English News Title and Its Translation 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 V ocabulary 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

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

[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.

[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, t oday’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 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 fundament al 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 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