The language of newspapers

1.

Теория на превода

2.

Newspaper
language is recognized as a particular
variety of style, characterized by various
communicative purposes and its own system of
linguistic means.
Informing
Instructing
Entertaining

3.

Newspapers contain a range of items:
Sport
News
(international
and domestic)
Advertising
Entertainment

4.

HARD NEWS - refers to stories which combine the
concepts of seriousness and timeliness.
A hard news story is usually an account of what
happened, why it happened and how the reader will
be affected. Hard news has little value after 24-48
hours.
Hard news focuses on:
Politics
and
economy
Wars,
disasters,
accidents
Science
and
technology
Law and
crimes,
protests

5.

SOFT NEWS – is usually timeless, that is the story
happens over a longer time span.
It could appear any day over reasonably long period
without affecting its newsworthiness.
Soft news focuses on:
People
Places
Issues that
affect
readers’ lives
Communities
problems

6.

Headlines reveal
very much about the ideology and
aims of an individual newspaper.
To catch the reader’s attention, headlines need to be
simple, easily readable and appropriate to the kind of
paper in which they are printed.
The structure is often described as telegraphic.
Some key linguistic features of headlines include:
Omission of words
• The words omitted are usually function words
(grammatical words) – determiners (some, this, a,
the), auxiliaries (be, have, do), pronouns
(relative), titles (Mrs., Sir, Lord).

7.

Examples:
“Obama likely to name 2nd nominee next week.”
“President Obama is likely to name the second nominee
last week.”
Short and loaded words
• Tabloids make a greater use of shorter words.
• e.g. row = argument; aid = assistance;
• Loaded words are words that carry particular
strong connotations i.e., carry an emotional
loading beyond their literal meaning.
• e.g. to be well-off/affluent vs. flush with money
“Blood, guts and fireballs”

8.

Nominalizations
• Headlines may not contain a verb. The action is
frequently nominalized becoming a dynamic noun.
• e.g. “Shoplifting arrests”
• “Mexicans mull response to Trump’s wall”
Play on words (puns/wordplays)
• These are often created by means of homonyms
(words pronounced and spelled the same) and
homophones (words that share the same
pronunciation but are spelled differently).
• Puns/wordplays create ambiguity caused by
similarity/identity in sound and difference in meaning.

9.

Examples:
“Women Who Smoke Have Lighter Children”
(homonymy)
“Dark Knight of the Soul” (a poem “Dark night of the
soul” by a Spanish poet) – (homophony)
Alliteration
• The repetition of sounds – consonants
• e.g. “Butter Battle Spreads”
Rhyme
• e.g. “Crime of the Times”

10.

Verb forms
• Headlines tend not to use finite verbs, it is the lead
which anchors the story in time;
• When the verb is present it may appear in one of the
following forms :
• the present simple
• the past participle
• the infinitive
• the future expressed by modal verbs
• the conditional
• Past participle is used to signal the passive voice;
• The passive voice focuses the reader’s attention on
what happened rather than on the people involved.

11.

Examples:
“Local Man Finds Picasso Drawing in Shed”
“President Fires Acting Attorney General Who Said
Order was not Lawful” (present simple)
“Student Charged with Six Counts of Murder” (past
participle/passive voice)
“Chad Foreign Minister Moussa Mahamat to Head
African Union” (infinitive)
“If You Want to See America’s Future Look at Turkey”
(conditional)
“Trump Policy Changes Would Leave Lives of
Millions in Balance” (modal verb)

12.

Specialized vocabulary – mainly from the spheres of
politics and economy;
e.g. “opinion poll”, “budget deficit”, “GDP”, “terrorist
network”, “ballot paper”, etc.
Bookish (lofty) words/expressions – quite often these
are metaphoric expressions which are emotionally
coloured;
e.g. “overwhelming majority”, a storm of applause”, “a
global hunt for terrorists”, etc.
Clichés – these are stereotyped expressions i.e.,
commonplace phrases familiar to the reader;

13.

e.g. “outpouring of support”, “concerned residents”, “at
the end of the day” (=“finally”)
Abbreviations (acronyms) – An abbreviation and an
acronym are both shortened versions of a word or a
phrase. Every acronym is an abbreviation but not every
abbreviation is an acronym.
e.g. abbreviations: St. (“street”), Ave. (“avenue”), Oct.
(“October”), Dr. (“doctor”) – a shortened or contracted
form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole;
e.g. acronyms: AIDS (“acquired immune deficiency
syndrome”), OPEC (“Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries”) – these are abbreviations that are
pronounced as words;

14.

News
items, press reports and headlines are full of
abbreviations of various kinds;
These are names of organizations, public and state
bodies, political associations, industrial and other
companies, various offices, etc. known by their initials;
e.g. WTO (“World Trade Organization”), BAC (“Blood
Alcohol Concentration”), FAQ (“Frequently asked
questions”),
MBA
(“Master
of
Business
Administration”)
Neologisms – newly coined words or expressions;
Newspapers are very quick to react to any new
development in the life of society, in science and
technology.

15.

Neologisms
make their way into the language of
newspapers very easily;
In the early 21st century, neologisms relating to
computers and the Internet outnumber all others;
e.g. keypal (“an email penfriend”), cybersickness (“a
form of motion sickness associated with virtual reality
environments”), dot-com (“a company that conducts its
business on the Internet”), e-cash (“electronic financial
transactions conducted in cyberspace via computer
networks”);
Foreign words and expressions – newspapers use
words taken from other languages especially Latin and
French;

16.

Examples: au fait, (from French: “having a good or
detailed knowledge of”), sushi (from Japanese),
From Latin: ad hoc (“impromptu”/”improvised”),
affidavit (“a written statement confirmed by oath or
affirmation, for use as evidence in court”)
alumni (“former pupils/students”)
veto (“a constitutional right to reject a decision made by
a lawmaking body”)
census (“an official count of a population”)
memo (“a written message in business”, “memorandum”)
alma mater (“nourishing mother”)
persona non grata (“unwelcome person”)
carpe diem (“seize the day”)

17.

Among the four sentence types, complex sentences are
the most frequently used in newspapers, followed by
simple sentences, compound sentences, and
compound-complex sentences.
The subordinate clause in a complex sentence can state
relations more precisely and more economically than a
string of simple sentences or compound sentences
joined by and, by ,so, etc.
The problem with so many compound-complex
sentences is that they have to carry too many ideas.
This results in long confusing sentences for the
readers. That is why they are less frequently used.

18.

Newspapers
use non-finite verb forms (infinitives,
gerunds and participles) as well.
e.g. “Asda Welfare Cards to Be Given to Birmingham's
Poor”
The omission of verb ‘to be’ in the past participle and
the omission of verb ‘to be’ in the present participle are
also frequently used strategies.
e.g. “Kevin Pietersen Expected to Play ‘Full Part' in
Ashes Despite Knee Injury”
Both active and passive voice forms are used.
The use of active voice is considered more direct and
vigorous than the passive voice.

19.

The language of newspapers is accurate, vivid and
innovative.
In protecting the readers from incomprehension and
boredom, language in newspapers should be specific,
emphatic, and concise. Every word must be
understood by the ordinary reader, and every
sentence must be clear at one glance.