Luận văn phân tích Đối chiếu các Đặc Điểm cú pháp và từ vựng của các tiêu Đề bài báo tiếng anh và tiếng việt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: FACULTY OF POST-CRADUATE STUDIES PHAM HONG PHUQNG ‘THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH A

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES:

FACULTY OF POST-CRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM HONG PHUQNG

‘THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES:

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

Phan tich déi chiéu cdc dic diém cit phap va tiv vung ciia cic tiê

dé bai báo Tiếng Anh và Tiếng FiệU

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60.22.15

Hanoi, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES:

FACULTY OF POST-CRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM HONG PHUQNG

THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISIT AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPER ITEADLINES:|

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

(Phin tich déi chiếu các đặc điểm cú phap và từ rựng của cúc tiôi

đề bài báo Tiếng Anh và Tiếng ViệU

MLA MINOR THESIS

Field: — English Linguistics

Supervisor: Dr Nguyén Huy K¥

Hanoi, 2011

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1; Frequency of structural headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.2: Frequency of sentential headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.3: Prequency of simple headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora

Table 3.4: Frequency of compound headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora

‘Table 3.5: Frequency ofnon-sentential headlines in the English and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.6: The Frequency of non-fineie clauses in the English sarupte headlines

Table 3.7: Frequency of omission of subjects in English and Vietnamese non-finite clausal headlines

‘Table 3.8: lrequency of non-sentential headline types in inglish and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.9: Frequency of nominal headline types in the English ancl Vietnamese eorpora Table 3.10; Frequency of types of postmoditiers in Vietnamese nominal headlines

‘Table 3.11° Frequency of functional headlines types in Linglish and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.12; Frequeney of difercal parts of speech in English and Victnamese headlines Table 3.13: Frequency of nouns in English and Vietnamese corpora

Table 3.14: Frequency of dynamic and static verbs in English and Vietnamese corpora Table 3.15: Frequency of achve and passive vorce in English and Vietnamese corpora

Table 3.16: Frequency of verbs with different syllables in English and Vietnamese corpora

‘Table 3.17: Erequeney of the omission of verb ‘be in English corpus

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATL’S STATEMENT

4 Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study -—

6 Design of the study

1.1.3 Typical features of headlines -—

1.1.4, Contrastive analyses on headlines -—-

2.2 Procedure

2.3 Data analysis—

2.3.1, Furst level of analysis —

2.3.1.1 Structural headline type 2.3.1.2, Functional headline types 2.3.2 Second level of analysis —

2.3.2.1, Parts of speech in sample headlines -—- 2.3.2.2, Omissions in headlines -~

3.3.2 Inplications for leaching translation

2, Limitations of the study

3, Suggestions for further studies

REFERENCES:

APPENDIX,

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

It is undeniable that our country has been moving towards globalization and trade

Aibcralizalion To be sueecssfd, we have opened to welcome forcign investment for many

‘years and now we still need to continuously understand the political and economic situations of other comtries In such a situation, information has played a vital role up to

now Newspapers arc onc of the most popular mzans of transmitting information which has

attracted a great number of readers

Conventtonally, il is believed thal newspapers have more readers (han any other kind of written text According to Van Dijk (1986:156), "for moyt cilizens, news is perhaps

the type of written discourse with which they are confronted most frequenily" Reading

newspapers in linglish, in fact, has always been an interest of Linglish learners Newspapers arc everywhere bul how 1o read in an casy way lo underslarul is still a problem, Morcover,

as teachers of English, how to teach students to translate, to write and to understand Lnglish press in an effective way is really a big question

In a newspaper, il is the headline (hat has the highest readership It is always the

first thing that everyone notices when picking up a newspaper It serves as a guide for readers that helps decide whether fo contisme on reading the whole report or to skip onta

another one Rach headline summarizes the conlerd of a story, and entices an audience inlo

reading the article Newspaper headlines are particularly important for the way readers comprehend a news text, they are markers that monitor attention, perception and the reading process (Van Dijk, 1988)

Many students of English find that newspaper headlines are especially difficult to understand Obviously, it is not just a matter of vocabulary, even the style of writing is different from any other texl they have mel ist their studies, The language of headlines is special and has its own characteristics on the lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical levels for its

‘brevity, attractiveness, and clarity (Danuta R., 1998) These language features pose a great challenge to foreign learners of English when they begin to read English newspapers

The key to casc the difficulty of this special genre lics on the comparison between

foreign and native languages (Connor, 1996) Thereby, this study is conducted to

investigate the similar and different fealures in the newspaper headlines of English and

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Vicinan

Tanguages From the findings, T hope partly to guids Visinaness Icamers and teachers of English towards the effective way of mastering English

2 Objectives of the study

In the light of Contrastive Analysis this study attempts to contrast English and

‘Vicinamese newspaper headlines, which concentrates on the following objectives:

* Studying the syntactic and lexical features of English and Viemamese newspaper

4, Scope of the study

Due to the limit m time and within the framework of an M.A thesis, it is impossible for a study to deal with all the features of language theory and practice in depth This study, therefore, only focuses on sone synlactic and lexical fosiures found in the newspapers headlines of English and Vietnamese to see how they are different,

5 Methods of the study

Ta the thesis, the main methods used are description and contzastive comparison of the two languages in newspaper headlines including;

+ Desoribing the syntactic and lexical features in the English and Vietnamese headlines

collected from The New York Tunes and 17a Ni Mét newspapers

* Contrastively comparing those features in English and Victnamese newspaper headlines with concrete contrasting techniques, namely, analysis and statistics

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6 Design of the study

This thesis consists of three parts

the study aims at as well as the scope of the study and some outlook on methodelogy,

Part B consists of 3 chapters Chapter 1 discusses the review of related literature and theoretical background of every matter mentioned in the title of the study, Chapter 2 and 3 are the analysis of the headlines selected, the major findings and discussions with some implications for lcaming and tcaching English

Part C is the conclusion which presents the recapitulation of the study, the imitations of the study and some suggestions [or further researches,

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TART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this Chapter, review of related literature and theoretical background including the synlactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese headlines will be provided 1.1 Literature review

Tleadlines are obviously one of the striking features of modern newspapers Therefore it is not suprising that they have boon studicd quite extensively not only by joumalists but also by linguists Some of the few existing linguistic studies of headlines will be reviewed below

1.1.3 Typical features of headlines

Mardh (1980) offers an exhaustive study of the characteristic features of the headlines of a range of English newspapers She identifies the following linguistic features

as typical of headlines in English newspapers: the omission of articles; the omission of -vorbs and of auxiliaries (the verb "to be" for cxample); nominalizations, the frequent use of complex noun phrases in subject position (in theme position); adverbial headlines, with the omission of both verb and subjecl; the ase of short words (*bid! instead of “allemp!"), the

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widesprcad use of mms, word play and sÌlilcration, the ìmporimee øf wơrd erđor, with the most important items placed first, even, in some cases, a verb; and independent "wh" constructions not linked to a main clause, for example: Why the French don’t give a damn

Van Dijk (1988) analyzes a five-decker from the New York ‘limes Le sees the

journalistic process as beginning with a headline and working through lead te budy copy

He analyzes over 400 headlines in the Dutch press reporting the 1985 Tamil panic, an occasion of racial tensions between the Dutch and immigrant groups Te finds that the

authoritics dominate first position in the headline, with active verbs When the

disadvantaged Tamils are mentioned first, the verb tends to be passive

Mowillaud and Tetu (4s cited in Develolle & Rechsiewski 2000), analyxing Le Monde, suggest the following features as typical of headlines: the suppression of spatial and particularly temporal markers; the use of the present tense of verbs (where they are used) as opposed to or in place of any other tenses; the replacement of verbs by nominalizalions; the suppression of declarative verbs and the disappearance of signs of speech (quotation marks; personal pronouns)

1.1.4 Contrastive analyses on headlines

Kniftka’s (in Bell, 1991) detailed comparison of tcads and headlines finds a high

devel of structural correspondence between the two The subeditor tends to reproduce the

syntactic pattems of the lead in the headline Knifika finds that the presence of active or

passive voice in the lead is carted over lo the headline According to Kinifika, headline

structures appear to be very regular across languages He confirms his analysis of both German and American English news texts, finding their leads and headlines structurally

identical The regularity is so consistent thal he concludes there is a shared international

grammar of lead and headline writing,

Scollon (2000), in his study of five days of three editions of the same newspaper in iis Chinese and English cditions, argues thal the Fnglish headlines, following on general westem journalistic practice put the main point right in the headline in what has also been

called a deductive rhetorical mode The Chinese editions, on the other hand, use the

headlines to establish the setting but do not provide any further information ahout the

content of the talks, which is the inductive ordering of the topies clscwhere found in

contrast between Chinese and English language news stories, In other words, the major

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differcnes lios in wholhor ths headline focu

the body of the story or the setting,

1.1.5 Studies on headlines in Vietnam

directly on the contral topic foand within

In Vietnam, newspaper headlines are investigated by some authors who have different concems, Anh (2003) finds oul some discouse features of headlines and articles

in English containing syntactic features, cohesive devices, collocations, phrasal verbs and idioms The syntactic features in her research include the selection of verbs, passive structures, and the use of non-finites, implicit expression of opinions, modality and word order She concludes that headline writers often omit definite and indefinite articles, the verb) “io be’, auxiliary verbs and titles before proper names, they widely use punctuation, visual images and simple tenses instead of progressive and parfect forms to state the topic

of the article and to attract a large number of readers, Bich (2009) study on English Vietnamese translation of electronic news headlines also gives some distinctive grammatical characteristics of English news ‘headlines with domimmes of phrases, statements, expansion of present simple tense, and frequent omission of words such as the verb ‘be’ and articles

Conceming English and Vietnamese translation, Trang (2008) earrics oul a study om translating English newspaper headlines into Vietnamese newspaper headlines on Dantri online newspaper She analyzes ths language structures of English and Vieamsse headlines in order lo find whether they ar equivalent belween the two languages In English, syntactically she concentrates on verbal, nominal, advarbial, simple, compound and complex headfines In Vietnamese, her focus is on one-word, phrasal and sentence

characteristics of English and Vietnamese news headlines are necessary This study intends

to investigate the application of syntactic and lexical features in Unglish and Vietnamese newspaper headlines in order to uncover to what exlent the Iwo languages are compalible

in these domains

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1.2 Theoretical background

1.2.1, Newspaper headlines

1.2.1.1 Concept of headlines

Me Arthur (1992:464) proposed that the word headline is “probably from the

headline on a sailing ship, a rope which held a sail tight to a spar or ran along the upper

edge of a flag to strengthen it”

From the original literal meaning, headline is defined as a heading, usually in large,

hheavy type, at the top of an article in a newspaper, magazine or other publications

indicating the subject of the article ‘he following definition is quoted in English language

dictionary as “headline is the title of a newspaper story printed in large letters at the top

of the story, especially in the front pages” (Sinclair, 1998-389)

‘As for Gimmer (1997:497), headline is a “head of newspaper story or article

printed in large type and devised ta summarize the story or article that follows”

Danuta’s (1998: 121) opinion about a headline is that iis a unique type of text Tt has a range of fanctions that specitically dictate its shape, content, and structure and it operates within a range of restrictions that limited the freedom of the writer In other

words, headline should cneapsulate the story in mizimum words, attracl readers to the

story

According to Ungerer (2000:18), "a headline describes the essence of a complicated news story in a few words It informs quickly and accurately and arouses the reader's curiosity"

In brief, headline is the title given to a news item or an article It is a condensed

form of wriling Tis in acl a parl af a whole The specific finetional and linguistic Irails

of the headline provide sufficient ground for isolating and analyzing it in a specific “genre”

of journalism

1.2.1.2 Functions of headlines

According to Danuta R (1998), a headline serves the following functions: It gets the reader's attention; summarizes or tells about the article; helps organize the news on the page and indicates the relative importance of a story Therefore, “the reader can skim the

headlines and have an outline of the news of the day, and some idcas of its rclative impact

and importance.” (Danuta R.,1998:14)

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Danuta R says that headline plays conflicting roles which is carrying information and attactng readers’ attention For carrying information, the headline should deliver some details on what happened, who was involved, where it happened, what the circumstances were which is simplified into what, who, where, how Llowever, to what extent headlines perform whal-whiere-whe-how function depends on the certain

circumstances

Resides, according to Danuta R (1998), headlines have a persnasive function when

they arc to attract readers” at

1.2.2, Syntactic and lexical features

As mentioned before, this study considers lexical and syntactic features im Eryslish

nntion, However, they arc also written to influcnee readers

and Vietnamese newspaper headlines in order to see how they are different Below is a

‘brief description of syntactic and lexical features All the examples are the headlines taken from the corpus with denoted dates

4.2.2.1 Syntactic features

According to Maggie (1998), ‘syntax’ means ‘sentence construction’: How words group together to make phrases and sentences Mare generally, it refers to the study of the

interrclationships between all claments of sentence structure, and of the rules governing the

arrangements of sentences in sequences It allows various possibilities to be exploited for effective linguistic communication

In Tan's (2009:32) opinion, syntax is a div

ior of grammar which studies the ways

to combine the elements of language conventionally from ‘words’ upwards, and two internal levels of syntax are at phrases and sentences

Ta order to gel an overall piclure of the structure of English and Vietnamese headlines, a description of syntactic features of headlines including structural and fictional headline types of the two languages will be introduced in the following sections

@ Structural headline types

Below are the basic types of headlines in terms of their structures: sentential and

non-sentential headlines

% Sentential headlines

Scntential headlincs arc all headlines that have a regular scntence structure, i.c all

headlines with a subject and a finite verb phrase which is characterized as a phrase “in which the first or only word is a finite verb, the vest of the verb phrase (if any} consisting of

1

non-finite verbs" (Quirk, 1985:149) As far as sonlem structure is concerned, there are two main types of sentence: simple and nmultiple sentences (Crystal, 2006:216) The most natural sentence structure is the simple sentence: it is the first kind which children learn to speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people

of all ages In written work, simple sentences ean be very elective for grabbing a reader's

attention or for summing up an argument as they are simply understandable

> Simple sentences

As Lecch (2006:104) explains, a simple scntenee consists of just onc independent clause, Consistent with this rule, when a simple sentence is further analyzed, there is just one subject and one finite veth phrase These are the main elements but several others (eg adverbials), which are obligatory, can be present in addition to the subject and verb, Quirk 1985; 204) distinguishes seven clause types The following table illustrates these types with the examples from the corpora:

TSy Shanghai bicycle culture Chỉ xỗ giá tiêu dùng thắng 5 đại Hà Nội

Different adverbials can be freely added into any of these types Apart fom the above

amontioned types of simple senlznecs, multiple sentences inust be considered as well

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& Multiple sentences Multiple sentences are described by Crystal (2006:226) as sentences with two or more clauses that are linked either by coordination or by subordination According to the type of the linking words these constructions are classified as compound sentences and

complex senlcnecs

- Compound sentences:

As Biber (1999:227) points out, "there are three major coordinators in nglish- and,

or and but" These coordinators do not ouly link clauscs, but also words or phrases

Sometimes, no coordinator is present and clauses are linked by a comma For example

Ting: Europe Stews on Greece, and Markets Sweat Qut the Watt (Aug 28™ 2011)

Viet: Gid hang hoa ting hang loat nlamg sé khong e6 bien ding lon (Aug, 29" 2011)

(Goods price increases at mass but there will not be a great fluctuation)

As it was already said, compound sentences contain two or more clauses, and the

important thing is thai af] clauses in such a sentence are al the same level In other words,

they can stand on their own independently, which is not true for complex sentences

‘The subordinate clauses are always dependent upon the main clause and cannot stand

as a sentcnoc on thhsir own (Cryslal, 2006:226) As Quirk (1985:283) says, the dependent

of subordinate clauses fimetion as an element of a sentence Leech (2006:17-18) further

explains that we can classify them on the basis of their fictions within the main clause as

nominal, adverbial, comparative or relative Sometimes the subordinate clanses do not

contain a finite verb phrase (non-finit: clauscs- c.g Teen helps fight human trafficking —

Aug.27" 2011) or they lack a verb completely (verbless clauses- e.g If possible, nominate

them!~ Aug.27™ 2011)

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His neet ry to consider the non-scntential imils as they are characteristic for the Janguage of newspaper headlines and they form a great deal of the materials analyzed for the purpose of this paper

% Non-sentential headlines

The structure of such headlines is lowcr than a regular semlenec; they are

constructed in an imegular way Crystal (2006) calls such structures minor sentences Althongh independent sentences are the main building blocks of texts or conversation,

non-scntential structures arc also ficquent Non-sentential headlines can be divided

accordingly whether they do or do not contain a verb phrase Structures with a verb phrase

are non-firrite clauses (wilh the exception of verbless clauses), whereas structures wilhout a

-verb phrase are just phrases, which will be further described respectively

» Nor-finite clauses

According to Biber (1999:

clauses, ic they appear in a sentorec together with ø main clause, In some eircumslanecs,

262), non-finite clauses are usually dependent

however, dependent clauses can be used separately

Leech (2006:72) describes these clauses as clauses which have a non-finite verb pluase and subdivides ther inlo three calegorics: inlinitive clauses (e.g Bunk of America

to Cut 3,500 Jobs - Aug,28° 2011), -ing clauses (e.g, Finding Planets Around Other

‘Stars - Aug.28" 2011), and ed clauses (e.g One Killed in Israeli Port City - Aug.28* 2011) All three types have a varied range of syntactic roles, which means that they cau stand on positions of different clause elements, such as subject, direct object, or complement Moreover, apart from the three above mentioned types, Biber (1999:261)

so called verbicss clauses For those

describes the fourth type of non-finite ctauses-

clauses, lie says, ellipsis of the verb ‘be’ and the subject is typical (Factory Growth Fastest

> Phrases:

"A phrase may consist of a single word or a group of words” (Biber, 1999:38) In other words, phrases are built up from words and they usually consist of a head and

modifiers which are not necessarily present Under the head we understand a word in the

phrase “around which the other components cluster and which diciates concord and other kinds of congruence with the rest of the sentence outside the phrase" (Quitk, 1985; 1238)

The heal is essentiat for categorizing phrases The phrase types are following: noun

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199941),

Individual phrases function as clause elements, ic they built up a clause Usually,

the most important element of a clause is verb phrase which was focused previously as finite and non-Gnile So now a greater interest will be put on noun phrases, as they olen stand on their own in headlines

- Noun phrases

Noun phrases have a noun as the head which can be preceded by determiners and accompanied by modifiers- either premodifiers or postmodiefiers (Biber, 1999:41-42) Sometimes an adjective can be the head of a noun phrase Mardh, who devoted her time to the analysis of headlines, denotes the headlines cousisting of a noun phrase and not containing a verb as nominal In order to examine syntactic variation within the noun phrases across the two languages, the structural types of nominal headlines were analyzed according to unmodificalion, premodi fication, postmodi fication aud pre -past wodification

+ Unmodification: Swuctures in which the head of noun phrase is not modified by

any other item are referred to as unmodified structures (Quirk, 1985)

+ Premodification: A premodificr is a modifier thal preeedes the word it modifies (Quirk, 1985)

Ex: Artificial Sweeteners (Aug 26% 2011)

1 Postmodification: A postmodifier is a modifier ar quantifier thal follows the constituent it modifies (Quurk, 1985)

Ex: The Future of Data Storage (Aug 29 2011)

+ Pre-post Modifications: Stuclures which have both pra- and posl-modifiars arc referred to as pre-post moditied headings, e

Lx: Weekly prompts from a mentor (Aug 29" 2011)

b Functional headline types

Analyzing headline types by function, they can be divided into four functional types: statements, questions, directives, and exclamations (Mardh, 1980; Quirk, 1985,

McLoughlin, 2000)

% Statcments

In Quirk(1985:803)'s words, "statements are primarily used to convey

information" TL means that their primary parpose is to inform aboul something They

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should always include a subjecl which usnally precedes a verb In other wards, they have a declarative structure - “a structure which declares or makes something known" (Crystal, 2006:218) A statement headline desoribes a state of atfairs, actions, feelings or belief For example:

Eng: Iran jails US hikers for 8 years (Aug 26” 2011)

Viet: 10 cá nhân được nhân giải during Tén Dike Thang (Aug 27" 2011)

(J0 people receive Tén Dite Thang prise)

*% Questions

in the common core, questions are usnally used when speakers need some information they lack, and they expect an answer provided by their listeners Questions itt speech may be indicated by placing the operator in front of the subject and by initial wh- word (Ex: Where is Gadhafi's money now?- (Aug, 29" 2011) A common structure of a question, it means a verb-subject structure (ix: Js Samseng aiming to snap up LEP’s PC

business? (Aug 27° 2011), is called interrogative Also, a rising inlomalion may be a

characteristic feature of questions In writing, a question mark has such a function It may convert any structure into a question (lix: Anne Hathaway, future rap star? (Aug 29" 2011) And on the other hand, as Lecch (2006:106) points oul, nol all clauses with the interrogative structure must necessarily be questions, ex “Will pou turn down the radio?”

is interrogative in structure but a command in function A question headline is addressed to ateader or listener and asks for an expression of fact, opinion, belief, etc For example

Eng: Music's best kept secret? (Aug, 28" 2011)

Viet: Cong cu thị trường nào cho (li sudt? (Aug 27" 2011)

(Which market tool is for tnterest?)

% Directives

Directives are all sentences that have the imperative structure, i.e sentences with

‘no subject usually and with verb in ils base form (cx, Send pour image fo iReport! (Aug 29" 2011)) Their function is to "instruct someone to do something" (Crystal, 2006:219)

‘Usually directives are very simple sentences with the function to urge somebody to do or not to do something, and therefore it is not necessary to consider tense, modality or aspect

of the verb (Biber, 1999:254), Dircetive sentence, according to Hao (1991), is the sentence that has illocutionary value, affects second person, and requires this person to make a urilaieral or a co-operating action Directive sentence is also a inean fo order, request, or

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requite samncons lo do something When using dircetive sculono, the speaker expocls that the hearer will obey

A directive headline expresses a request or advice:

Ling: Put these question marks by the hardware (Aug, 29" 2011)

Viel: Hay bd cơ ché Xin - Cho(Aug 29" 2011)

(Leave off ask-give mechanism!)

“ Exclamations

As Crystal (2006:219) says, cxclamations usually show impression and are often just minor sentences, such as Gosh!, or Oh dear!, However, their structure can be that of a inajor sentence as well with (he first element being how or what followed by a subject and

a verb, Sometimes their form is reduced and no verb is present

An exclamation headline shows the wiiter’s or speaker’s feelings:

Lx: Dimg lan minh bt tut hau! (Aug 29" 2011)

(Don't make us lag behind!) 1.2.2.2, Lexical features

Lexicology, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary, and, in its teolmical sonse, il deals with the analysis of words (Quirk, 1985) Under lexicology, the individual words such as nouns, verbs, articles, adjectives, adverbs, numerals, conjunctions, pronouns and prepositions will be analyzed in both English and Viemamese Teadlines in order to delernine the frequency of their occurrence Belaw is a short description of nouns and verbs which are considered the most important parts of speech

a Nouns

Announ is a word which (a) can accur as thie subject or object ofa verb or the object of'a preposition, (b) can be modified by an adjective, and (c) can be used with determinars Nouns typically refer to people, animals, places, things, or abstractions (Murphy, 1997) For cxarupte

Eng: Don Lemon’s new marriage dilenma.(Aug.29" 2011)

Viet: Một orwing phd théng trong clin hé nho (Aug.27* 2011)

(A secondary school in a small flat) The distinct foatures of nouns used in headlines are the ficquent appearance of the

Proper nouns, the acronyms, and the abbreviations (Baddock, 1988) ‘These features were

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investigated in headlines of the bvo languages to determine the frequeney of their occurrence

“+ Proper nouns Proper nouns are basically names of specific people, places, months, days, festivals, anagazines, and so forth (Quirk, 1985)

+ Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words This process is

widely used in shortening extremely long words or word groups in scicnec, technology and

other special fields (Kromkin & Rodman, 1999) For example:

Tìng: C1A Demands Cuts in Book About 911 and Terror Fight (Aug 262011) Viet: IP HCM sé kiém sodt chét tinh trang nghé si trang phuc phần cảm (August

26% 2011) (ACM city will tightly control tie state of artists with anti-emotion clothes)

Abbreviation is a reduced version of a word, phrase or sentence It is also called

clipping (Crystal, 1992)

Ex: Japan Govt, to Nationalize Regional Bank (Aug 28" 2011)

b Verbs

Vorb is an important lexical category, and dhe onc which is sccringly universal

‘Verb categories will be analyzed in both English and Vietnamese headlines to see differences and similarities across the two languages

% Foice

Voice is the form of the verb, which shows the relatron between the action and its

subject In English and Vietnamese, there are two voices: the active and the passive If the subjcet perforins the action, thon the verb form is in the aclive voice Tf the subject receives the action, then the verb form is in passive voice (Fallahi, 1991; Ban, 2009) For example

Ling: Three arrested in American's kidnapping in Pakisten (Aug.29" 2011)

Viet: Gdn 200 anh được trưng bày (Aug 20” 201 1)

(Neariy 200 photos are diaplayed) Voice will be considered in this study to examine the frequency of its occurrence in the headlines of the two languages

Dynamic and static verbs

According to their lexical meanings, verbs can be divided into dynamic and static

verbs A lype of verbs which typically occurs in the grogressive form and in the

24

imperative, and which expresses such mcaning as activity, process, and bodily scnsation is seferred to a3 a dynamic verb (Quixk, 1985) Static verbs (also called stative or state verbs)

do not usually occur in the progressive nor in the imperative, and which express a stale of) affairs rather than an action (Quirk, 1985) Lida (2009) gives the concept of dependent and

indcpendenl verbs in Victnaresc in which dynamic and static verbs belong to the Taller

He shares the same opinion with Quirk (1985) about these two types of verbs For example

Dynamic verb: Eng: South Koreans leave N.Korecn resort (Aug.29" 2011)

Viet: Thương nghị sĩ Mỹ lin Webb thitm TP Hé Chi Minh

(American Senator Jim Webb visits 178 Chi Minh city) (Aug.29" 2011)

Statie verb: Eng: Libya does nol need UN peace keepers (Aug.29" 2011)

Viet: Cần chủ động bình ẫn giá thực phẩm (Aug.29°2011) (Weed ta actively stabilize faod price)

shSyllables of verhs in headlines

In headlines, monosyllabic verbs are used frequently as substitutes for longer, more colloquial expressions I'he analysis of verbs according to their syllables in the English and

Victname:

¢ corpora was done in order lo investigate Lheir similarities and differences in

the two languages in this respect

¢ Omissions in headlines

Omission is one of the major features of newspaper headlines (Bell, 1991) Turner (1972: 72) says: “Determiners and the verb ‘to be! are almost universally omitted in headlines" For the sake of brevity and saving space, most closed words and some open

words in headlines arc ofien omilled or reduced to a minimum it headlines For example:

Eng: Under 40, blindsided by breast cancer (Aug.28 2011)

Viet: Luật doanh nghiệp đang "hành" doanh nghiệp? (Ang 29” 2011)

(Enterprise law is “disturbing” enterprises?)

As can be seen from the above examples, the verb "are" in the English headline and

“cỏ phái" in the Vietnamese one are omitted

In the sample headlines, an investigation is made in order to find out the frequency

of omission of words across and within the two languages

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To sum up, this Chapter deall wilh some provious sludics on newspaper headlines

as well as a syntactically and lexically theoretical description of English and Viemamese headline features, The syntactic characteristics include headline types by structure and by function, and the lexical ones concem parts of speech mainly with nouns and verbs and omissions as typival of headline language, The next Chapler is a detailed analysis on the

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CHAPER 2 ANALYSIS ON COLLECTED NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

The previous chapter has reviewed some related literature and established the framework of the theoretical background from which the syntactic and lexical

characicrislics of headlines have been co

The headlines issucd during a four-day period from August 26" te August 29", 2011

The numiber of English and Vietnamese headlines arrived at a total of 227 and 232 from the two sources respectively The headlines taken for analysis belong to various fields such

‘At the start, the investigation began with the description of the basic units of analysis

in the English headline structures and continued with the analysis of the Viemamese headlines In doing so, for the analysis of the structure of English headlines the grammatical fiamework provided mainly by Quùk (1985), Biber (1999), and Crystal (2006) was chosen, and for the analysis of Vietnamese headlines, the grammar provided by

Tigo (1991), Ban (2009), and Téa (2009) was used to inform the study

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Tn the following stop, the rescarcher synthesived aff the syntactic and loxieal (oaturss analyzed previously and did statistical computations on the percentage for each typical feature of English and Vietnamese news headlines in order to give out the differences and similarities

2.3 Duta amalysis

The analysis of data was conducted in two stages, In both stages, a detailed analysis

of the corpns of 227 English and 232 Viemamese headlines at lexical and syntactic levels was done to sce the similar and different characteristics between the twe languages

3.8.1 First level of analysis

The first level included the analysis of the syntactic features of the headlines across and within the two languages As for the syntactic features, the following two major areas

2.3.1.1 Structural headline types

Al} hoadlines in the corpora were divided info two major groups according to their structure; Sentential (those with a regular sentence structure - major sentences) and non- sentential headlines (those with an irregular sentence structure), ‘The first group consisted

of all headlines that contain a subject and a predicate The sccond one included the headlines without a predicate, often just with a non-finite verb phrase or in the form of'a phrase The frequency of the different types of headlines in terns of their structure is shown in Table 3.1

Table 3.1 Frequency of structural headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora

‘The table shows that the proportion of sentential headlines is comparatively higher

in the Tinglish headlines (70.5%) (hun in the Vietnamese ones (98.2%) and the number of English nou-sentential headlines (29.5%) is lower than that of Vietnamese ones (41.8%)

‘As an be noticed in the table, sentential headlines tend fo be used much more than non- sentzntial ones in Finglish,

4ø Sentential headlines

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All headlines with a finite verb phrase and which arc not dominaled by ø new phrase post-modified by a finite clause are classified as sentential The frequency of the sentential headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora is presented in Table 3.2

‘able 3.2 Lrequency of sentential headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpara

headlines No va No % Simple 119 744 108 80

“Headlines are simple sentences

119 English headlines were classified as those with the simple sentence structure in which there were three headlines consisting of a dependent clause with a finite verb phrase The headlines “When Children Fly Alone” (Aug.26" 2011) is just a conditional clause without a main clause, yet functioning independently in the form of a headline In the

Vietnamese carpus, Headlines by simple sentences dominated with 80% Dependent

clauses wilh ø ñnile verb phrase were atso found such as the headline “ide edn làm nay!” (What need to be done right now!) (Aug.26 2011), Table 3.3 presents the frequency of simple headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora

Table 3.3 Froquency of simple headline typas in the Fnglish and Vietnamese corpora

‘Total 119 100 108 100

Conceming the clause types a5 noticed in the table the most ñequent type in both English and Vieriarnese corpora was SVO The probable reason for favoring this type could be the fact that it describes in the best suitable way "who did what" The subject is almost always present ‘the only exceptions are headlines with imperative structure, as imperatives “are charavterived by the lack of subject", (Biber,1999:219) The other structures, namely SV, SVC, SVOA appeared with relatively equal occurrences in the

that in the Vietnamese ones (only 2.8%) Spocially, the structure SVOO was rarcly fomd

in both languages In many cases, optional adverbials appear together with the obligatory

elements to add more information to the headlines

% Teadlines are multiple sentences:

There were 41 English headlines and only 27 Victnamesc oncs identified as the

headlines with a regular multiple sentence structure Among the analyzed headlines, there were nol many compound ones The frequency of using those headlines is shawn in Table

Undoubtedly each language has its own syntactic principles which are considered to

‘be standard bul there arc scomingly a fol of syntactic sub-siandards in headlines, both in English and Vietnamese That is the case of non-sentential headlines, Those with the irregular struciure are quite an often phenomencn in newspapers All the non-sentential

‘headlines in the sludy were divided into twa basic groups: The headlines which contain a non-finite verb form at the position of the predicate (e.g Dead bodies found in house

(Aug 29° 2011)); and the headlines which consist of just a phrase (without any verb form

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ai thứ posilion aÍ the prcdicale, c-g Wøelly Prompw From a Mentor (Aug.26" 2011) The

frequency of non-sentential headline types in English and Vietnamese corpora is presented

headline No % No %

Nore finile clauses 28 Als 64 66

Tolal 67 100 g7 100

+ Non-finite clausai headlins

In the analysts, out of 67 English non-sentential headlines as shown in Table 3.1 from which 28 headlines were identified as headlines with non-finite predicate

Table 3.6 of the frequency of non-finite clauscs in the English sample headlines shows that the headlines with a past participle form of verb, a present subject, and an omitted

auxiliary verb were used most frequently (Ex: Syrian Demonsivators attacked (Aug.27"

2011)) which accounted for 60.7 % of the lolal English headlines Those headlines usually refer to the events happened in the past, Besides, using V-infinitive with ‘to’ after subject

to denote fisture actions or events and using V-ing form with or without subject are less

frequent with 17.9% and 2).4% in tum

Table 3.6: The Frequency of non-finite clauses in the English sample headlines

in contrast, there were 64 with a non-finite verb form in a total of 97 Vietnamese

nomscriontial headlines Att these headlines compose of a tonefinite verb form with omitted subject and can be modified by an adverb (Ex: Ling [é tidy site cho trẻ thiệt thôi Silently give strength to the unfavorable children (Aug 27* 2011) Mowever, there are few

vorhs modified by an adverb in the Vicinamess sample wilh only 2 occurrences, A

relatively high manber of non-Ginite clauses are preceded by modal verbs such us “da xit

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lÿ nghiêm những người cỗ tình tụ tập, gây rối bật tự công cộng" (]l* neceasary to

seriously deal with the people intending to gather and disturb the peace of public (Aug.27"

2011) in which ‘can’ is a modal verb

In the non-finite headlines found in the corpora, there were many cases with omitted subjects, which can be a specific feature in headlines to make them shorler and more inferesting Table 3.7 illustrates the frequency of omission of subjects in the corpora

Table 3.7 Frequency of omission of subjects in English and Viemamese non-finite clansal

‘As can be noticed in the table, omitted subjects were much more frequent in the

‘Vietnamese headlines with 100% than in the English ones which accounted for only 32.1%,

“Verbless clausal headlines:

‘There were 9 verbless clauses in the English sample which accounted for 13.4% in a tofal of 67 non-sentential ones All these headlines appeared with (he ellipsis of the linking verb ‘be’ like the clause “Open courses nearly free” (Aug.27" 2011) which would be a complete ons when inserting ‘are’ hetween the subject ‘Open courses’ and its complement nearly free’ In the Viotmmase corpus, there wre some casos with th cquivalont structure such as “Lai sudt cho vay VND van cao” (“VND foan interest still high")

(Ang 28° 2011) However, for some Vietnamese authors like Diệp Quang Ban, Nguyễn

Chỉ Hòa who have studied Victuamesc grammar for inany years, hủs shncumz is considered to be scntential, Therefore, this type was classificd as simple sentence in the

Vietnamese corpus

“Phrasal headlines

Considering the information presented in Table 3.8 below, most English and Vietnamese headlines analyzed as phrases were noun phrases which accounted for 96.7 % and 84.8% respectively in the two languages The ailjeclive phrasal headlines can he formd

in the Vietnamese corpora which did not occur in the English ones However, this does not

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