Some peculiarities of the newspaper language

One of the main difficulties of the newspaper language represents the translation of newspaper headlines. They have got some peculiarities:

1. Grammar

• Most articles, personal pronouns and link-verbs (especially to be) are omitted.

E.g. (The) Flue (is) on (the) increase.

• A simple form of the verb is used; certain verb forms are used in place of others: The Present Indefinite usually stands for the Past Indefinite or the Present Perfect; the Present Participle usually indicates an action in process at the tune of publication, corresponding to the Present Continuous or tin Present Perfect Continuous.

• Use of elliptical sentences with the preposition "for".

E.g. British envoy for talks (is heading).

• Inverted word order: to emphasize a member of the sentence; it is usually separated from the rest of it by a colon or dash.

E.g. Ireland: rallying for peace and better life. (the place of the action is emphasized).

Factory Closes – 6,000 jobless (a direct result of the action).

• The frequent use of passive constructions.

• Phrases consisting of two nouns one of which modifies the other: city news, Britain's Parliament, price controls.

The infinitive is used to express the fact that something is going to happen in the future. E.g. President To Visit Mine.

2. Punctuation Marks in Headlines

The comma

– takes place of and: Income, spending up sharply;

– is used with its normal function of separating words in a list: Massive, mobile UN forces.

The colon

– is used after a word or phrase to explain it: Washington prediction: slow growth, no recession;

– following a name, tells what a person said without quoting his or her exact words: Junkie: I will take a test.

3. Lexical pecularities.

• Some newspapers enjoy making jokes in their headlines by playing on words or punning.

An announcement that a woman working at the Mars chocolate company had got an interesting new job was: Woman from Mars to be first Briton in spасе.

• Editors have developed newspaper English. Although like slang, it is always in a state of flux, here are some words that have been very common lately.

1. As distinct from their Russian equivalents the following nouns are singular in number.

the horror of Vietnam – ужасы войны во Вьетнаме; 5 million people; news;

Information – сведения; evidence – показания; debate – прения.

2. As distinct from their Russian equivalents the following nouns are plural in number, wages, contents – содержание, imports – импорт.

3. Short words for long (see the whole list of short words in the Supplement 1)

aid – fund-raising

axe – cancel, dismiss, cut

ban, bar – prohibit, prevent

bid – attempt

4. Curtailed words

ad – advertisement

info – information

demo – demonstration

pro – professional

tech – technology

5. Media and social euphemisms

explicit – obscene, pornographic

senior citizen – old-age pensioner

under-achievers – children who do badly

consultant, redundant, between jobs, unwaged – unemployed

deprived, disadvantaged, unwaged – poor

disabled, handicapped, challenged – crippled

the powder room, cloakroom – the ladies’ lavatory

a refuse collector, sanitary engineer – a dustman

to pay a visit, to spend a penny – to use the toilet

to be short of funds – to have little money

to fib – to lie

to get tipsy – to get drunk

6. Media metaphors

banana skin – smth. that causes, politically, a humiliating accident or misadventure

billboard – in broadcast news, all the headlines at the start of a newscast

dragon lady – a woman who, as the wife of a ruler, has acquired formidable personal power

gesture politics – the practice of taking the political action for the sake of appearance

golden handcuffs – a large payment made to an employee joining a company

golden parachute – a contractual guarantee of compensation to an employee in the case of dismissal or demotion following a takeover or merger

kicker – a short humorous news item at the end of the newscast; also called a tag, or a zipper

rainbow (adj.) – representing a wide spectrum of opinions

rubbish (verb) – criticize sharply and severely

talking heads – (derogatory) close-ups of people speaking instead of action scenes

7. Abbreviations

an OAP – old age pensioner

an MP – member of Parliament

a JP – Justice of Peace

a GP – general practitioner

an SRN – State Registered Nurse

a VIP – very important person

ТВ – tuberculosis

ESP – extrasensory perception

a P.C. – police constable

the UN – United Nations

the PM – Prime Minister

the EEC – European Economic Community

the AA – Automobile Association

the FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation

the FSS – Federal Security Service

the CIA – Central Intelligence Agency

the CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States

a PTA – Parent-Teacher Association

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization