英语新闻标题及其翻译

Outline

1. Introduction

2. Development of English News Title

2.1 History of English News Title

2.2 Functions of English News Title

2.2.1 Pointing Out the News Content

2.2.2 Producing Attractive Effects.

2.3 Differences between Chinese and English News Titles

2.3.1 Vocabulary Similarities and Differences

2.3.2 Tense Similarities and Differences

2.3.3 Rhetoric Similarities and Differences

2.3.4 Punctuation Mark Similarities and Differences

3. Translation of English News Titles

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3.1 Literal Translation

3.2 Free Translation

3.3 Addition

3.4 Omission

3.5 Negation Translation

3.6 Alliteration

3.7 Making Use of the Advantage Chinese in Translation

4. Conclusion

English News Title and Its Translation

[Abstract] English news titles play a special role in news reporting. Thus we should place special emphasis on the research of the characteristics and translation of English news titles. This thesis focuses on the study of English news titles in terms of their grammatical features and its translation. When it comes to translation, it tries to reproduce the functions of English news titles which requires translators’ agility and ingenuity in applying semantic and rhetorical devices. With grammatical and semantic exploration into the English news titles, such studies strive to benefit the readers in their understanding of what the editor wants to convey.

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[Key words] English news title; function; comparison; translations methods

英语新闻标题及其翻译

[摘要] 标题在新闻报道中具有独特的地位。因此在整个新闻英语翻译中标题翻译的作用不可忽视。本文拟从以下角度进行论证：英文报刊标题的文字简练醒目，无疑是来源于对英语语法得心应手的灵活运用。而要再现英文标题在原文中所起的浓缩主题、画龙点睛的作用，需要译者同样在用词和修辞等语法方面匠心独运。本文拟通过对英语新闻标题翻译原则和策略的探讨，以期能对新闻英语包括英语标题翻译找到一条具有特定翻译规则的途径作出有益的尝试。

[关键词] 英语新闻标题; 作用; 分类; 对比; 翻译方法

1 Introduction

What is the title? A title of a piece of news usually printed in large type and devised to summarize, gives essential information, or interests readers in reading the news content . Naturally readers buy newspapers in order to keep posted on daily happenings. However, today’s English newspapers are getting fatter with a great number of pages. Therefore, many readers have formed the habit of scanning titles, which makes possible rapid news comprehension. Thus one of the most important purposes of titles is to inform readers quickly, which means that a well-designed title immediately tells them the gist of the accompanying story. Nothing is more important than packaging the product. A piece of news and its titles resemble the product and the packaging respectively. Only when the titles grasp the attention of the readers, the whole page can obtain vitality. So we say a

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final requirement of titles is to stimulate the reader’s artistic sense. Therefore, news people need to make sure that English title forms are set to beautify the layout of the newspaper and thus to interest readers in the stories.

2. Development of English News Title

2.1 History of English News Title

The history of English news title is long and it can be divided into three phases. English news titles were originated in the Qing Dynasty. The characteristic of embryo is long and complex. The second stage of news title begins with the characteristic of diversity in the 19th century 70's. The third stage is from 20th century to nowadays and has the feature of concise and simplicity. In a word, the translation of English news title experienced the process from complexity to simplicity.

2.2 Functions of English News Title

The news title is the fundamental part of any piece of news. In a time when it’s harder to get people’s attention, good writers always spend too much time and creative energy working on their titles, because they know that the title is one of the most important parts of their work. According to Bruce H. Westley, from the standpoint of the reader, newspaper titles serve the following purposes:

2.2.1 Pointing Out the News Content

News titles summarize the news content, so the news content can be reflected

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by the titles alone. By glancing over them, the readers will know what the story is about. Readers can quickly locate the parts that interest him mostly by following the sequence of the news points line by line. Titles rank the importance of stories by the size of the print and placement on the page. And titles can convey the relative significance of the news.

2.2.2 Producing Attractive Effects

News titles are essential to attract the reader’s attention. General speaking, two methods are used. First, the consistent use of familiar title structure gives the newspaper a relatively familiar and welcome nature. Secondly, English news title is trying to make good use of the front page of a newspaper, especially in electronic media. All of that can help attract the public’s attention. The front page plays the most important role of attracting the eyeballs of the readers well. Since newspapers are usually sold on the newsstands with just the top-half of the paper showing to the passengers, reporters of newspapers try every means to make the banner titles across the top of the page attractive enough to be a crowd-stopper (Westley 1972).

2.3 Differences between Chinese and English News Titles

Understanding the similarities and differences between the Chinese and English news titles are carrying on the accurate translation. Any thing has its general character and its individuality. The Chinese and English news title is not exceptional. Directness and factuality are the two most prominent general characters. But the different language cultural context and the news tradition enable the Chinese and English title to have their own clear characteristics.

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2.3.1 Vocabulary Similarities and Differences

In most cases both English titles and Chinese titles share similarities in the vocabulary usage. First, in the news titles they both use shrinks and concise words (In Chinese we often used “armed police”, “Political Consultative Conference”, “WTO”, “Security Council” and so on. In English UN, UK, USA, NATO, WTO, NASA EU) “Minor term” is the popular word usage and the fashionable word usage in English news titles. Second, both enjoy using popular words. Third, both enjoy using stylish words. For example:

(1) 全球瞩目A股巨震，暴跌难阻股民入市热情

(2) MP demands probe into MoD bungles (MP=Member of Parliament; MoD=ministry of Defense

(3) 越来越多的人在聚会时喜欢 “k歌”(K song is stylish word)

(4) American Online; Often Down, Never Out (Online is stylish word)

The first two examples use the popular terms and the last two ones use the stylish word.

Differences:

Judging from vocabulary, the Chinese news title is fond of using several verbs together, but the English news title is fond of using several noun words together. English news often uses short words and some initials or acronyms which are

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printed in large type, Such as EEC short for European Economic Community.

(5) 开放 搞活 改革 致富

(6) Britain “Flagship” Detention Center Abandoned

(7) 武船再助“神舟”飞天（“武船”指武昌造船厂）

(8) A 2nd LI Priest Removed (LI=Long Island)

The first example shows Chinese title uses four verbs together, while the second one shows English title uses four nouns together. That’s the difference lying in the Chinese and English news title in the vocabulary usage.

2.3.2 Tense Similarities and Differences

English and Chinese news titles all massively use the phrase title. In Chinese we commonly use verb-object phrase, noun phrase and so on. In English we commonly use non-localization minor sentence (for example participial phrase, Infinitive phrase and gerund phrase), adjective phrase, and preposition phrase and so on. Translation may happen according to respective characteristic transformation. E.g.

(9) Five Ways to Be Romantic

(10) Helping the Homeless to Help Themselves

(11) US carmakers ready to cut output.

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(12) 走向美好明天的江西.

(13) 变化中的股市

(14) 中国与发展

In the above English news titles, the first uses the infinitive phrase, the second uses the gerund phrase and the third uses the adjective phrase. In the Chinese news titles, the first uses two verb-object, the last one uses noun -verb.

When we read English news title we will find English news titles often use simple present tense, present progressive tense and simple future tense, whose sign is obvious. However, you will find Chinese news titles often use present tense and progressive tense. Who tense sign is not obvious (Peter, Newmark 2001). For example:

(15) French Culture Is the Doldrums

法国文化颓然不振

(16) China is growing strong.

中国正在发展壮大.

(17) China had an earth-shaking change.

中国发生了一个翻天覆地的变化

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(18) 中国自然资源丰富.

(19) 总理会见了受难群众

(20) 中国法律将更加完善.

(21) 取得了成功.

From the above examples we can find the first four examples use general present tense, general future tense, and present progressive tense, general past tense individually, and have obvious tense signs. The last ones use general present tense, the present tense replace past tense, future tense, past tense. But they have no obvious tense signs.

2.3.3 Rhetoric Similarities and Differences

Both English and Chinese news title use the ordinary rhetoric, such as metaphor and hyperbole. It can attract more readers and make the news more clear and colorful.

(22) Dam work brings flood of debate

(23) 孩子是祖国的花朵

(24) Graying Armies March to Defend Social Security

(25) 一落千丈

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The first and second examples use the metaphor. The rest uses the hyperbole. The above two kinds of rhetoric are often used in English and Chinese news titles.

As for the rhetoric, English-Chinese news title style is respectively different. The Chinese news title highly values a literary talent especial in antithesis and controls rhyme. The English news title is insipid and pays more attention to the fact. The usage of rhetoric lattice is limited. It often uses literary quotation, allegory, personification, harmonic tone, alliteration, repetition, word or phrase with double meaning, changing the order of rhetoric. Chinese news titles often use parallelism, overlapping, swing, aphorism, antithesis, comparison, word or phrase with double meanings. Some rhetoric is respectively for English institute such as alliteration and swings.

(26) Protestant Protest

(27) Grammy Apple of New York’s Eye?

(28) The Scent of Descent

(29) 名言草，实言人。

(30) 不积跬步，无以至千里；不积小流，无以成江海.

(31) 青山横北郭，白水遶东城。

In the above examples, English and Chinese news titles use different rhetoric. The functions of the rhetoric are different between English and Chinese news titles

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and they have their own features.

2.3.4 Punctuation Mark Similarities and Differences

In some cases, Chinese and English news titles both have the abbreviation punctuation marks in titles. The function is to remain pause and divided into two or three title abbreviation topic. The meaning is still clear. The same lies in the comma and the exclamation mark. That is to say they all are used to divide the meaning group and the expression of intense sentiment. E.g.

(32) 原来如此…..

(33) What, Who, Which.....

(35) Oil’s well that ends well, hopes rig chef

(36) 克什米尔神庙附近发生火灾，死亡十人。

The first two examples use the abbreviation mark. This function is to indicate pause. The rest ones use comma to divide the title into two groups.

As far as the usage of punctuation mark is concerned, Chinese news title commonly uses comma, exclamation mark, dash, quotation mark, ellipsis, parenthesis, spacer and question mark. While English titles often use comma, colon, dash, question mark, exclamation mark, possessive case mark, oblique line mark and quotation mark. Chinese title does not use the colon, possessive case mark, oblique line mark. The English news title does not use the ellipsis, parenthesis, space.

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The dash is different between Chinese and English titles. The dash plays the connection and the supplement information role, and replaces the article “be”. The dash may express the meaning progressive and the transition in Chinese news. The quotation mark often emphasizes the essential information in English and draws out the original speech. In Chinese title the quotation mark expresses the content and the meaning directly either the irony or the exaggeration.

(37) 目前世界上最高的山峰—珠穆郎玛蜂

(38) The Translator—James

(39)“神通广大”的候乐为何如此嚣张

(40)“walk with Lions” to come true

The first two examples use dash mark to refer to the main topic. the last two examples use quotation mark to emphasize some information.

3. Translation of English News Titles

Understanding the content of news well is the first thing for translating. The English news title has its own distinctive grammar system and the language form characteristic. So translation ought to use the title grammar and language and keep the purity of the title. In the process of the translation from English to Chinese, we should consider their differences. We should take the custom of the translated language into the consideration. Once we come across the cases, we can not

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translate them liberally.

3.1 Literal Translation

Since being simplicity is the common characteristic of both English and Chinese news titles, we can consider literal translation at first (陈宏微 1997). When the English news title is correspondent to Chinese news title in meaning, we can translate them literally. Such translation will not influence concrete meaning and nature of both English and Chinese news titles. E.g.

(41) Look Back to Look Ahead

回首往昔, 展望未来

(42) Cold and Rainy Day Is Expected

预计将有寒冷的雨水

(43) Tourist Is Arrested for Espionage Charges

一游客涉嫌间谍活动被捕

(44) Bill Clinton Assumes Office in White House as Us President

比尔.克林顿入主白宫,就任美国总统。

(45) Betray by the press

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报界的背叛

Most of the English news titles can translate in this way and make the titles concise and good understanding. As the English news titles are corresponded to Chinese news titles in meaning, so we translate the English news titles literally. In the first four examples, the meanings of English news titles are equal to Chinese news titles. So we can translate them literally.

3.2 Free Translation

We know English and Chinese belongs to two language families. So they differ in many aspects such as vocabulary and tense in translation. When we meet such cases, we can adopt free translation. E.g.

(46) Blown-away Hopes (Times February 1996)

和平的希望被炸掉了（Free translation points out article content）

(47）Men Do Cry－All Over the World.

今昔非比，保守的英国绅士大胆流露感情。

(48) Some Kids Are Orchids

血案的反思

Between Chinese and English news titles, the English news title uses the simple

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present tense in the first example, while the translated Chinese news titles use the past tense. In the third example, the English news title is a simple sentence while the Chinese news titles are a simple phrase.

3.3 Addition

Addition refers to supplying necessary words in our translation so as to make the version clear and correct. However, due to the differences between Chinese and English news titles in vocabularies, rhetoric and tense. In the above cases, we may employ devices such as addition. Addition can help readers understand the English news titles. E.g.

(49) Young Wheel Ers, Big dealers

驾驶摩托车的青年们，成了（保险公司的）大主顾

(50) Culture Convention Barrier

产品销售中的文化习俗障碍

(51) Hanging up Their Hats

英传统锥形头盔将束之高阁

(52) Year 2000 Bug Unstoppable for some Companies

计算机千年虫问题迫在眉睫

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According to the differences in vocabularies the English news title used two nouns together, in the first example, while the Chinese news titles use the verb. The second one is the same with the first one in translation. In the third example, the English news title does not use rhetoric while the Chinese news title uses hyperbole.

3.4 Omission

Omission refers to prune the redundant information in the original language. That is, to say make our translation as economical as possible. The most visible feature of titles is omission. The titles can be shortened by wiping out some unimportant words when the omission of such words does not provoke confusion. Owing to the similarities of vocabulary and tense between the English news titles and the Chinese news titles, we can adopt omission to translate from the English news titles to the Chinese news titles. E.g.

(53) You Need to Eat Less Than You Think

适量少吃有助于减肥

(54) My wife is a Woman in a Man’s world

泡在男人堆里的女人

(55) Cream of Shanxi Relics on Display

山西文物精品展览

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(56) How Globalization Hurts the Poor in Africa

全球化有损非洲穷人的利益

In the first two examples, usage of vocabularies in the English news titles is the same as the Chinese news titles the last two ones used the same tense.

3.5 Negation Translation

If title literal translation can not express the article content rightly, it may change an angle and begin to write or paint from reverse side and express its own ideas on the contrary. This way of translation can be considered as negation translation. e.g.

(57) Never Too Old

最长寿之人

(58) You cannot be too careful.

你可要特别小心啊！

(59) An opportunity is not likely to repeat itself.

良机难再。

(60) But all men are not born to reign.

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并非人人生来都是作帝王的。

(61) Crisis law

反危机法案

(62) Riot police

防暴

(63) Crying Over Unsold Milk.

牛奶售不了，抱怨也无用

In the first four examples, the English news titles have the negative words while the Chinese news titles have not. However, the Chinese news titles have the negative words in the last three ones, while the English news titles do not have. Lots of titles can not express their means correctly but this method can solve the problems and make the titles’ meanings more clearly.

3.6 Alliteration

Alliteration is the recurrence of the same initial sound in words and close succession. Alliteration is used for the sake of brevity and vividness. In English news titles, there are many short titles but powerful titles. E.g.

() Missing Mike

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缅怀迈克

(65) Coca- Cola

可口可乐

(66) Coffee

咖啡

In the first example, the news title is pining for its former inspirational leader, Michael Bloomberg, who left to become mayor of New York. In the first example, Mike, the nickname for Michael, is used to show people’s fondness of him. And the word “miss” is chosen to constitute alliteration with “Mike” and to highlight his fellows’ strong desire for him. The title thus appears to be very concise and movingly expressive. The usage of alliteration is also reasonable to the rest ones.

3.7 Making Use of the Advantage Chinese in Translation

The English news titles narrate factually and attach importance to fact reports. The Chinese news titles are particular about a literary talent and especial for highly valuing fact. As a result, the translation from English news title to Chinese news titles can use antithesis, pressure rhyme, idiom when translating. E.g.

(67) Saving Time for a Rainy Day

储蓄劳务，未雨绸缪

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(68)Stepping up to the Firing Line

裁人难，难于上青天.

(69) Opportunity knows ---but at a cost

学习还是赚钱，是个问题

(70) It takes Determination to Complete One of the Toughest CorRallis

只要意志坚，不怕征途远。

(71) Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies At 75

壮志未酬身先死，阿拉法特抱憾归。

The Chinese is rich, colorful and glorious, when the above English titles are translated into Chinese, they can be easily understood. The first example uses four-character form idioms. The second and fourth examples use hyperbole.

4. Conclusion

Translating news title is absolutely not an easy job.This paper holds knowledge of the history and the special features of English news titles are helpful for the translation of the English news title. According to the above analysis, comparison of English and Chinese news title, this paper gives some suggestions in title translation. We should pay attention to the similarities and differences such as the rhetoric,

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vocabulary, tense, punctuation, while doing English to Chinese or vice version. So this paper tries to provide a reference to our future title translation. At last we know the translation of English news titles plays a crucial role in our daily life.

Bibliography

[1] Bell, A. 2001. The Language of News Media [M]. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

[2] Newmark, Peter. 2001. Approaches to Translation [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language

Education Press.

[3] Westley, B. H. 1972. News Editing [M]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

[4] 陈宏薇. 1997. 汉英翻译基础[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社.

[5] 李中行、. 1993. 新闻英语[J]. 天津：南开大学出版社.

[6] 许明武. 2003. 新闻英语与翻译[M]. 北京： 中国对外翻译出版公司.

[7] . 1992. 英语广播新闻文体特点[J].《外国语》.

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