Abstract:With the rapid development of economic globalization and information industry, the world is gradually turning into a global village. Our life is flooded with all kinds of news every day, which make us keep breathing with the world. News communication becomes more and more important to the political, economic and cultural exchange between China and the world. Events happening beyond our borders may have great impact on our life. 

Because of its special characteristics, English news plays a more and more important role in the communication between China and the outside world. It has become a window through which we know the world. As an essential part of news, a news headline is the summary and concentration of a piece of news. As an old saying goes, ‘A good beginning is half the battle’. It highlights the importance of news headlines. English News translation, especially the translation of news headlines is one of the most significant means to promote cultural communication and to enhance mutual understanding. Therefore, it’s meaningful to study its Chinese translation. 

This dissertation mainly focuses on the stylistic features of English news headlines and their translations. First, it is about the two major features, one is vocabulary, including the frequent use of clipped words, initialisms, midget words and nouns; the other one is its grammatical features including tense, syntax and voice. As the newspaper space is limited, vocabulary and grammatical features are commonly used in news headlines. A news headlines is regarded to be critical important in a piece of news. Second, the paper compares Chinese headlines with English headlines from four aspects; third, the principles and methods of translation are the highlight of this paper. In this part, five different methods of translation, namely, literal translation, liberal translation, adaptation, simplification and amplification, will be discussed respectively. Headlinese involves a wide range of knowledge and variety in features; therefore, their translation should be flexible with these five translation methods.

Key words: news headline; stylish features; translation

Table of Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Definition and Functions of News Headlines-2

2.1 Definition of news headlines-2

2.2 Functions of news headlines-2

3. Stylistic Features of English News Headlines-3

3.1 Lexical features of news headlines-3

3.1.1 The use of abbreviation-3

3.1.2 Frequent use of nouns and midget words-5

3.2 Grammatical features of news headlines-6

3.2.1 Tense-7

3.2.2 Syntax-8

3.2.3 Voice-10

4, Differences Between English and Chinese News Headlines-11

4.1 Difference in emphasis-11

4.2 Difference in diction and length-11

4.3 Difference in tense-11

4.4 Difference in the entry word-12

5. Translation of English News Headlines-13

5.1 Principles of English news headline translation-13

5.2 Methods of English news headline translation-13

5.2.1 Literal translation-14

5.2.2 Free translation-15

5.2.3 Adaptation-16

5.2.4 Amplification-16

5.2.5 Simplification-17

6. Conclusion-19

References-20

Acknowledgements-21