British Newspaper DiscourseLesson 2:compression

Headlines and the noun phrase

headlines

• Last lesson we saw examples of headlines which were difficult to interpret

• Headlines are summaries and are very useful so it is a good idea to be able to work out their meaning

• Let’s look now at some grammatial concepts which can be of use in interpreting headlines

Word classes

• Part of the language system is the fact of having different classes of words which combine in particular ways. These word classes are often called parts of speech. (see WWT Unit 2)

• There are open and closed classes:

Open class words

• Open: lexical or content words – the main carriers of meaning in a text. Four main classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

• They can have a complex internal structure and they can function as the head of a phrase.

Nouns

• One of the most prominent word forms.

• On average every fourth word is a noun.

How would you divide up this sentence?

• Analyse this sentence into groups of words, which words seem to go together?

• That very tall boy in the black sweater was talking noisily to the group of girls in the second row.

Phrases

• A group of words with a head word, modified either by pre- or post- modification;

• the words seem to have a closer link to each other than to the rest of the sentence.

• We naturally organise our understanding and our reconstruction of sentences into phrases.

Noun phrase

• The noun is the head of the phrase

• nouns can modify nouns, acting like adjectives.

• The more nouns used in pre-modification the more technical and precise the text.

• Premodification is very frequent in scientific texts but also in newspaper discourse.

And..• A noun modifier is when a noun

functions like an adjective and modifies the meaning of the noun that follows it.

• A pronoun is a word that can substitute for a noun. But they belong to a closed class

Adjectives

• Adjectives describe qualities or properties, of people, things, and states of affairs: they are often complex, can occur as the head of an adjective phrase.

• They add information to a noun in a noun phrase

Adverbs

• Adverbs qualify verbs; they expand on the information in a verb phrase.

• Adverbials are often called adjuncts, they add extra information about the time, place or manner of the situation

Phrases

• A group of words with a head word, modified either by pre- or post- modification;

• We naturally organise our understanding and our reconstruction of sentences into phrases.

• Phrases do not contain a finite verb ( they may contain a verb in the infinitive or participle form but are not marked for who or how many were involved, the action is left timeless)

• These minimal grammatical notions need to be understood to understand newspaper language.

• Let’s now look at headlines

Who writes the headlines?

Usually the sub editor not the writer of the article

Headlines and sub heads are added at the end

Headline as text

• A text:– Makes sense– Is complete– Is coherent

Headlines

• You need to be able to describe headlines in terms of their

• functions

• Language:

• – structure or grammar (phrases)

• - vocabulary

Functions of the headline

• Attract the reader’s attention to the story (or paper, if on the front page)

• Tell the reader what the story is about– summarising the content of the story– indicating the evaluation of the story– indicating the register of the story– indicating the focus of the story

The power of headlines

• Headlines are powerful framing devices and prepare the reader by priming their expectations as to evaluation

Short and simple

• headlines take up space because of their size so need to use short words

• They try to be telegraphic

• This means using the content words more than function words

• Open class words rather than closed

• Meaning is compressed into as few words as possible

Headline lexis

• Probe for inquiry

• Axe for dismiss

• Quit for resign

• Use of speech marks to indicate a quotation omitting the speech verb

• UK search engine ‘could rival Google’

Headline grammar

• Existential verbs are eliminated

• Present tense is used to report events

• Infinitive is used for future time reference

• Past participle is used for passive

• Simple past is used for legal reports

• Any element which adds no information the readers cannot deduce for themselves is left out

Differences in tone

• Doctors halt breast implants (Times)• Dolly boob job banned by US (Mirror)

• ‘Im staying’ Queen in TV (Mirror)• Queen has no plans to abdicate (Times)

• Army kids killed in M-way fog carnage (Mirror)• Four die in crash on foggy motorway (Times)

Pre and post modification

• Information about the noun is added either by pre- or post modification of the noun. Determiners pre modify (articles, numerals, adjectives and other nouns)

• Girl (a noun)• A really funny and brilliant girl

(premodification)• A girl who was standing next to the bar• (postmodification by means of a relative clause)

Noun + noun

• A noun modifier is when a noun functions like an adjective and modifies the meaning of the noun that follows it.

• Newspaper prose continues to rely on a dense use of nouns and noun phrase constructions

• A reflection of the informational purpose and the pressure to communicate information as efficiently and economically as possible

Noun phrases in headlines

• Baby rape fiend in dad date trick

• Tory councillor faces race hate charges

• Social worker rapist scandal

• Prayer book burning kindles feminist ire

Headline Language - vocabulary

• Specialised vocabulary

– unusual

– sensational

– short• e.g.

– killer + ? e.g. killer bug– peril– horror– terror

Headline language: Specialised vocabulary

KILLER BUG AIR SCARE Mirror 20/05/2006 A WOMAN who arrived in London on a flight from Africa yesterday is reported to have died from the deadly and contagious ebola virus. […]

Killer bug inquiry to startSun 30 Dec 2007A PUBLIC inquiry into the UK's second biggest outbreak of a deadly strain of the E.coli bug will start hearing evidence in the new year. […]

Headline language: Specialised vocabulary

Israel warns of Iranian missile peril for EuropeTelegraph 07/01/2008Iran is developing nuclear missiles capable of reaching beyond its enemies in the Middle East to Europe, President George Bush will be warned when he visits Israel and the Palestinian territories for the first time since entering the White House.

The Earth today stands in imminent peril Independent 19 June 2007 ...and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Headline language - vocabulary

• Specialised vocabulary

• Word play

Headline language: playing with words

• Homonyms– Same spelling– Same pronunciation– Different meaning

Kate scores £1.2m dealSun, 25/11/2007KATE Moss was £1.2million richer last night after clinching her first modelling deal since her cocaine shame emerged.

Headline language: playing with words

• Homophones– Same pronunciation– Different spelling– Different meaning

• Aisle Not Marry You, Sadie

• Sadie Frost has been dealt a wedding blow as her best pal and ex-hubby both plan lavish nuptials.

• While she may be tentatively looking at engagement rings, her toyboy lover Jackson Scott has declared: "I am not going to marry her."

• Twitchers flock to Norfolk

• Sun, 9/1/2008

• BIRDWATCHERS were hoping today that a rare American bird lodging in an English village would stay out of the clutches of a cat called “Hooligan”.

Headline language: playing with words

• Porpoise bite be Jaws victim

• Sun, 9/01/2008

• JAWS mania took a shark turn today after the savaged body of a porpoise was found off the coast of eastern England.

• might

• a sharp turn

Headline language: creativity

• Metaphor

BLUNKET THROWS IN THE TOWEL

• Immigration is like water out of control

– Evaluation?

Headline language: creativity

• Metonymy

Headline language: Playing with sounds

• Alliteration– Classy Capello shines on debut

Mirror, 12 2007

• Rhyme– Tricky Dick, meet phoney Tony

Guardian 5 2007

What the end of Richard Nixon can teach us about the end of Tony Blair.

Playing with knowledge: Intertextuality

Playing with knowledge: Intertextuality

• Bible

• Literature

• Songs

• TV/film culture

• Proverbs

• …

Headline language

• Extended noun phrases• Specialised vocabulary• Playing with words (puns)• Creativity – metaphor / metonymy• Playing with sounds• Playing with knowledge

• Can you find examples?

Newspaper prose

• Nominal premodification is common

• Long sequences of nouns combining premodifiers with head nouns are shorter and denser in terms of information conveying complex meanings in compressed form

• The reader has to understand the relationship between the two nouns

Premodifying nouns

• Government + action, approval, control, decision

• Business + community, dealings, empire, ideas

• TV + ads, appearance, cameras, channel, documentary

• School + activities, boards, budget,

• Water + authorities, bill, companies,

• Air disaster

• Reprisal raid

• Baggage inspection

• Airline officials

• Blood pressure

• Glass bottle

• Air disaster N1 expresses the location of N2

• Reprisal raid N1 expresses the purpose of N2

• Baggage inspection N1 expresses the ‘patient’ of N2

• Airline officials N2 is employed by N1

• Glass bottle N2 is composed of N1

• Plastic surgeon?• Criminal lawyer?

Readers’ knowledge

• The pre-modifying nouns are from semantic domains most commonly associated with current events such as government, business, education, the media and sports where readers can be assumed to have well-developed pragmatic knowledge to be able to decode the relationship

Other forms of compression

• Non restrictive relative clauses, for information that is tangential to the main point:

• A visit to the former Portuguese territory, which Indonesia had de facto incorporated into its territory in 1976, was scheduled after repeated postponements

• Appositive noun phrases• Gerard Yon, formerly sales and marketing

manager of Chorus systèmes, the microkernel house and now president of VST, a French start-up in electronic document mangagement

More postmodification

• To-noun-complement-clauses with common head nouns like chance, attempt, opportunity, decision, plan, bid

• A fresh bid to break the Arab-Israeli impasse• Most of these head nouns are derived from

verbs so the style is even more compressed• In this way the agent can be left unspecified• Regional nerves have been strained by a plan

to cut off water from Syria

Hands on

• Find examples of compression in the form of extended noun phrases, either pre-modification or apposition

• Post modification with to-noun-complement clauses following a nominalised verb ( e.g plan, bid, attempt + to)

Sources / Useful reading

– Morley, J. 1998. Truth to Tell: Form and Function in Newspaper Headlines. CLUEB. pp 23-50

– Reah, D. 2002. The Language of Newspapers. Routledge. pp 13-33

– Aitchison J. and Lewis D. (eds) New Media Language