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Understanding Headlines

The headline is the title given to a news item or a newspaper article. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the news that follows is about. Composing headlines is a real art demanding much creativity on the author's part. They are usually written in a sensational way in order to arouse the reader's curiosity. As headline writers try to catch the reader's eye by using as few words as possible the language headlines use is jocularly called Headlinese. This sublanguage is characterised by a number of peculiarities. Function - compact gist of an article.

There are some features of English newspaper headlines which are important to know if you want to understand a story well.

1. Headlines are not always complete sentences. Many headlines consist of noun phrases with no verb:

MORE WAGE CUTS

HOLIDAY HOTEL DEATH

THE CHARGE OF THE LORDS

2. Articles and the verb TO BE are often left out/dropped:

WAR CRIMES CHIEF CRITICAL OF INACTION (The president of the tribunal examining war crimes - The war crimes chief - is critical of the inaction of the Security Council)

3. The conjunction AND is often replaced by a comma:

US, ITALY DOMINATE (The US team and Italy's team dominated the races)

4. Newspaper headlines have a special tense system:

· Headlines are almost always in the present though they may refer the action to the past.

The headline EARTHQUAKE ROCKS TURKEY actually means "Earthquake rocked (or: has rocked) Turkey".

TOP 'OLIGARCH' PLAYS DOWN BANK SCANDAL (has played or: played down)

· If the action announced in the headline is still in progress you will see the –ing form.

PRESIDENT VISITING PARIS means "The President is visiting Paris".

· If the headline announces a future action or event you are likely to see the infinitive with the particle "to", e.g.

QUEEN TO VISIT CANADA means "The Queen is going to visit Canada"

“For” is also used to refer to future movements or plans: TROOPS FOR GLASGOW? (= Are soldiers going to be sent to Glasgow?)

· Sometimes headlines seem to be in the past tense while they are actually present tense, passive voice, e.g.

MONEY LAUNDERING NOT PROVED (has not been proved), or: CAMPAIGN TO SAVE 'RAINFORESTS' OF BRITAIN LAUNCHED (is launched)

· Auxiliary verbs are usually dropped from passive structures:

MURDER HUNT: MAN HELD (= … a man is being held by police)

SIX KILLED IN EXPLOSION (= Six people have been killed …)

Note (1) that forms like HELD, ATTACKED are usually past participles with passive meanings, not past tenses (which are rare in headlines). Compare:

AID ROW: PRESIDENT ATTACKED (= … the President has been attacked.)

AID ROW: PRESIDENT ATTACKS CRITICS (= … the President has attacked her critics.)

- BOY FOUND SAFE (= The missing boy has been found safe; he is safe)

BOY FINDS SAFE (= A boy has found a safe.)

Note (2). There are several special verb phrases in headlines that show that the information is a report of what someone else, a source, told a journalist, rather than information that the reporter gathered alone. The source might or might not be named in the news article. American laws protect the identity of a secret source: a journalist cannot be forced to reveal his or her name. The three most common expressions that indicate the indirect reporting described above are: is said to (Westchester mayor said to be near death), is reported to (Weschester mayor is reported to have Mafia connections), and reportedly (Mayor’s birthday party reportedly cost $25mln.).

5. Headlines often contain strings of three, four or more nouns; nouns earlier in the string modify those that follow: FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT ROW

Headlines like these can be difficult to understand. It sometimes helps to read them backwards. FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT ROW refers to a ROW (disagreement) about a CUT (reduction) in PAY at a FACTORY that makes FURNITURE.

6. Unusual use of prepositions: “ As”, “over” and “ in” are often used instead of longer connecting expressions for example, “in” = “involved in” (FOOTBALL MANAGER IN CAR CRASH); “as” =”while”/ “because” (VOTERS ANGRY AS PRICES SOAR); “over” = “because of” (MANAGER SACKED OVER SEXIST COMMENTS).