Application of Economy Principle in News English

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【Abstract】The economy principle of language obtained full manifestation in news English. This paper presents major ways in which people make news English economic， i.e. using short words， abbreviations， affixes， compounds and words with extended meanings and conversions.

【Key words】Economy principle； news English

The economy principle refers to using simple rules and the quickest mean to manage complex linguistic phenomena. To be economic， people must reduce the text without affecting the content of information transmitted.

The economy principle of language obtained full manifestation in news English. News English generally refers to English used in newspapers and magazines in a broad sense. The primary function of news is to report news events on time. Therefore， news English should be brief and laden with information besides accuracy and clarity.

1.Use Short Words

News reports have a length restriction for the reason of saving layout. Besides， the readers of news come from all walks of life and they may have different education backgrounds. Hence， there is a need for words containing productive denotations and simple forms. In order to transmit as much information as possible in limited text length to most people， short words predominate over longer ones because of their rich meanings and concise wording. See example （1） and （2）：

（1） Gunman Wounded in Bank Robbery

（2） Murder： Two Men Held

In the above examples， a gunman is “a criminal armed with a gun” and held means “captured”.

2. Use Abbreviations

Simplification is the universal tendency in journalistic writing， which makes abbreviation popular in the news.

Clipped words occur frequently in news reports. See example （3）：

（3） One of the newest trends in teen study programs is community service

Teen is clipped words whose full form is “teenager”. Compared with its full form， the abbreviated form is more informal and space-saving.

Many technical and medical terms are in the forms of acronyms and initialisms in news English on the ground that the original forms of these terms are usually too complicated for laymen while the acronyms are much simplified and suitable for the mass audience. For instance， people are in fact more comfortable with HIV than “Human Immunodeficiency Virus”.

In addition， acronyms and initialisms are used to denote the names of institutes and organizations. There are two groups of these words. One situation is that people are pretty familiar with the shortening， like FBI stand for “Federal Bureau of Investigation”； the other group entails the words that originate from foreign languages. See example （4）：

（4）Putin， himself a former officer with the KGB， in July pledged to strengthen

Russias military capability and to step up spying abroad in response to US policies.

When people read this piece of news， they have no difficulty in understand KGB once they refer it to “the intelligence and internal security agency of the former Soviet Union”. However， it will be a different story if the full spelling of this proper name which has a foreign origin is given in the newspaper： Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

3. Use Affixes

New affixes continue to appear rapidly with the development of modern science and technology and new political affairs. The suffix -gate derives from the Watergate scandal of the United States in the early 1970s. Since then， this suffix is used to embellish a noun or name to suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal. Such words include Camilagate， Irangate， White Watergate， Hot Coffeegate， Officegate， Sexy Photo Gate， Shouldergate， etc.

4. Use Compounds

Next to affixation， compounding is another main way of word-formation， which is also preferred by journalists. Some examples are listed below：

（5） a hard-to-detect device

（6） a tax-free policy

（7） an on-the-spot report

5. Use Words with Extended Meanings and Conversions

Existing words are usually given new meanings to fit new situations. For instance， the original meaning of gay is “happy”， but now it refers to “homosexual”. The original meaning of the word has been enlarged， which is powerful to make the news attractive and expressive.

Conversion is also a space-saver. A word may be altered from its original figure of speech and used as another one to save space and make the language more vivid and vigorous. See example （8）， （9）

（8）Within seconds， James and Weiss rocket down a side street， slam on the brakes at stop signs and lay down rubber. （Noun→Verb）

（9） She mouthed fine words about friendship. （Verb→Noun）

In a word， all the ways making the lexicon of present-day English simpler are present in news English and best epitomizes the economy of language.

References：

[1]Chomsky，N.On Nature and Language[M].Cambridge： Cambridge University Press，2002.

[2]Coulmas，F.Language and Economy[M].Oxford：Blackwell，1992.

[3]Nerlich，Brigitte.Change in Language[M].London：Routledge，1990.