英语新闻标题的特色及其翻译.doc

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……………………………………..……….…….……...1
II. Literature Review…..……….…….……………………………..…..1
A. The features of English news headlines…..……….…….………..…...2
1. The lexical features of English news headlines…..…………..…..…2
a. Abbreviations……….…….…………………………...…..…..2
b. Midget words…………………………...…….……...…..…....2
c. New words and vogue words……………….……………….…..2
d. Loan words……….…….……………………………………..3
2. The punctuation features of English news headlines….....…….…....3
a. Commas…….….…….……………………………………….3
b. Colons………..…….………………………………………....4
c. Dashes……….…….……………………….……………...….4
3. The rhetorical features of English news headlines…..………...…....4
a. Alliteration and rhyme……….……...…………………………4
b. Metaphor………..…….………………………………….......5
c. Pun……….…..….…………………………………………....5
d. Allusion……….…….……………..……………………….....5
e. Exaggeration……….…….……..……………………………..6
4. The grammatical features of English news headlines…..……...……6
a. Omissions……….…….……………….………….…………..6
b. Tenses……….…….………….…………..…………………..6
c. Voice……….…….………….………………………………..7
B. The principles of translating English news headlines…..………....…...8
III. Translation Techniques of English News Headlines…...….…..….9
A. Dealing with the lexical features….…….…………………………....9
1. Literal translation….…….……………………………………...9
2. Free translation….…….…………………………...……...…...10
3. Amplification….…….……………………………...…...……..10
4. Omission….…….…………………………………….………..10
5. Conversion….…………………………...…………..…….…...10
B. Dealing with the punctuation features….………………..…….…....10
C. Dealing with the rhetorical features….…….……………...………..11
D. Dealing with the grammatical features……………………………...12
1. Dealing with omissions………………………………………….12
2. Dealing with tenses and voice……………………….…………...13
IV. Conclusion………………………………………………………….13
Works Cited……………………………………………...……………..14

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 reliability 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

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 used 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 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 or 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)
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 Olympic 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 hard 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 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:
(1) To Buy or Not to Buy Is the Question for Homebuyers
买还是不买是购房人的大心事
(2) A Tale of Two Hearts 双心记
In the first example, the writer used the allusion from Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet: To be or not to be－that is the question. In the second example, the writer imitated the name of Dickens’s famous book A Tale of Two Cities (Zhu 76).
e. Exaggeration
“Exaggeration is an effective device to intensify emotion, to