchange. Itmainly studies the features and tactics of English news headlines translationwhich will help the readers fully understand the English news headlines. 2 Chapter 1 Brief Introduction of English News Headlines Now in the information age news begins to play a more and moreimportant role in our daily life. It provides people with the latest news in theworld. A piece of news is usually composed of a headline a lead and a body.Especially the headline is the eye of a piece of news. Because people do nothave enough time to read through the whole news they just look through theheadline of the news to guess what it is talking about. So it is important tounderstand the definition function and feature of a news headline.1.1 Definition of English News Headlines When reading a newspaper one should first read a headline. As anindispensable part of news headlines are compared to the eyes of news. Manyjournalists scholars and books have defined the concept of a news headline. Sothis paper has collected some different versions of definition of a news headline. “A news headline is caption printed at the top of a page or article in anewspaper usually in large bold letters and often summarizing the content thatfollows it.”Encarta Dictionary “A head of a newspaper story or article，usually printed in large type anddevised to summarize the story or article that follows.”Longman Dictionary ofthe English Language “A head of a newspaper story or article usually printed in large type anddevised to summarize give essential information about or let readers in readingthe story or article that follows.”Webster Third New International Dictionary “报纸新闻标题用来概括，评价新闻的内容，帮助读者阅读和理解新闻。”（辞海） “A headline is any line or collection of lines of display type that precedes 3a story to introduce or summarize it.”Westly 1972:141 From the above we can know that news headlines are defined according totheir roles functions and features. So in order to fully understand the definitionof a news headline we have to first know the functions and features of a newsheadline.1.2 Functions of English News Headlines We should pay attention to the functions of English news headlines. It isimportant for us to understand the news headlines. Generally speaking Englishnews headlines have the following functions: summarizing the news attractingreaders attention commenting on the news and dressing up the page.1.2.1 Summarizing the news Naturally people buy newspapers in order to get the information that theywant to know but there are kinds of different newspapers published every day.Even a newspaper has several pages with each containing many items. Most ofpeople do not have enough time to read through the whole newspaper. Thereforemany readers have formed the habit of scanning news headlines which makespossible rapid news comprehension. Thus the first and most important purposeof headlines is to let the readers understand the news quickly. Readers can grasp the essentials of news. Good news headlines shouldcontain such elements of a news event such as the time place cause result andbackground.1.2.2 Attracting readers attention As the beginning of the news a news headline is designed to fulfill manyfunctions especially that it must attract the readers attention. A headline whichdoes not arouse interest at first glance is not a good one. A bad headline will 4make the readers eyes feel bad and change immediately to another news on thesame page or even to another newspaper. When readers open a newspaper thefirst thing that catches their eyes is the headline. So the determining factor as towhether a certain news will be read or passed by is usually the headline. Good headlines are excellent advertisements for the news. They are strikingthey attract attention they arouse interest they lead the readers into the newswhich is what every good headline should do.1.2.3 Commenting on the news This function is most obvious in the commentary and column headlines.Newspapers as the propaganda tool are sure to express their opinions inheadlines when they try to persuade readers. Editor s comments on news factsare expressed together with the news information directly or indirectly. Whencompiling news headlines the editors inevitably reveal their opinions attitudesand stances as regards the news events. The comments will help the readers inunderstanding news and guiding public opinions.1.2.4 Dressing up the page We know that package is very important for the product. A piece of newsand its headlines just like the product and the packaging. Only when theheadlines get the attention of the readers the headline can be regarded as a goodone. So the final purpose of headlines is to stimulate the reader s artistic sense.In the process of newspaper production special printing skills are often used toenhance the visual effect of newspaper in order to attract readers attention.News headlines are printed in varied fonts size colors and structures todecorate or beautify the newspaper pages. A dull headline makes a dull page.But when headlines are well written and well placed in forms that have been 5thoughtfully designed the pages are clear and good looking. In other words theheadlines can break the monotony of a newspaper page and serve as aneye-releaser for the readers.1.3 Linguistic Features of English News Headlines In order to understand an English news headline we must know thefeatures of them. We can study its features from the lexical and grammaticallevel.1.3.1 Lexical features of English news headlines News headlines require a high degree of brevity which leads to the speciallexical preference. The most distinctive aspects of news headlines in lexicalpreference are listed as follow: Short words or midget words English news headlines often use short words to replace long ones. UsuallyEnglish newspaper has not enough space for the headlines. And that is to saythe space for headlines is very limited so using short word can save a lot ofspace. Besides short words or midget words have much larger semanticcategory and are also more lively and flexible. News reporter or writer prefers short words to long ones due to onejournalistic principle: “Saying a lot in least space”. Mencher Melvin 1994:324The following are some of the most frequent used short word in English newsheadlines. aid-help/assist end-terminate nod-approval blast-explode Besides verbs which are usually seen in English newspaper headline shortnouns are also very common in English newspaper headlines. For example ace-champion cop-policeman firm-company ties-relations 6 In general short words can convey and describe their own meanings morevividly and relevantly. In addition to the effectiveness and forcefulness shortwords 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 common in English newsheadlines. There are some short nouns whic