英中新闻标题翻译--本科毕业设计.doc

本科生毕业论文设计

中英新闻标题翻译

作者姓名：
王群
指导教师：
杨丽华
所在学部：
外语学部
专 业：
英语
班级（届）：
2009届3班

二〇一三年四月二十二

On the Translation of Chinese and English News Headlines

By
Wang Qun
Supervisor Prof. Yang Lihua

A Thesis
Submitted to the Foreign Languages School
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
At Hebei Normal University
April 22,2013

　　　　　　　　　　　　Contents

Abstract (English)..............................................................................................ii
Abstract (Chinese)............................................................................................. iii
Introduction.........................................................................................................1
Chapter 1 Brief Introduction of English News Headlines................................3
1.1 Definition of English News Headlines......................................................3
1.2 Functions of English News Headlines.........................................................4
1.3 Features of English News Headlines...........................................................6
Chapter 2 Comparison Between Chinese and English News Headlines........10
2.1 Differences between Chinese and English News Headlines.....................10
2.2 Similarities between Chinese and English News headlines......................15
Chapter 3 Translation of English News Headlines......................................16
3.1 Difficulties of English News Headlines Translation.................................16
　3.2 A Brief Review on Translation Criteria.....................................................17
3.3 Criteria of English News Headlines Translation.......................................18
　3.4 Strategies and Tactics of English News Headlines Translation.................20
Conclusion..........................................................................................................25
Bibliography......................................................................................................26

Abstract

With deepening of the reform and opening up policy and entry into the WTO ，the Chinese are eager to know the world. A large number of information is transmitted by news media especially news reports.
　　The essential part of news report is headline. Sometimes people don’t have enough time to read the whole news from the beginning to the end, most readers would like to know as much as they can in the shortest time. Therefore , it can be concluded that the headline plays a very important role on news reporting, and we must pay more attention to the translation of news headline.
　　This paper mainly introduces some translating skills according to the features of English news headlines. There are three parts in this paper. In chapter one, it introduces the definition, function, classification and features of English news headline. In chapter two, it introduces the differences and similarities between English and Chinese news headlines. The problems appeared in English news headline translation are introduced in the last chapter. In the end of this paper, it has a conclusion of the content .
　　To sum up, this paper hopes to find a appropriate way of English news headline translation by discussing of the features, functions and the criteria of English news headline translation.

Key words: journalistic English; headlines; features; criteria; translation tactics

摘 要
　　随着改革开放的进一步深化以及中国加入世界贸易组织，中国与西方国家的交流与联系也越来越频繁。中国需要更多的了解世界，世界也需要更好的了解中国。其中有大量的信息必须通过新闻媒体进行传递，这种信息传递的最重要的一条途径是阅读英语新闻报道。因此英语新闻报道的翻译理所当然地成为这种相互交流的重要途径。
　　而标题是新闻报道最关键的部分，因为大多数读者都希望能在最短的时间内获取最多的信息。由此可见标题在新闻报道中具有独特的地位，因此我们应该更加重视新闻标题的翻译。
　　本论文共分三章。本文结合英语新闻标题的主要特点，通过具体的例子，介绍了英语新闻标题的翻译技巧。第一章对英语新闻标题做了基本的介绍,让读者对英语新闻标题有了初步的了解和认识。第二章主要介绍中英新闻标题的相同点和不同点，并通过实例加以论证。最后一章，也是最重要的一章，首先介绍了在英语新闻标题翻译中存在的问题。最后针对这些问题介绍了英语新闻标题翻译所应遵循的原则。在最后对本文所提到的英语新闻标题的翻译原则和技巧以及其它的内容做了总结。
　　总之，本文试通过对英语新闻标题特征，功能以及翻译原则的探讨，希望能找到一条对新闻英语包括英语标题翻译具有特定翻译规则的途径。

关键词：新闻英语；标题；特征；翻译原则；翻译技巧及策略

2
2

Introduction
Nowadays, news is everywhere in our daily life. The news made us understand what is going on around us. Reading newspapers has become one of these things, which people must do in daily life. All this tells us that newspaper has become more and more important. As an indispensable part of news, headline plays an important role. It is a guide to news content. At the same time they can attract he attention of the readers, so the quality of headlines is very important to news. And news translation, especially its headlines, is a big problem.
　　It is difficult for a translator to translate news headlines properly. As is often seen in newspapers or magazines, some translated versions are too awkward to read. Some are so confusing that the readers do not know what the news is talking about and can not understand at all. So the quality of the translated versions is very important. In fact, there have been many books or articles on news translation. Besides, a number of translators, at home and abroad, have already changed their attention to the study of news translation and achieved some results. Some famous translation scholars in this field such as Liu Miqing(刘宓庆)，Xu Mingwu(许明武), Chen Hongwei(陈宏薇), Chen Mingyao(陈明瑶), Zhang jian（张健） and Liu Qizhong（刘其中）have made their contribution to the translation of English news headlines. Liu Miqing holds that news translation should be accurate and translators should rigorously control their work. Chen Hongwei argues that translators should be flexible in the translation because there is no fixed structural mode for news reports. Chen Mingyao suggests that adaptation should be used to translate soft news. Zhang jian concludes that there are three steps in news translation, i.e. to precisely understand news reports, to properly handle original characteristics and to consistently improve news readability. There are other translation scholars making their efforts to translate news or news headlines through comparing linguistic and cultural characteristics in the East and the West.
　　Today more and more translators have begun to change their attention to the translation of English news headlines, which indicates that news headlines translation becomes more and more important. “But until now, there has been no published textbooks dealing with news translation in China. It is rather rare to find related articles regarding news translation in academic journals.”(刘其中，2004：3) This paper will study the translation of English news headlines, which will make a great contribution to information transmission and exchange. It mainly studies the features and tactics of English news headlines translation, which will help the readers fully understand the English news headlines.

Chapter 1 Brief Introduction of English News Headlines
　　Now in the information age, news begins to play a more and more important role in our daily life. It provides people with the latest news in the world. A piece of news is usually composed of a headline, a lead and a body. Especially, the headline is the eye of a piece of news. Because people do not have enough time to read through the whole news, they just look through the headline of the news to guess what it is talking about. So it is important to understand the definition, function and feature of a news headline.
1.1 Definition of English News Headlines
　　When reading a newspaper, one should first read a headline. As an indispensable part of news, headlines are compared to the eyes of news. Many journalists, scholars and books have defined the concept of a news headline. So this paper has collected some different versions of definition of a news headline.
　　“A news headline is caption printed at the top of a page or article in a newspaper, usually in large bold letters and often summarizing the content that follows it.”(Encarta Dictionary)
　　“A head of a newspaper story or article，usually printed in large type and devised to summarize the story or article that follows.”(Longman Dictionary of the English Language)
　　“A head of a newspaper story or article usually printed in large type and devised to summarize, give essential information about, or let readers in reading the story or article that follows.”(Webster Third New International Dictionary)
　　“报纸新闻标题用来概括，评价新闻的内容，帮助读者阅读和理解新闻。”（《辞海》）
　　“A headline is any line or collection of lines of display type that precedes a story to introduce or summarize it.”(Westly, 1972:141)
　　From the above, we can know that news headlines are defined according to their roles, functions and features. So in order to fully understand the definition of a news headline, we have to first know the functions and features of a news headline.
1.2 Functions of English News Headlines
　　We should pay attention to the functions of English news headlines. It is important for us to understand the news headlines. Generally speaking, English news headlines have the following functions: summarizing the news, attracting readers, attention, commenting on the news and dressing up the page.
1.2.1 Summarizing the news
　　Naturally, people buy newspapers in order to get the information that they want to know, but there are kinds of different newspapers published every day. Even a newspaper has several pages with each containing many items. Most of people do not have enough time to read through the whole newspaper. Therefore, many readers have formed the habit of scanning news headlines, which makes possible rapid news comprehension. Thus the first and most important purpose of headlines is to let the readers understand the news quickly.
　　Readers can grasp the essentials of news. Good news headlines should contain such elements of a news event such as the time, place, cause, result and background.
1.2.2 Attracting readers’ attention
　　As the beginning of the news, a news headline is designed to fulfill many functions especially that it must attract the readers’ attention. A headline, which does not arouse interest at first glance, is not a good one. A bad headline will make the readers’ eyes feel bad and change immediately to another news on the same page or even to another newspaper. When readers open a newspaper, the first thing that catches their eyes is the headline. So the determining factor as to whether a certain news will be read or passed by is usually the headline.
　　Good headlines are excellent advertisements for the news. They are striking; they attract attention; they arouse interest; they lead the readers into the news, which is what every good headline should do.
1.2.3 Commenting on the news
　　This function is most obvious in the commentary and column headlines. Newspapers, as the propaganda tool, are sure to express their opinions in headlines when they try to persuade readers. Editor’ s comments on news facts are expressed together with the news information directly or indirectly. When compiling news headlines, the editors inevitably reveal their opinions, attitudes and stances as regards the news events. The comments will help the readers in understanding news and guiding public opinions.
1.2.4 Dressing up the page
　　We know that package is very important for the product. A piece of news and its headlines just like the product and the packaging. Only when the headlines get the attention of the readers, the headline can be regarded as a good one. So the final purpose of headlines is to stimulate the reader, s artistic sense. In the process of newspaper production, special printing skills are often used to enhance the visual effect of newspaper in order to attract readers’ attention. News headlines are printed in varied fonts, size, colors and structures to decorate or beautify the newspaper pages. A dull headline makes a dull page. But when headlines are well written and well placed in forms that have been thoughtfully designed, the pages are clear and good looking. In other words, the headlines can break the monotony of a newspaper page and serve as an eye-releaser for the readers.
1.3 Linguistic Features of English News Headlines
　　In order to understand an English news headline, we must know the features of them. We can study its features from the lexical and grammatical level.
1.3.1 Lexical features of English news headlines
　　News headlines require a high degree of brevity, which leads to the special lexical preference. The most distinctive aspects of news headlines in lexical preference are listed as follow:
1.3.1.1 Short words or midget words
　　English news headlines often use short words to replace long ones. Usually, English newspaper has not enough space for the headlines. And that is to say, the space for headlines is very limited, so using short word can save a lot of space. Besides, short words or midget words have much larger semantic category, and are also more lively and flexible.
　　News reporter or writer prefers short words to long ones due to one journalistic principle: “Saying a lot in least space”. (Mencher Melvin, 1994:324) The following are some of the most frequent used short word in English news headlines.
　　　aid-help/assist end-terminate nod-approval blast-explode
　　Besides verbs, which are usually seen in English newspaper headline, short nouns are also very common in English newspaper headlines. For example,
　　　ace-champion cop-policeman firm-company ties-relations
　　In general, short words can convey and describe their own meanings more vividly and relevantly. In addition to the effectiveness and forcefulness, short words are used in the headline in order to save the space.
1.3.1.2 Conversion of parts of speech
　　As is known that conversion of parts of speech is common in English news headlines. There are some short nouns, which are used as verbs or other parts of speech. The following words seem simple, but please pay attention to their parts of speech, which are used unusually.
　　　（1）bag(n.)-v. China bagged 11of 12 gold medals in table tennis.名词转动词
　　　（2）table( n.)-v. Eight countries tabled a proposal on measures to reduce the risk of war.名词转动词
1.3.1.3 Abbreviations and acronyms
　　Abbreviations and acronyms are frequently used in news headlines. Abbreviation is the shortened form of certain words of many letters. Acronym is made of the first letter of many words for a certain unit of meaning. They are used instead of complicated and long words, thus saving more space and balancing the sentence structure. In English newspapers the common types of abbreviation are initialing, clipping and acronymizing. e.g.
　　　co.-company amt.-amount BBC-British Broadcasting Corporation