英美报刊选读论文.doc

美英报刊选读课程论文Title: A Brief Analysis ofthe English Economic News HeadlineClass:09级英语3班Name: xxxStudent Number: xxxxxxxxxxxTeacher: xxxDate: Oct. 21, 2011 A Brief Analysis ofthe English Economic News HeadlineAbstract：Headline is a key factor of the economic news, featuring unique stylistic characteristics. This paper, based on the functional stylistic theory, makes a tentative study of the economic news headline from the perspective of grammatical characteristics, news vocabulary and rhetoric feature.Key words：Economic news, title, stylistic characteristics, contextPart 1 IntroductionIn journalistic language, the research of the features of the economic news headline is comparatively few, but it is an extremely important area. There are two reasons:1. Economy is tied up with everyone, economic activities related to all aspects of social life, and the subject matter of economic news is widespread but it is difficult to drive. Today, economic news focus on the peoples livelihood and gradually become an indispensable part of our lives. And it has a prominent position in the press.2. Headline is the eye of news, people usually concentrate on headline when they read. The most important function of headline is can reveal the substance of news succinctly so that readers can get as much information as possible in shortest time.Part 2 The stylistic characteristics of economic news English headlineThe economic news English as a kind of second type of writing of news English also follow the principle of news ABCthe accuracy(精确), brevity(简洁), clarity(清晰). And accuracy is a guarantee and premise of real, objective and credible. Due to limited by report object itself and objective economic phenomenon, economic news is impressed by its abstract, profound and unattractive. In order to improve the artistry and concordance, the headline of economic news conception and expression should be changed. The refinement of headline is the most important part to decide the success of news.According to the analysis of many corpuses, economic news title is unique. It is make economic news stand out.Grammatical features1. The sentence structure of economic news English title has close links with time effect of news report.According to the analysis of some corpuses, economic news English titles are written not more than 15 words. In general, it use present tense instead of past tense, use indeterminate form instead of future tense. And in economic news, writers usually prefer to use phrases, simple sentences and non-finite verb forms(indeterminate form, gerund and participle) rather than use long sentence.1.1 The English headline of economic news structural featuresphrases, simple sentences1.1.1 Short sentences titlecentre word + post modifiere.g. Chinas trade friction to continue this yearForeign invested firms to lose tax, land use privilegespremodifier + centre worde.g. Oil Companies Attack Legislation the Paid Music Service1.1.2 Sentence-titlecomplete sentencese.g. AT&T yields to seal BellSouth dealMore than 70 pct stock investors gainnon-complete sentencese.g. FDI in China to remain steady this year Ministry of CommerceHK, NY-listed China Mobile to return to mainland stock market1.2 The greatest feature of economic newsellipsis of function wordsOmit all the words without real meaning can shorten the length of title. In headline, some words including articles, prepositions, conjunctions, possessive pronouns, verb/auxiliary verb be, etc.1.2.1 The ellipsis of articlese.g. Consumer confidence hits 8-month highEarly Loss Overcome, Dow Sets a Record1.2.2 The ellipsis of conjunction ande.g. Incomes, spending rise in NovemberBelarus resume last-minute gas talks1.2.3 The ellipsis of copula bee.g. Caller-pays system still far away17 listed firms under probe for fund misuse1.2.4 The ellipsis of auxiliary bee.g. Succession Pace Stepped Up.Chinas economy seen growing in 071.3 The temporal characteristics of economic news English title1.3.1 The present tenseIn general, the information published in the newspapers has already happened, so according to English grammar should be used in past tense. But it will give readers an obsolete feeling. So writers usually use present tense to enhance the freshness, reality and immediacy of reports in form. This tense is called Journalistic Present Tense in journalism.e.g. BOC acquires biggest aircraft leasing firm in AsiaChinas shoe exports tread more slowly1.3.2 Non-present tenseIn order to emphasize some kind of temporal information, headline also be used in non-present tense.(1) Simple future tenseEconomic news English headline usually use be + infinitive to express the future tense, and be can be omitted.e.g. Huge trade surplus to be reducedChina to launch 3G project stably in 2007(2) Present progressiveEconomic news English headline usually use be + present participle to express what is happening, and be can be omitted.e.g. Quality of food products improvingJapan keeps view that economy recovering2. The use of passive voiceWhen reading English newspapers, we can find the headlines of news prefer to use active voice rather than passive voice. Because from the perspective of rhetoric, active voice is more vivid and full of infection. However,when the recipient oftheevent oractionis more importantthan theperformer, we usually use passive voice in headlines to highlight the object part to draw readers attention.e.g. U.S. manufacturing expanded in DecemberRetail Sales Last Month Surprised With Big Rise3. The special use of punctuation of economic news English titles3.1 Comma is used to replace conjunction ande.g. China, U.S. tax authorities reach first agreement on advance pricing3.2 Colon usually be used to separates the theme of title from other parts. Besides, colon also canbe used to replace be.e.g. Private sector shed 40,000 jobs in Dec: reportSurvey: Foreign investment favors E China eastern3.3 Quotes can be used to cite.e.g. Response at dialogue will be positive3.4 Question mark is used to something not sure.e.g. Americans most deadly job? Vocabulary features1. short wordsEnglish economic news headline usually use terse and forceful words so that enhance the conciseness and readability of news.e.g. trim=reduce； viecompete； vow=determine2. AbbreviationsAbbreviations also known as the first letter abbreviation. It not only can save the count of headwords, but also prompt the content of news better.e.g. MOC-Ministry of CommerceGDB-Guangdong Development Bank3. Simplifying wordse.g. EU, U.S. friction high on intl agenda Rhetorical featuresThe rhetorical devices in headline is very abundant, and metaphor is a literary technique to be used wider than others. The common conceptual metaphor in English economic news are:1.Aero navigation metaphorse.g. CBC market value soars to world No. 3U.S. November new homes sales rise 3.4 pct2. War metaphorse.g. European stock exchange wooed Chinese firmsRecording Industry Wins Judgment in Piracy Case3. Family metaphorse.g. Airbus pare