LV Syntactical, semantic, and stylistic structures in English and Laos newspaper discourses in terms of headlines

Specifically, the research is mainly concerned with the three following aspects: the first is linguistic structures, the second is syntactical structures, and the third is different styl

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale newspaper in daily life and in English language teaching

Nowadays, we are living in a time, which witnesses an explosion of information The development of science and technology in this century results in modern means of media, which can provide us with very up - to - date information in different ways It can be said that this is the time that people can enjoy the achievements of modern technology of the variety of means of media and have an access to the high quality news and information from these equipments

One of the most popular ways of giving news and information is through the press Together with the advancements of other means of media, the press has been developing at a very rapid speed It can now provide us with the up

- to - minute - news through a great variety of forms including printed press, which consists of newspapers, magazines, current affairs bulletins, spoken newspapers (radio programs), and pictorial press (television, audio visual programs carried out - by different technical means)

It cannot be denied that different forms of media have various roles and functions in supplying news and information However, newspapers, which have the longest history, are still the most popular and convenient means of communication This is because people can get easy access and enjoys reading newspapers at anytime and anywhere The printed newspaper has really become one of the most reliable sources of information and a means of relaxation since the time it came into being At present, it has been much improved and developed in quality and quantity so satisfy the increasing requirements of the readers

In Laos, the number of news media readers in Lao as well as foreign languages has greatly increased in the last few years Besides teaching and learning of foreign languages, especially English in schools and universities has made the newspaper become an indispensable source of material for the language teaching

Despite all these, not much research has been done so far on the discourse of English and Lao newspapers to explore this exciting area of the languages As a result, studies on newspaper are needed to be carried out the characteristics in structure and vocabulary to help the newspaper readers and writers in general and the language learners in particular find it easier and more encouraging to exploit this source of information efficiently

1 2 Justification

It is clearly seen that the newspaper readers in foreign language, especially in English often find it difficult to understand because of not only the newspaper vocabulary but also the complex structures used in the newspaper headlines This essential part of a newspaper plays a very important role in helping readers understand the whole newspaper article because it serves as a brief summary of the whole article if the readers fail to understand the headline, they may lose their interest in the entire article as they read it

1.3 Aims and Objectives

For this very reason, I chose to work on the subject of newspaper headlines with the hope that the result of the study can partly help newspaper readers overcome this difficulty in comprehending them

On the other hand, in the practice of teaching and learning English, English learners among whom the majority are English students, tend to base

their reading and translating of newspapers on the newspapers vocabulary and idioms with out paying attention to the whole structure of the discourse; or naturally, some consider the structure of English newspaper headlines the same as the Laos ones The study, therefore, is also intended to help them become more aware of the differences and similarities between the structures

of the headlines in English and Laos so that they can understand the whole massage in reading and use appropriate equivalence in translation

Finally, the number of people working in journalism has recently increased Some of them are well trained, but others, who just take in service training courses, really need to learn more professionally Therefore, the choice of this topic also results in the desire considered helpful for Lao writers and translators of newspapers in English and in Laos

1 4 Subject and scope of the study

From the above mentioned reasons, the thesis generally intends to focus

on studying the structure of the discourse of newspaper headlines in English and Laos In other words, the aim of the study is to find out the characteristics

in linguistics in particular in syntactic and stylistic structures of newspaper headlines in the two languages

Specifically, the research is mainly concerned with the three following aspects: the first is linguistic structures, the second is syntactical structures, and the third is different stylistic devices used in newspaper headlines For each aspect, we focus on classifying the types of structure, describing and contrasting them, then giving some comments and evaluations because of the results

In order to carry out the work, we only choose the newspapers that are typical in both languages as the main subject of the study in English; the

Guardian Weekly in chosen as a representation of the English newspaper and Vientiane Times a weekly newspaper is selected as the main source of the data in Laos

All the headlines of the two newspapers come from the news and commentaries We select limitedly these parts of the newspapers not only because they are considered the main features of a newspaper but also because they attract most of the readers’ interests And the topics of the selected articles are also limited to those relating to social, political, cultural and economic news and events occurring in the year 2003 - 2005 which marks a vary significant turning point between the two millenniums Other kinds of topics concerning personal problems, and advertisement excluded in the study because they are not considered common features in newspapers

1.5 Research questions

Based on the focal point of the study, the thesis is designed to answer the groups of questions related to the two main issues:

- What are syntactic features of English newspapers published in Laos?

- What are the similarities and differences in linguistic syntactical, semantic,

and stylistic structures in English and Laos newspaper discourses in terms of headlines?

Each group of the questions is answered in a separate chapter of the study The first group is regarded as the basic, theoretical background for the next parts of the study The second group relates to the description and contrast of the newspaper headlines in the two languages In addition, the final one to the results of the study, and is followed by some comments and evaluations given because of the result

1.6 Literature review

The headlines are widely created and used in daily life by the people working in journalism The study of the headlines, nevertheless, has not been done much so far

In the English language, book about stylistics by Galperin (1981) has three pages discussing the English newspapers headlines In these limited pages, he classified the various syntactical structures of the news headlines and the features characteristic of these kinds of headlines

In the book “Mastering Advance English Language” Sara Thorne (1997) devoted a separate chapter to discuss the language of newspaper

The discussion about the headlines, however, is still very brief In this chapter, the classification, function, lexis, and styles of headlines are dealt with because of the comparison between the Broadsheet and the Tabloid

In addition, the English textbooks writers such as walker D.J in

“Exploring newspapers,” and Roy M Reid in “Process of composition” also briefly mentioned some characteristics and requirements of a good headline or text title, in the book Advanced English Grammar for high learners Mr Samlan Kham Ying discussed the proficiency in English (Cambridge University, candidate), in the newspapers Vientiane Times www.Vientiane Times.org.la, in Virtual Intelligence Property book by Dr Siri Souvanasi (National University of Laos),in English for Development books, edited by

Mr Boun Thanh Phong Phi chith,in ASEAN Tourism Forum (Vientiane, Lao PDR 30 Jan - 7 Feb 2004),in Pasaxon newspapers (people newspaper), in Champamay newspapers

1.6 Method and procedure

The data for analysis in the study are from two sources The first is instances of news headlines and commentary headlines collected from the Guardian weekly- one of the most formal newspapers in England The second also consists of news headlines and commentary headlines from the Vientiane Times newspaper (Vientiane Times)

All the data collected from these sources are processed quantitatively and qualitatively to investigate the similar and distinctive characteristics of the headlines to the variety of newspaper in English and Laos Nevertheless, a comparison of two particular newspapers was an important first step

Syntactically, the classification of the data is mainly based on the different types of sentences and phrases, namely statements, questions simple, complex, compound, even lengthy; sentences apart from these, the seven following sentence structures are regarded as a necessary criterion for classification:

Specifically, the procedure of the study follows these steps:

- Collecting data

- Classifying/ arranging the data in to difference types of structures

- Carrying out statistical calculations

- Describing the characteristics of the different types, of the structure in both languages

- Contrasting the structures because of the characteristics

- Generalizing and giving comments and evaluations

- Giving theoretical and practical values of the study

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES 2.1 Press - press form

The term “Press” first appeared in the form of the letter “Lagema” in an Italian newspaper in 1605 This term, however, was not used any more lately

by developed countries, instead, they used the term “Press” which means a machine for printing

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, the Press or the News Media consists of different means of communication such as newspapers, magazines radio, and television (27 p 136)

According to “Law on the press” in Vietnam ( ), the Press is defined

as follows:

The Press of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the essential means of mass media of social life; the mouthpiece of various organizations of the party, the state and social organizations and a forum for the people including printed press, which consist of newspaper, magazine, current affairs bulletins and news bulletins; spoken newspaper (radio programs); pictorial press that has television, audio visual programs carried out by different technical means

in Vietnam, language of ethnic minorities in Vietnam and foreign language (44 p 63 - 64)

was probably the Acta Diurna (Daily Events), which began in Rome in 60 B

C It reported the proceedings of the Roman senate and such news as births and deaths By the AD 800’s, the Chinese had started Ji Chau, a new sheet printed from carved wooden blocks

The first regularly printed newspaper in Europe was Avisa Relation Odder Zeitung of Strasbourg in Germany It started in 1609 Moreover, the England is first newspaper The weekly news was established in 1622

In the eighteenth century, newspapers were used by governments as- a means of promoting their interests The structures and styles were therefore formal By the nineteenth century, what can be described as “modern journalism” began with the appearance as newspaper still popular today; by

1829, “The Times” was very powerful; 1821 marked the first printing of the Manchester Guadian; later in the century, this was followed by the Daily Mail (1896); and at the beginning of the twentieth century, by the Daily Express (1900) and the Daily Mirror (1903)

Newspapers reporting became more scandalous and the style and form changed to suit the new approaches The British newspapers became renowned for their distinctive headline style and their personal and idiosyncratic reporting

According to Mr Sieng Thone the publication of newspaper in Lao came decades later than Vietnam newspaper (Nhan dan newspapers) The first newspaper was published in Vieng Xay (Hua Phan province) established in 13/08/1950 The name were (Neo Lao Issalaa newspaper) after the French invasion 1945 In addition, America imperial

Through its long history, newspapers are always a publication devoted chiefly to presenting and commenting on the news 02/12/1975 is Lao PDR’s

Independence Day and the name of Neo Lao Issalaa newspaper was changed

in to Nẵng sứ phim pắ xa sôn (people newspaper) The year later, newspapers provided an excellent means of keeping the public well informed on current events and played a vital role in shaping public opinion as well The newspaper was improved and established in English newspapers published in Lao since 07/04/1994, it was called “the Vientiane Times, newspaper.”

On the pages of modern newspapers, one finds not only news and comments on it, press reports and article, adverts and announcements, but also stories and poems, cross word puzzles, chess problems and the like Since the latter serve the purpose of entertaining the reader, they cannot be considered specimens of newspapers

2.3 Types of newspaper

According to Sara Thorne, English newspapers are often divided into two main categories: tabloids and broadsheets This is a very basic distinction and the terms mean different things to paper is printed on A2 - size paper, which is folder to A3, this is therefore smaller than the full spread of a broadsheet, which is printed on A1 and folder to A2 All the mass - circulation papers are tabloid The Broadsheet papers are also known as the

“serious” or “quality” papers; the tabloid papers are known as the “popular”

or “gutter” papers The letter definitions of size and become judgmental and evaluative

Dealing in very general terms, the Broadsheets provide information of the “truth” while the later package stories for their entertainment value

Typographically, the English broadsheet and tabloid headlines have quite different approaches Tabloids frequently use capitalization and color to draw attention to a front-page report Broadsheets, on the other hand, are much

more conservative They rarely use color, and capitalization is seen only occasionally for front-page photographs In Laos’s broadsheets, the typographical feature is more standard than in the tabloids The same size of print is used throughout except for headlines, strap line and sub headlines

In addition, the lexis chosen in headlines indicates something about the intended in headlines indicates something about the intended audience The lexis of the English broadsheets is “more specific, formal and restrained” (23

p 232), while tabloids lexis tend to be “inventive and colloquialisms are common” (23 p 232) By analyzing connotations of the words chosen and the point of view conveyed, Sara Thorne assumes that it is possible to come to conclusions about the aim of a report Let us consider one of his examples

“Tony MP found dead in stockings and suspenders” (The Sun 08/03/94)

“Fears of fresh scandal after senior party sources talk of murder MP’s dead shocks Tories” (The Guardian 08/03/95)

In the first headline, the sun is interested in the strange circumstances surrounding the death: the sexual connotations of the “stocking and suspenders” is juxtaposed with the formality of the noun phrase “Tory MP” The Guardian, on the other hand, has a different focus Its headline is not sensational; instead, it informs the reader that the death “shocks the conservative party.” The strap line uses the abstract noun “scandal,” but this only suggests that something is strange about the MP’s death This suggestion is developed by the noun “murder” but remains unspecific The focus is more political than is the sun, as the strap line and headline highlight the response of the conservative party and the effect the new scandal may have on its political standing

In Lao language, broadsheets and tabloids also approach the same event from different angles (Two angles of newspaper)

When the Russian films started yesterday at the Lao National culture hall for example, different newspapers reported the event in different ways:

+ Pợt săp pắ đa hụp ngâu Russia (Pasaxon: 05 - 11/5/2005)

- Russia films screened, “Open screened: Russia film week”

Together with the lexis, the style of headlines is as important They need

to be simple, but must also create impact Broadsheets and tabloids aim to fulfill these criteria in very different ways The headlines accompanying a broadsheet report will usually be informative and straightforward while a tabloid will aim for a different kind of simplicity

The tabloid’s formal approach and their emphasis on human-interest stories can create a very personal and emotive appeal to the reader To illustrate this, let us compare the two examples given by Sara Thorne

“Three - day week for MPS” (The observer: 19/03/1995) “clinging to life, clinging to hope” (The Sun Express: 19/03/1995)

In the first example, the event is reported clearly and directly to its formal audience by the observer The headline in the second example, however, is typically emotive to match the emotive content of the report: a 4 year - old girl’s battle with cancer It uses parallelism to juxtapose the

abstract nouns “life and hope” which immediately attract the reader’s attention

The repetition of the present participle “clinging” emphasizes both the closeness of death and the power of the little girl and her family to fight it Similarly, Lao tabloids often focus on something usually about the news and event to look for the sensation in the readers even when reporting on the typical news

+ Wặt phu Chăm pa sắc mo rặ đốc Lao, mo rặ đốc lộc

- WatPhou Champasack (temple), Lao heritage, world heritage (The Champamay news 15 - 19/03/2004)

The headline sounds formal and serious at the beginning but it suddenly disrupts the collocation to create curiosity in the reader This gives the headline a less formal tone and can suggest that the journalist is not being serious about the issue

Broadsheets, on the other hand, tend to aim for a factual interpretation of the event The tone is restrained and controlled but still informative This can

be seen in this example:

+ Nẵng sứ phim Viêng Chăn Times nay khỏ mun máy vi tính

- Vientiane Times on CD-ROM (Vientiane Times: 05/05/2005)

Newspapers can be classified in term of “broadsheet” and tabloid

However, it is important to remember that the differences between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers are not always clear cut-broadsheets do sometimes adopt some features typically associated with the tabloids and vice versa

Whether broadsheet or tabloid paper, the ideology of the owner and the editor dictates the kind if stories printed and the political views transmitted to

the reader The political learning of a paper, however, may vary in degree according the kind of story reported

2.4 Functions of newspapers

It is newspaper-printing matter that performs the functions of informing the reader, providing them with an evaluation of information published, and through this, shaping the public opinion

The first function of newspapers is informing the public This is the journalist’s chief duty Reporters represent the public at events that most people cannot observe journalists; therefore, have an obligation to be accurate

to tell all sides of a story They also have the responsibility of deciding which events have enough importance or news value to be reported Citizens especially need good information about current political events to help them decide which candidate to vote for and whether to support certain policies of the government Only through reliable reporting, can people make intelligent decisions about how they want to be governed However, many people do not have background knowledge or specialized information needed to understand complicated issues: For this reason, journalists not only report views, but they also explain and analyze it through interpretive reporting

The second function of newspapers can be carried out by the means editorials and commentaries Through editorials, the newspapers of a news organization express its views on current issues and attempt to persuade the public to adopt the same view

Many editorials encourage the action that a news organization will benefit the country, For example, an editorial might urge citizens to approve a school bond proposal or to vote for a certain candidate for president News organizations might also use editorials to fight for various social reforms,

fight against the law - breaking acts and other negative acts Newspapers also try to influence public opinions of individual journalists rather than those of the management of a newspaper Many news organizations regularly publish commentaries that differ with management editorials This practice helps provide a balanced approach to issues

2.5 Headline

According to Galperin G (1981), “The headline is the title given to a news items or an article and regarded as a dependent from of newspaper writing” [7 p 302] it is, in fact, a part of a larger whole and closely interrelated to the topic discussed in the article

The headline exists in a very short time This is because of the enormous quantity of circulated issues In addition, the number of the headlines is too many for the reader to remember

According to David Crystal and Derek Davy, ( year xxxx) “headlines of course are a separate study in themselves Being radically different from the rest of newspaper reporting language” [3, p 180]

In the book Advance English Grammar for high learners, Mr Samlan Khamying defined that the headline of the article as “an element to distinguish which article is more important than others” [46, p 77]

2.6 Classification of headlines

According to Sara Thorne, there are three kinds of headline: the main headline will be larger than the others and many occasionally be in color to draw the reader’s attention; the strap line or over line is the secondary headline that appears above the main one it is used to provides extra information or to clarify the main headline; the last kind is the sub - headline which follows the main headline, and qualifies and elaborates it [23, p 234]

The Vietnamese textbook writer, however, has various ways of classifying the headline

+ Tạ Ngọc Tấn and Nguyễn Tiến Hài classified the news headlines into two main kinds because of the characteristics and the forms: the simple headline and the complex headline

The former is defined as a complete unit of language such as a sentence

or a phrase; the latter consists of more than one part, the main headline and the sub-headline [48, p 111 - 112]

+ Lê Hồng Quang, another Vietnamese author, based on the content and function of the informing headline used with the articles that inform the reader of a certain happening the second is the influencing headline for the editorials or commentaries [45, p 76 -77]

The classification used in the thesis, however, is the combination of the above ones, the headline chosen as the subject of study in the thesis is the main headline of both news and commentary articles has the functions of informing and/ or influencing the readers

2.7 The functions of headlines

As an indispensable part of an article, the headline has the same functions as the articles; informing and influencing the readers The main function of the headline, however, according to Galperin, is “to inform the reader briefly of what the text that follows is about” [7, p 302]

According to David Crystal and Derek Davy, the function of headline is more complex As an important part of the paper, “headlines have to contain

a clear; succinct and if possible intriguing message, to kindle a spark of interest in the potential reader” [3, p.174-177]

Apart from these, the headlines also perform the function of instructing the reader that is, they contain elements of appraisal, i.e they show the journalists, or the paper’s attitude to the facts reported or commented on

Some headlines can be fully understood only after reading the article The “clever” headline is a feature of all shades of the British press Other headlines are more straightforward Some, indeed, are quite long, reflecting the original layout of the article, maybe over a number of columns or across the top of the picture However, we should avoid implying that the content of newspaper articles can always be deduced by studying the headlines

Galperin also had similar remarks about the headlines According to him,

“English headlines are short and catching” [7, p 303] A well-written headline often tells a story, or enough of it, to arouse or satisfy the reader’s curiosity

Therefore, sensational headlines are quite common in English newspapers

In order to catch a reader's attention, headlines need to be “simple, easily readable and appropriate to the kind of newspapers in which they are printed” [23, p 234] The choice of words for a headline is affected by the idea to be express and the kind of reader associated with a newspaper and its style

Briefly, as described by Le Hong Quang, headline must be “eye - catching, clear, easily understandable, brief, active, concise, informative, and suitable to the article” [45, p 71 - 75]

2.9 Relationships between the headline and the article

As previously mentioned, the headline is usually considered a brief summary of the whole article That is, the topic discussed in the article is normally expressed in the headline

Consequently, there is a close relationship between the headline and the article On the other hand, the content of the article is generally implied in the topic sentence Because of this, the link between the headline and the article

is also the one between the headline and the topic sentence

In general, most of the topic sentences contain the content mentioned in the headline develop and elaborate it on the basis of the so - called “five - w - and - h - rule” (who, what, why, where, when, how), which is chiefly used in the news reports This connection is carried out through the means of lexical repetitions and synonyms the two of the five effective methods of maintaining the topic in the article

Some articles, nevertheless, do not have any topic sentences to develop and describe the event mentioned in the headline Thus, the headline itself also functions as the topic sentence, providing the information about the topic that will be discussed in details in the article

Due to inseparable link between the headline and the article, the study of the headlines cannot be properly done without referring to the article that develops the headline

Then, the headline can be fully understood just after reading the entire article In such cases, the article itself provides the basis needed to understand headline precisely

2.10 Sub - headlines

The sub - headline is another kind of headline and can easily be recognized through the smaller word size It is clearly seen that the sub - headline is more widely used in English newspapers than is Laos ones This may be because the Laos newspapers are in the process of integrating in to the newspaper style of the developed countries

The sub - headline, therefore, has some characteristics similar to those of the headline, namely the omission of the auxiliary or the articles, the use of elliptical sentences, the strong and conversational languages as seen in the following examples:

+ Thàn pắ than Khăm Tay đạy kào và: “sắn tí phạp, mịt tắ phạp lẹ

khuam pong đong lặ vàng xạt mèn pậu mái vị vặt thặ na kan ăn nhưn nhông”

- Said Kham Tay: “long - live to the cause of peace, friendship, and cooperation among nations for development” (the headline)

+ Pắ than pắ thệt sắ đeng khuam đi chay nay văn sắ lóng bun văn xạt khóng Lao (the sub-headline) (Vientiane Times newspaper: 02 /12/2004)

- President talks of proud achievement on Lao National day (02 /12/2004)

Consequently, the sub-headline can be seen as a relatively independent part of the article that follow the headline Neither does it belong to the headline nor to the article It not only functions as a summary of the topic developed and elaborated in the article but supports and clarifies the headline

a Brief news items

A brief news item is the sub - type of the news reports containing very brief structures of language It is mainly aimed at informing the reader about different fields1 of social life in brief language

This function is considered the most important and essential one of brief news items Besides this, the size of brief news item varies from one sentence

to several short paragraphs

b News reports

The news report (the news article) is one of the main parts of a newspaper Its functions is to report the events that are very up - to - date and interest a lot of people The events reported are usually about what has just

happened or is still going on at the time of reporting In English newspapers, the sensational news stories concerning the secret and personal life of famous people (actors, actress, singers, politicians ) the conflicts and violence, the environment pollution are through to be most appealing to the reader

Laos news reports, on the other hand, tend to focus on the official visits

of the politicians important meetings, the production and culture activities happening all over the country in daily life

c Commentaries

The commentary is a very important article which is characterized by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise A part from this, other articles in opinion columns are typically evaluative and the ratio of evaluation varies from article to article

The function of the commentary is to inform the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts They comment on the political and other events

of the day The purpose is to give the writer’s opinion, and interpretation of the news published suggests that it is the correct one

Thus, writers of commentaries make extensive use of emotionally colored vocabulary and the language is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary, which enhances the emotional effect

As a consequence, the commentaries in English newspapers can be easily recognized through the words “Comment and Analysis” “Opinion”,

“Commentary” (the Guardian weekly) Similarly, the commentaries in Laos newspapers can be simply figured out with words:

“khỏ khịt hến” (commentary), “khào lộc”, “khào tàng pắ thệt” (world news)

“neo khịt kiều kắp kan phặt thặ na” (development concept) (English for Development edited by Mr Bounthan Phong Phi Chit)

In Laos, the term “Xừ lường” (title) is used with the same meaning as the English term “headline”, which can be understood as the title given to an article in a newspaper

In journalism, the headline has a vary import and role It is the part that first communicates with the reader What is more, it can create and attract the attention and interest of the audience to the piece of writing As a result, the journalists not only pay much attention to the headline writing but also to the designing the headlines [48, p 111 - 112]

2.12 Summary

Newspapers in English and Laos are various in kinds (tabloids and broadsheets) and forms (spoken/ written newspapers) The written (printed) newspaper is a very important form of press Though it has the same functions

as other forms and kinds of newspapers, it still has its own peculiarities in language and style

Linguistically, the articles in the newspaper are often represented by the headlines (the title or the name of the article) It is the headlines that help the reader make quick decisions to read or skip the article when reading a newspaper

In order to carry out this special function, the headline must be designed

in such a way that can appeal the reader to the article and succinctly summarize the article simultaneously Also, the headlines, especially the ones

of news articles and commentaries contains the characteristic features in syntactic, semantic and stylistic structures which make it distinctive from other parts of a newspaper And these kinds of structure in headlines are the subject of study in the thesis

CHAPTER 3 DESCRIPTION OF STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH NEW HEADLINES 3.1 Syntactical structures of English newspaper headlines

3.1.1 Syntactical structures of English news headlines

In general, English news headlines are briefly written The average length of a news headline is approximately 8 words

According to Galperin, English news headlines are “very short sentences and phrases of a variety of patterns” [7, p 304] The simple statements, noun phrases and elliptical sentences are the main sentence types in English news headlines The frequency of the types of sentences and phrases in statistically done as follows:

Table 3.1 Syntactical structures of English news headlines

in such way that can attract the reader’s attention Therefore, the statement type sentences are the most commonly used in English news headlines

Most of the statement - type headlines, however, are made up of the S +

V + O pattern (39%) and the S+ V+O+A (26%) This shown that the headlines writers tend to focus on the two main elements “who” and “what” rather than on the other elements when they write the headlines of the type For example:

- (Mexican police) (seize) (1.3 tones of cocaine)

In journalist’s manuals, reporters are advised to avoid cramming too many ideas into one sentence A sentence should communicate no more than one idea or two connected ideas and should not exceed a maximum of 30 words The English news headlines are generally written to meet these requirements They are quite short and often express only one idea

Apart from the statement type sentences, the English news headlines are also written in the form of noun phrases (14%) This is one of the features of

the English headlines most of the noun phrases in headlines contain a head noun and a modifier or qualifier Rarely do we find the headlines that consist

of only the head noun, they are usually qualified or modified by a phrase or word preceding and/or following it, for example:

- (Iraqi) (PM) in (Tehran on historical visit)

Adj N Prep.P

[TENRAN (Xinhuanet):18 - 24/ 07/2005]

In this example, the head noun “Prime Minister” (PM) is both modified

by the adjectives “Iraqi” and qualified by the prepositional phrase “on historical visit” The headline describes the important meeting of the Tehran capital, which marks a very significant point in the history the two countries The visit is also the diplomatic intercommunion of the highest level between the two countries since the outbreak of the 1980 - 1988 war So, all the elements in this noun phrase are of equal importance and they all contribute

to attract the reader to the article

All the noun phrases, statements and other types of sentences and phrases in the headlines contain omitted elements These elliptical sentences are also common in headlines (10%)

According to Michael Mc.Carthy, “ellipsis is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the writer assumes are obvious from the context and before need not to be raised” [17, p.43] The most commonly omitted elements are the determiners, especially the article (84%) In addition the grammatical function words, copula verbs and auxiliaries are also frequently omitted.Take this as an example:

- UNEP head awarder 2005 Theodor Heuss Prize

The direct speech is another characteristics of news headlines News headlines mainly use direct speech by quoting the extract words spoken by an individual or taken from a certain source The direct speech is usually made

up of a quoting clause like “says SM” or “SM says” and a quoted clause which contains actual words spoken as in the following example:

“Gang’s bombing of people was illegal” Says SM

Quoted clause Quoting clause

[Bangkok(Xinhuanet):16-22/02/2003]

By using the direct quotation, the journalist of this headline can vividly recreate the personal opinion of the member of rebel that a gang who attacks people in the quoting clause “says spokes man”, the position of the subject and reporting verb can be interchanged That is, the verb “say” can come before the subject “SM” without changing the meaning and the quoting clause are often inverted in the news headlines as well

The compound sentence is another noticeable characteristic in English news headline Though these sentences are not very common in the headline (8%), they still prove to be very useful for the long headlines In this sentence

structure, the information often organized into two independent clauses which are connected by a coordinator to create parallelism between the two clauses For instance

- Three Indonesian migrant workers killed and several injured in ethnic clash

S1 V1 Coordinator S2 V2 Prep - P [KUALALAMPUR (AP) 21 - 27 / 04 / 2004]

- Thousands feared dead as tidal waves hit Srilanka

S1 V1 co-ordinator S2 V2 O2

[COLOMBO (Xinhuanet) : 21 - 27 / 12 / 2004]

The statement - type and compound - type headlines are mostly in the active form (95%) The use of active voice for focusing on the subject of the active sentences (the Agent) Take this for an example:

- Putin, Bush pledge to continue fighting terrorism

Having omitted in agent in the first example, the headline writer wants to

focus on the fact that the UNEP head who Theodor Heuss Prize has been awarded 2005

In other cases, in + agent is killed where the information is uncertain or

the writer wants to avoid making the libelous statements

In the second example, South of Baghdad as the object of the active sentence is brought into the initial position to draw attention to this character

and of cause this is the focus of the headline, which is worth emphasizing

[In + agent] in this case, nevertheless, is not left out but still put at the

end of the passive sentence as its presence is necessary: At least has been killed in suicide bombing south of Baghdad

3.1.2 Syntactical structures of English - commentary headlines

Syntactically, English commentary headlines are made up of various structures and very short The average length of a commentary headline is about 6 words The majority of these headlines are noun phrases, statements and verbs phrases in the following table as show

Table 3.2 Syntactical structures of English commentary headlines

- Working outside the country

[UN news (Xinhuanet): 10 - 16 /02/2005]

- Giving women the choices they need for a better life

[UN news (Xinhuanet): 19 - 25/07/2005]

to evaluate the abstract subjects For instance

- US sends condolences to victims

[CRAWFORD Texas (AP) 28/06/2005]

In this example, the abstract noun “Victims” is modified by the verb

“sends” The So - Called “victims” about us condolences

Together with the noun phrase, many headlines of these articles are statements (30%) And most of the statements contain the S + V + O Structure (8%) the S + V + A (6%)

- (Bush starts) (visit) (to Japan on beef alliance)

In addition to the noun phrases and statements, the verb phrases in commentary headlines also have a considerable position (14%) In transformational grammar the verb phrase is defined as the part of a sentence which contains the main verb and also any objects, complements or adverbial (s) In the commentary headlines, almost all the verb phrases start with a

“V - ing” form and followed by an object or complement and they tend to emphasize the action and the object of the action For examples:

- (Lifting) (the wimbledon crown)

V O

[BEIJING (Xinhuanet): 07 /13/ 12/2004]

- (Keeping) (military forces in Iraq)

V O

[WASHINGTON (Xinhuanet): 23-29/12/2004]

Another remarkable feature of English commentary headlines is that the omitted elements can be found in most of the headlines without changing the meaning The ellipsis can be done to the determiners, copula verb “be” and even the ordinary verb or a part of a sentence as in the following example:

- Iraq government was considering (CAMP FALLUJAH Iraq (AP)

A distinctive feature which helps distinguish the commentary headlines from the news one is the use of command (imperative sentences) (6%) Let us take this as an example:

Nepalese king sacks govt.[KATHMANDU (Xinhuanet): 03-09/03/2005]

In the example, the journalist uses the imperative “sacks fort” to express his attitude and opinion, also the one of the peace It is through this use of command that the journalist can voice his/her attitudes to the fact at the very beginning after of article

Apart from all the above types of sentences and phrases the passive

sentences (6%), the adjective phrases (4%) the prepositional phrases (20%), questions (4%) With some omitted elements are also found in commentary headlines though their frequency is not very high

The use of syntactical structures, nevertheless, is more diverse in the commentaries than in the news The presence of imperative sentences and questions, adjective phrases and prepositional phrases shows that the headlines writers of the kind of article begin to look at the news and events discussed

3.2 Syntactical structures of Laos headlines

3.2.1 Syntactical structures of Laos news headlines

As for Vientiane times newspaper, newspaper headlines are written in

the shortest sentences and phrases of various patterns

According to the statistics, however, the number of noun phrases and

statements holds a dominant position in the total headlines in a newspaper

This can be seen in the following table

Table 3.3 Syntactical structures of Laos news headlines

Type of sentence

Statement 56

- Pắ than ông kan thặ nặ khan phặt thặ na A sia đạy

ma diệm dam Lao

(ADB President to visit Laos) (VientianeTimes

05/04/2005) -Pắ than pắ thệt đạy sồng thô lặ lệc sắ đeng khuam

sảu chay thấng pắ thệt Singapore

(President sends message of condolence to sigapore)

-Băn đa khoéng phạc nứa pọt chạc da phìn (bò mi da

vịt thì đi khóng phuộc kháu

(Giving women the choices they need for a better life)

-Nường nay ô kạt văn xạt khộp họp sao kạu pi khóng

sá tha lặ nặ lặt pắ xa thị pắ tay pắ xa sôn Lao (On the occasion of the 29th Anniverary of the Lao

PDR) (Vientiane Times: 02/12/2004) -Kòn chắ xịn đươn Mi Na khọp khau khóng Đeng chắ

đạy dù htì nị ịc khộp họp nừng pi

- (By the end of March the Mr Dengs will have been

here for a year) (Advanced book)

The average news headline consists of approximately12-18 words The highest percentage of statements can help the journalist keepthe headlines reasonably short as well as provide enough details about the news events to catch the reader’s attention Structurally, the statements contain various sentence patterns among which the S + V + O pattern is the most

commonly used (27%) And then the S + V + O + A pattern is in the second place (17%) For instance:

- Xe set 2 to increase hydropower in the south (VientianeTimes:17/11

So this pattern is really needed for such a kind of news Rarely do we find the headline containing the short “S + V” pattern as in “Poultry sales up” (Vientiane Times: 10/02/2005)

+(Pết, kày khửn la kha)

Though such a brief headline meets the quantitative standard, it may not

be self-contained enough to catch the reader’s eyes

Together with the statements, many headlines are noun phrases (20%) and verb phrases (13%) This is another peculiarity of Laos news headlines the use of noun phrase and verb phrase in headline writing proves that the summarizing of the content of the article in the headlines tend to be nominalized as in the following examples:

- Northern provinces free from opium (Vientiane Times: 19/05/2005) + (Băn đa khoéng) (phạc nữa) (pa sắ chạc da phìn, bò mi da phìn)

kan hảy” (Pre - closing) The two headlines, however, tend to name the events rather than describe them

Some other news headlines, nevertheless, are made up of the prepositional phrases though this type of phrase is not very common (5%) These are some examples:

+ (Kòn chắ xịn) (đươn Mi Na khọp khua khóng Đeng chắ đạy dù thì nị ịc khộp họp nừng pi)

- On their way to a better future (Vientiane Times: 14/06/2005)

According to the statistics, the majority of the prepositions (the heads) in such phrases are “Đuội, tam” (By) and “Nay, pay tam” (On) Such a repetition

of the save noun phrases may cause boredom to the reader, but in fact it is noun that follow the preposition and verb phrase that can satisfy the reader These noun phrases are really the main part of the preposition phrases

3.2.2 Syntactical structures of Laos commentary headlines

Generally the Laos commentary headlines are often introduced by the strapline dealing with the topics about which a series of commentary articles are concerned For example, under the same title of the section

“Kan lẹc piền khuam hến” (Opinion exchange) which deals with the subject + Hệt neo đay phừa pọng kăn pắ xa sôn pộn chạc phặ nhạt?

- How do people protect themselves from disease?

The following headlines are written:

+Phặ nhạt tít tò phè lặ bat chạc khôn phủ nừng pi há ịc phủ nừng

- A communicable disease speads from one person to another (English for Development)

+ Đạy hặp khuam thục tho lặ man chạc phặ nhạt

- To suffer from a disease.(English for development book)

+ Phặ nhạt khảy ma la ria nay lặ vàng lặ đu phốn

- Malaria in the rainy season (Vientiane Times: 29/5/2005)

It can be clearly seen that under the same strapline, there are several headlines and articles written and each focuses on commenting on an aspect

of the subject mentioned

Some other commentary headlines, however, are presented by only the same section title For example under the same strapline

“Nắng sữ phim Lao lãi sắ bắp đạy vậu và” (Lao papers say) a series of commentaries issued on May 06 2005 with different headlines

+ Nặ khon luãng Viêng chăn mi khuam sắ ạt khửn (xuái ngam)

- Vientiane cleans up (Vientiane Mai, April 29.2005)

+ Băn hã lột mê

- Bus problems (Van A Thith newspaper 01/05/2005)

+ Phủ xuáy ô kat nhạt xing xặp

- Bag snatchers thieve (Van A Thith newspaper 01/05/2005)

There is another kind of section title known as “Hèng băn na thị kan” This kind of commentary article, in fact, expresses the opinion of the Editorial board, explaining or criticizing a social phenomenon, an event or a particular individual The distinction between this kind of editorial and the other commentaries is that the editorials express the view of the newspaper whereas

the other political and social commentaries expose the personal views of individual journalists about the news and events Functionally, the editorials and other commentary articles are not different from each other as they comment on or evaluate an event or news of public interest It is due to this reason that the thesis considers these two kinds of article as the same commentary one to study

Statistically, the average length of a Laos commentary headline is about 8-17 words The majority of the commentary headlines are noun phrases (38%) and verb phrases (28%) For more details, let us seem to be following table :

Table 3.4 Syntactical structures of Laos commentary headlines

- Tăm luàt đạy kắc tua phủ tọng sống sáy pụn khăm

(Police detain gold robbery suspects) (Vientiane Times 06/05/2005)

- Chồng chẹng nắng sữ phàn đen khóng thàn!

(Get your barcordes now!) (Vientiane Times 09/02/2005)

- Thộp thuan kiều kắp không kan a hán lộc dù nay Lao (Looking back : WFP in Lao PDR) Vientiane Times 29.11.2004)