Analysis on Rhetoric Devices of News Headlines in the Example of Wall Street Journal

羅雪

【摘 要】新聞標題的核心價值即是成功吸引讀者眼球。因此，作為語言藝術的修辭手法便在滿足讀者的過程中扮演了十分重要的角色。本文將詳細探討新聞標題中修辭手法的各種運用，四大功能以及主要特點，以華爾街日報為例，為新聞標題的翻譯做好鋪墊。

【關鍵詞】新聞標題；修辭手法；華爾街日報；翻譯

【Abstract】Being managed to attract readerseyes is the core value of news headlines. Therefore rhetoric devices， as an art of language， plays an extremely important role in meeting readers' needs. In this essay， four functions， three characters of news headlines and analysis of rhetoric devices applied in news headlines will be carefully discussed in the example of Wall Street Journal. And a better understanding of rhetoric devices can lay a good foundation of later translation.

【Key Words】News， Headlines，Wall Street Journal，Rhetoric Devices，Translation

Chapter One Introduction

There have already been a lot of researches about news headlines. As few people have enough time to read the news from the very beginning to the end， most readers try to learn as much information as they can in the shortest possible time. So how to catch readers eyes depends largely on whether the headline is effective. Headlines have four functions and some major characteristics which are the standars of an effective headline. And rhetorical devices can help realize those functions and characteristics. To some degree， a good headline itself is a good short story. So how to make headlines more eye-catching becomes a complicated job for all editors. Research of language itself is always a good way to beautify headlines. Therefore rhetorical devices become the center of researches of headlines.

Chapter Two The Four Functions and Four Characteristics of an Effective Headline

What is a headline？ In the following there are some different versions of definition of a headline collected： Headline is a journalistic jargon. It is the title of a news report or an article on newspapers especially of news. Headlines are used to summarize and advertise the content of the news report to help readers to better understand the report. Functions of headlines can be concluded in four ways：1 Reveal the content of news or deliver a complete message； 2 Draw a reader into the story or attract readers' eyeballs； 3 Make comment of the news fact； 4 Beautify the arrangement of the whole page.

There are three characters：

1. Grammar： ellipsis is widely used to achieve brief. And conjunction is replaced by comma. In daily English news， three kinds of tenses are usually used. They are present tense， simple future tense， present continuous tense."Being new" is the most important characteristics of news. Thus present tense gives readers a kind of impression and true feelings that "Things are happening".

2 . Wording ：There are several kinds of wording.

Long or short， brief or complicated， elegant or vulgarity. Different kinds of words give readers different kinds of feelings. Readers of news are from different trades， different classes and also different levels of culture. If the wording of news is complicated， of euphuism or difficult to understand， then the purpose of news cannot be achieved. The charm of news lies in simple beauty--- ordinary language which is much easier for readers to understand.

3.Another character of news is to catch the attention of readers in a wink's time. So when journalists are confronted with news problems and new ideas， they may feel that those words used in thousands of times are not enough to convey so much information. Thus linguistic deviation and coining are extremely welcomed.

Chapter Three Analysis of Rhetorical Devices-Realization of the Functions and Characteristics

Rhetoric， according to Longman Modern English Dictionary， is the art or science of communication in words.Figrative language， which likens one thing to another in an imaginative or fanciful way， can bring freshness， vigor， and resonance to writing. And there are three parts of devices： semantic devices， phonetic devices and syntactic devices. Semantic devices are the most common types of the figures of speech. Most of them are based on resemblance in image. There are totally sixty-six kinds of semantic devices and more than ten of them are frequently used in news paper headlines. They are simile， metaphor， analogy， personification， zoosemy， synaesthesia， allusion， euphemism and so on. According to the statistics made from the materials of Wall Street Journals from the year 2005 to 2010， twelve kinds of rhetorical devices are frequently used.

Headlines are aimed at catching readers' attention in a blink's time. Thus it is often very short ， brief and of great power. For example： Starvation（Monday， December 12， 2005）. From this headline we can see the extreme seriousness of the situation here. Readers may be curious about what， where and when it happened. Short words are usually very powerful in English. As soon as readers see this headline， they totally understand the main idea in a very short time. If the reporter adds some other words as "Starvation is Extreme Serious"， there will be different effects.

In order to give readers a feeling of truth， quotation from authorities are often used in news papers. For example：

* U.S. trade official says China needs to do more（Wednesday， December 14， 2005）

* Bird-flu control efforts are working， China says（Thursday， December， 15， 2005）

Quotation from authorities show one of the characteristics of an effective headline--tense. Present tense and present continuous tense are used in most headlines of news. Here it shows that the timeliness and freshness of news. That means the authorities are now having this kind of attitude. It is said that "today's news is gold； yesterday's news is silver； the day before yesterday's news is trash." So past tense is hardly seen in news headlines. There are a large amount of news everyday. Importance of news tells us how to choose news. Quotation from authorities stresses the importance of news which is one of the values of news. If quotation from authorities is omitted， then the importance of news cannot be achieved.

Metaphor， perhaps the most important and most frequently used figure of speech， points out resemblance but with no acknowledging word. It is a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. It is an implied comparison between two （or more） unlike things； achieved by identifying one with the other.

For example：

* Disney lifts curtain on China film venture （Thuesday， December， 15，2005）

Here curtain is used to mean the "ban"， the obstacle to prevent China film venture marching into Disney. It sounds vivid. And that feeling of refusal is highly embodied. Here metaphor has the same effect with simile. It stresses the seriousness of this event in an ironic way. Also this can achieve the function of drawing readers into the story.

Rhetorical question is an effective rhetorical device which may be used not only to achieve emphasis but also to make transition. Basicallt rhetorical question is not expecting an answer， which is more or less self-evident.

For example：

* Wither U.S. Stocks？（Monday， December 12， 2005）

* Where will stocks go next（Tuesday， December 13， 2005）

By using rhetorical questions， readers can be easily attracted.They may think about the question in mind once they see it. In order to find out the answers， they will be easily led to the texts. Thus rhetorical devices are frequently used in all kinds of newspapers. Here content is fully revealed by using the questions. And also readers are highly curious about the answers. It is much better than just the statement of the answers.

Chapter Four Effects Lead to the Ways of Translation of Rhetorical Devices

Almost most of the headlines need direct translation. That is also accordance with the Equivalent Theory. Translation theory is to make the information of original text remain as much as possible by using the most closest natural equivalent language.（Newmark 23） Equivalent translation is widely applied in translation of rhetorical devices of English news headlines. It is tightly combined with the characteristics of rhetorical devices.

To some degree， almost every kind of rhetorical devices has to be in accordance with the Equivalent theory. And it is also the basic foundation of every kind of translation.

Try to translate the rhetorical devices if the target language is allowed to do this：

Try to translate the rhetorical devices is why so much efforts are taken to do analysis of rhetorical devices of news headlines. Most rhetorical devices need this method.

Chapter Five Conclusion

Three aspects should be paid great attention to when we appreciate or translate English headlines： first understand headlines in the right way， experience its beauty； Second try to translate the rhetorical devices of the original language； make an advantage of Chinese and try to show some kind of style of Chinese. Meanwhile it is very important to have a good mastery of culture or history background of English countries. So daily accumulation is extremely important for those who wants to do more researches about rhetorical devices of headlines.

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