In recent years, news media is showing a trend of internationalization, people can easily understand what is happening and what happened in the world。 More and more non-English countries report the events in English in their specific media channels, spreading the news to the outside world, the same in China。 Therefore, a better comprehension of journalistic English’s grammatical features can help Chinese news editors write better English news, and provide good learning materials for foreigners and China English learners。 The significance of this research, can help news editors and readers fully understand the meaning of news headline to solve the biggest obstacle of news reading。 At the same time, it also helps to improve the stylistic features of journalistic English。 This paper attempts to make an in-depth and detailed description of the grammatical features and causes of the title, and it contributes to better understand the western culture for English language learners。 Because of the close relationship of English news and social life of Western countries, reports involve politics, economy, education, science, customs, beliefs, etc。 Therefore, English news headlines not only form their own unique linguistic features, but also always bear different cultural features both in content and form。 In addition, this research explains why English news headlines do not conform to normal grammatical forms, and summarizes a set of their own English grammar system。
II。 Definition and Function of English News Headline
As an indispensable part of news category, news headlines play an irreplaceable role in decoding the message of each news item。 News headlines are a window to comprehend the whole news content; at the same time, they perform the role of news item themselves。 With the enhancement of cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world, English newspapers as a communication tool are becoming more and more prominent。 Through English newspaper reading, we can more clearly know about current technology and social development of the western world。 In addition, English learners in China now gain access to English news which is a very good channel to broaden their knowledge and better their English。 Many colleges and universities in China have added English newspaper reading to the curriculum as one of the elective courses。 Therefore the analysis of grammar features of English news headline has great academic and practical significance。文献综述
2。1 Definition of English News Headline
Many authors have offered their definitions of the headline, some of which are cited as follows。
“A head of a newspaper story or article, usually printed in large type and devised to summarize ,give essential information about, or interest readers in reading the story or article that follows”( Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1042)。
“The heading printed in large letters above a story in a newspaper”(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,706)。 This definition shows the significant positions of news headlines in newspapers for their irreplaceable functions。
In addition, many scholars gave various definitions about news headlines。 For example, Bruce H。 Westley in his News Editing wrote: “a headline is any line or collection of lines of display type that precedes a story to introduce or summarize it”( Westley,141)。
In short, according to the definitions above, we can give a working definition like this: a headline is a word or a phrase printed at the beginning of a story or article, which is used to refine or attract readers into reading story or article that follows。
Very obviously, it can be seen by the definition, a headline is an integral part of news reports。 It is abstract and generalization of the whole story, and is used to read and to attract the reader’s attention。 Readers, with the headline as the guidance, browsing through the newspaper, looking for stories that interested them。 Then, authors and editors should write reports seizing the audience eyeball effectively and accurately。 A headline should be fitted into much information as much as possible, and emphasize on the key points and ensure the accuracy。 Although headlines vary widely, its own features: exact presentation, swift readability, intensive influence and tempting design, always need to meet basic requirements and are in accordance with its definition。