Transcript Grammar of Headlines

Grammar of Headlines
Commercial translation
Introduction
• You will hardly ever find a complete sentence
in newspaper headlines. Headlines tend to be
short and to the point.
• The following are some of the rules of
headlines grammar.
Noun Phrases
• Many headlines consist of a string of noun
phrases with no verb.
More water cuts in city
Oil prices hike after explosions
Recession warning for Russia
China real estate firm at risk of bankruptcy
Noun Strings
Some headlines consist of a string of three, four
or more nouns together. It's helpful to try to
connect the ideas by reading backward.
Widow Pension Pay Committee
Landscaping Company Disturbance Regulations
Mustang Referral Customer Complaint
There is a complaint made by a customer about a
referral program for Mustang cars.
Various Verb Changes
• Headlines don’t follow the rules of English
verb tenses.
• The past tense is rarely used.
• The perfect and progressive are simplified into
the simple tense.
• Auxiliaries are omitted.
• Verb (to be) is omitted
Simple present tense
• It is often used instead of continuous or perfect
tenses.
• Present tenses are used for both present and past
events.
Connecticut boosts minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017
Winter hits housing recovery
Ares Management files for IPO (instead of)
Ares Management has filed for IPO in the New York Stock
Exchange.
Use infinitives for future events
• Infinitives are often used to refer to the future
in headlines.
PM to visit Russia in May
South Carolina plant to become BMW's largest
Weibo to list on Nasdaq
Ukraine to get $18 billion from IMF
Passive voice
• Only past participles are used with the passive
voice. So forms like held, killed, assaulted,
detained, murdered etc., are usually past
participles with passive meanings, but not in the
simple past tense.
Compare:
UK woman assaulted and killed.
( A UK woman has been assaulted and killed.)
UK woman assaults kidnapper.
( A UK woman has assaulted her kidnapper.)
Progressive tense
• The present progressive is used to describe
changes.
Trade figures improving
Graduate student loans ballooning
Borrowers making mortgage payments a priority
over credit cards
Leave out auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs are dropped in the passive form.
Man Killed in Accident
A Man has been killed in an accident.
Over 100 killed in blast
Over 100 people were killed in a blast.
New policy decided by Parliament
(New policy has been decided by Parliament)
Four stranded in sudden flood
(four people have been stranded / were stranded)
Leave out “to be”
Omit “be” in its various forms, except when
emphasized
Trade figures improving
Graduate student loans ballooning
Borrowers making mortgage payments a priority
over credit cards
Leave out “to say”
Reported speech is usually represented by a
colon, or a hyphen. No reporting verbs such
as comment, tell, argue, announce, shout are
used – unless the act of speaking needs
emphasizing.
Bush on Iraqi invasion: ‘This aggression will not
stand’
Use colon for said or says
Use single quotation marks
Drop Articles
Both definite and indefinite articles are also
dropped in newspaper headlines.
President Declares Celebration
Indian-American woman assaulted
Lawyer wants recalled GM cars off the road
Nissan recalls 1 million vehicles due to airbag flaw
Lawsuit alleges GM botched recall
Punctuation not conjunctions
As with reporting speech, commas, colons, semicolons, hyphens and so on can replace all
conjunctions, or some joining verbs, to join clauses.
Commas may also be used to join nouns.
Man kills 5, self
Police arrest serial killer – close case on abductions
Fire in bakery: hundreds dead
Never end a headline with a period.
Use figures for numbers
Never spell out numbers. Use figures.
9 dead in glue catastrophe
7 days to Christmas – shoppers go mad
New GM recall affects 1.3 million cars
China's factories hit 8-month low
‫العناوين اإلخبارية باللغة العربية‬
‫العناوين اإلخبارية باللغة العربية‬
‫• تصاغ بطريقتين‪:‬‬
‫• جملة فعلية يقدم فاعلها على الفعل‪.‬‬
‫برنت يتماسك فوق ‪ 107‬دوالرات للبرميل‬
‫مؤسس فيسبوك يجنى أكثر من ‪ 3‬مليارات من بيع األسهم‬
‫• اسماء أو مصادر تعرف باالضافة‬
‫تغريم بنك سانتاندر بريطانيا ‪ 12.4‬مليون جنيه استرليني‬
‫انخفاض مستوى التضخم في منطقة اليورو إلى ‪ 0.5‬في المئة في مارس‬
‫العناوين اإلخبارية باللغة العربية‬
‫جملة فعلية يقدم فاعلها على الفعل‪ ،‬يكون الفعل مضارعا وإن‬
‫كان الحدث في الماضي‪.‬‬
‫نيكاي يغلق مرتفعاً عند أعلى مستوى في ‪ 3‬أسابيع‬
‫سوق األسهم السعودية تعزز مكاسبها وسط أجواء التفاؤل‬
‫ألمانيا تتوقع رفع الفائدة األوروبية‬
‫المركزي الروسي يتعهد باالستقرار ويثبت أسعار الفائدة‬
‫العناوين اإلخبارية باللغة العربية‬
‫تكتب األعداد باستخدام األرقام ال الكلمات‪.‬‬
‫جنرال موتورز تستدعي ‪ 1.3‬مليون سيارة لخلل فني‬
‫نقص اإلمدادات يرفع خام برنت فوق ‪ 107‬دوالرات‬
‫انخفاض حجم االنتاج الصناعي في اليابان بنسبة ‪ 2,3‬بالمئة‬
‫‪ % 6‬نمو واردات الصين من النفط اإليراني في فبراير‬
‫أكثر من ‪ 4.4‬مليار درهم مبيعات العقار في دبي بأسبوع‬
‫العناوين اإلخبارية باللغة العربية‬
‫عند االقتباس أو النقل يكتب اسم الشخص أو الجهة في البداية‬
‫ويتبع بنقطتين رأسيتين‪.‬‬
‫ألمانيا‪ :‬شركة طيران تلغي ‪ 3800‬رحلة بسبب إضراب طيارين‬
‫المركزي اليوناني‪ :‬أكبر ‪ 4‬بنوك تحتاج ‪ 6.4‬مليار يورو‬
‫تقرير‪ :‬ارتفاع أسعار العقارات في دبي بالربع األول‬
‫محللون‪ :‬هبوط حاد لألسهم اليابانية في التعامالت المبكرة‬