Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract

摘要

Chapter 1 Brief Introduction-1

  1.1 Background of the Study-1

  1.2 Previous Study on Translation of English News Headline-1

  1.3 Significance and Objective of the Study-2

  1.4 Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter 2 Literature Review-3

  2.1 Definition of News Headline-3

  2.2 Functions of news headline-3

 2.2.1 To Summarize the Content-3

 2.2.2 To Attract Readers’ Attention-4

 2.2.3 To Comment on News-4

  2.3 Requirements of News Headline-4

 2.3.1 Being Accurate-4

 2.3.2 Being Timely-4

 2.3.3 No Overreaching-5

  2.4 Classifications of News Headline-5

 2.4.1 Classification According to the Nature of Headline-5

 2.4.2 Classification According to the Forms of Headline-6

  2.5 The Introduction of Skopos Theory-7

Chapter 3 Translation of English News Headline-8

  3.1 Features of English News Headline-8

 3.1.1 Lexical Features of News Headline-8

3.1.1.1 Wild Use of Neologisms-8

3.1.1.2 Preference for Short Words-8

3.1.1.3 Frequent Use of Abbreviations-9

3.1.1.4 Active Verbs-9

 3.1.2 Grammatical Features of News Headline-9

3.1.2.1 Different Tense-9

3.1.2.2 Subject Omission-10

3.1.2.3 Active Voice vs Passive Voice-10

3.1.2.4 Use of Punctuations-10

 3.1.3 Rhetorical Features of News Headline-11

3.1.3.1 Use of Alliteration-11

3.1.3.2 Use of Pun-11

3.1.3.3 Use of Parody-12

3.1.3.4 Use of Antithesis-12

3.1.3.5 Use of Metaphor-12

  3.2 Translation Strategies of English News Headline-12

 3.2.1 From the Perspective of Lexical Features-13

3.2.1.1 Handling Short Words-13

3.2.1.2 Handling Abbreviations-13

 3.2.2 From the Perspective of Grammatical Features-13

3.2.2.1 Handling Tense-13

3.2.2.2 Handling Omission-14

 3.2.3 From the Perspective of Rhetorical Features-14

3.2.3.1 Handling Alliteration and Rhyme-14

3.2.3.2 Handling Pun-15

Chapter 4 Conclusion-16

References-17

Abstract

People have entered the era of information explosion. They are surrounded by a mass of news every day. More and more people need to exchange information with other parts of the world and pay close attention to the current trends in order to have better communication and common progress. We clearly see that reading news reports has become an effective means of quickly getting the latest information for people.

 Due to the strong timeliness of news reports and the large amount of newspaper information, news headlines must be highly summarized, concise and vivid, which have unique characteristics.

 As one of the most important processes in news translation, title translation has been a research focus for many researchers. Briefly speaking, news headlines, as the punchline of news reports, have its own lexical, grammatical and rhetorical features. Therefore, the translation of news headlines plays an important role in the translation of news reports. It is necessary to further study the characteristics, translation skills. This thesis discusses the features and translation skills of English news headlines. 

Keywords: news headline  features  strategies