the syntactic and lexical features of english and vietnamese newspaper headlines a contrastive analysis = phân tích đối chiếu các đặc điểm cú pháp và từ vựng của các tiêu đề bài báo tiếng anh và tiếng việt

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM HỒNG PHƯỢNG


THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES:
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
(Phân tích đối chiếu các đặc điểm cú pháp và từ vựng của các tiêu
đề bài báo Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60.22.15



Hanoi, 2011

2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM HỒNG PHƯỢNG

THE SYNTACTIC AND LEXICAL FEATURES OF
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES:
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
(Phân tích đối chiếu các đặc điểm cú pháp và từ vựng của các tiêu
đề bài báo Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60.22.15
Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ



Hanoi, 2011

5


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

S = Subject
V = Verb
O = Object
C = Complement
A = Adverb
Aug. = August
Eng = English

Viet = Vietnamese
Ex = Example
EFL = English Foreign Language




6


LIST OF TABLES


Table 3.1: Frequency of structural headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.2: Frequency of sentential headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.3: Frequency of simple headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.4: Frequency of compound headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.5: Frequency of non-sentential headlines in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.6: The Frequency of non-finite clauses in the English sample headlines
Table 3.7: Frequency of omission of subjects in English and Vietnamese non-finite clausal
headlines
Table 3.8: Frequency of non-sentential headline types in English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.9: Frequency of nominal headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.10: Frequency of types of postmodifiers in Vietnamese nominal headlines.
Table 3.11: Frequency of functional headlines types in English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.12: Frequency of different parts of speech in English and Vietnamese headlines
Table 3.13: Frequency of nouns in English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.14: Frequency of dynamic and static verbs in English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.15: Frequency of active and passive voice in English and Vietnamese corpora
Table 3.16: Frequency of verbs with different syllables in English and Vietnamese corpora

Table 3.17: Frequency of the omission of verb 'be' in English corpus




8


TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
iii
LIST OF TABLES
iv
ABSTRACT
v
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
2. Objectives of the study
3. Research questions
4. Scope of the study
5. Methods of the study
6. Design of the study
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Literature review

1.1.1. Language of headlines
1.1.2. Complexity in headlines
1.1.3. Typical features of headlines
1.1.4. Contrastive analyses on headlines
1.1.5. Studies on headlines in Vietnam
1.2. Theoretical background
1.2.1. Newspaper headlines
1.2.1.1. Concepts of headlines
1.2.1.2. Functions of headlines
1.2.2. Syntactic and lexical features
1.2.2.1. Syntactic features
1.2.2.2. Lexical features
CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS ON COLLECTED NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
2.1. Materials
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
5
6
7

7
7
7
8
8
14
18
18

9

2.2. Procedure
2.3. Data analysis
2.3.1. First level of analysis
2.3.1.1. Structural headline types
2.3.1.2. Functional headline types
2.3.2. Second level of analysis
2.3.2.1. Parts of speech in sample headlines
2.3.2.2. Omissions in headlines
2.4. Summary
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS
3.1. Similar features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines
-
3.1.1. Syntactic similarities
3.1.2. Lexical similarities
3.2. Different features of English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines
3.2.1. Syntactic differences
3.2.2. Lexical differences
3.3. Pedagogical implications
3.3.1. Implications for teaching journalistic English

3.3.2. Implications for teaching translation
3.4. Summary
PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Recapitulation
2. Limitations of the study
3. Suggestions for further studies
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
18
19
19
19
26
27
27
30
31
32
32
32
33
33
30
36
36
36
37
37
38
38

39
39
40
I






10


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
It is undeniable that our country has been moving towards globalization and trade
liberalization. To be successful, we have opened to welcome foreign investment for many
years and now we still need to continuously understand the political and economic
situations of other countries. In such a situation, information has played a vital role up to
now. Newspapers are one of the most popular means of transmitting information which has
attracted a great number of readers.
Conventionally, it is believed that newspapers have more readers than any other
kind of written text. According to Van Dijk (1986:156), "for most citizens, news is perhaps
the type of written discourse with which they are confronted most frequently". Reading
newspapers in English, in fact, has always been an interest of English learners. Newspapers
are everywhere but how to read in an easy way to understand is still a problem. Moreover,
as teachers of English, how to teach students to translate, to write and to understand
English press in an effective way is really a big question.
In a newspaper, it is the headline that has the highest readership. It is always the
first thing that everyone notices when picking up a newspaper. It serves as a guide for

readers that helps decide whether to continue on reading the whole report or to skip onto
another one. Each headline summarizes the content of a story, and entices an audience into
reading the article. Newspaper headlines are particularly important for the way readers
comprehend a news text, they are markers that monitor attention, perception and the
reading process (Van Dijk, 1988).
Many students of English find that newspaper headlines are especially difficult to
understand. Obviously, it is not just a matter of vocabulary; even the style of writing is
different from any other text they have met in their studies. The language of headlines is
special and has its own characteristics on the lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical levels for its
brevity, attractiveness, and clarity (Danuta R., 1998). These language features pose a great
challenge to foreign learners of English when they begin to read English newspapers.
The key to ease the difficulty of this special genre lies on the comparison between
foreign and native languages (Connor, 1996). Thereby, this study is conducted to
investigate the similar and different features in the newspaper headlines of English and

11

Vietnamese languages. From the findings, I hope partly to guide Vietnamese learners and
teachers of English towards the effective way of mastering English.
2. Objectives of the study
In the light of Contrastive Analysis, this study attempts to contrast English and
Vietnamese newspaper headlines, which concentrates on the following objectives:
 Studying the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese newspaper
headlines;
 Contrastively comparing the newspaper headlines of the two languages syntactically
and lexically to find the similarities and mainly differences between them;
 Drawing out the practical applications in English language teaching and translation.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the objectives, during the process of carrying the research, the
following research questions are raised for exploration:

1. What are the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese newspaper
headlines?
2. What are the similarities and differences in the syntactic and lexical features of
English and Vietnamese newspaper headlines?
3. What pedagogical implications does the study have for Vietnamese teachers of
English?
4. Scope of the study
Due to the limit in time and within the framework of an M.A. thesis, it is
impossible for a study to deal with all the features of language theory and practice in depth.
This study, therefore, only focuses on some syntactic and lexical features found in the
newspapers headlines of English and Vietnamese to see how they are different.
5. Methods of the study
In the thesis, the main methods used are description and contrastive comparison of
the two languages in newspaper headlines including:
 Describing the syntactic and lexical features in the English and Vietnamese headlines
collected from The New York Times and Hà Nội Mới newspapers.
 Contrastively comparing those features in English and Vietnamese newspaper
headlines with concrete contrasting techniques, namely, analysis and statistics.


12

6. Design of the study
This thesis consists of three parts:
Part A is the introduction which shows the reasons why the topic is chosen, what
the study aims at as well as the scope of the study and some outlook on methodology.
Part B consists of 3 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the review of related literature
and theoretical background of every matter mentioned in the title of the study. Chapter 2
and 3 are the analysis of the headlines selected, the major findings and discussions with
some implications for learning and teaching English.

Part C is the conclusion which presents the recapitulation of the study, the
limitations of the study and some suggestions for further researches.









13

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
In this Chapter, review of related literature and theoretical background including
the syntactic and lexical features of English and Vietnamese headlines will be provided.
1.1. Literature review
Headlines are obviously one of the striking features of modern newspapers.
Therefore it is not surprising that they have been studied quite extensively not only by
journalists but also by linguists. Some of the few existing linguistic studies of headlines
will be reviewed below.
1.1.1. Language of headlines
Straumann's (1935) study of English headlines is pioneer work. His approach is to
treat the language of headlines as an autonomous language. He classifies headlines in terms
of neutrals, nominals, verbals and particles. The first section of his classification contains
words in their common forms. In the following sections he arranges them in “s” forms, and
in three variables, semivariables and invariables. Classification is further arranged in “d”
forms, “ing” forms, “ly”, “er” and “(e)st” forms.

1.1.2. Complexity in headlines
The complexity of headlines is investigated by Brisau (1969). He measures
complexity in terms of clauses, which are thus singled out from other units as a gauge of
complexity. In 3,000 headlines, Brisau (1969) finds 264 examples of headlines containing
two or more clauses, which is less than 10% of the total number. Brisau (1969) concludes
that more complex structures than two very simple clauses linked together rarely occur in
headlines. He mentions, however, that the linguistic makeup of the headline could vary
widely from one newspaper to another.
1.1.3. Typical features of headlines
Mardh (1980) offers an exhaustive study of the characteristic features of the
headlines of a range of English newspapers. She identifies the following linguistic features
as typical of headlines in English newspapers: the omission of articles; the omission of
verbs and of auxiliaries (the verb "to be" for example); nominalizations; the frequent use of
complex noun phrases in subject position (in theme position); adverbial headlines, with the
omission of both verb and subject; the use of short words ("bid" instead of "attempt"); the

14

widespread use of puns, word play and alliteration; the importance of word order, with the
most important items placed first, even, in some cases, a verb; and independent "wh"
constructions not linked to a main clause, for example: Why the French don't give a damn.
Van Dijk (1988) analyzes a five-decker from the New York Times. He sees the
journalistic process as beginning with a headline and working through lead to body copy.
He analyzes over 400 headlines in the Dutch press reporting the 1985 Tamil panic, an
occasion of racial tensions between the Dutch and immigrant groups. He finds that the
authorities dominate first position in the headline, with active verbs. When the
disadvantaged Tamils are mentioned first, the verb tends to be passive.
Mouillaud and Tetu (as cited in Develotte & Rechniewski 2000), analyzing Le
Monde, suggest the following features as typical of headlines: the suppression of spatial
and particularly temporal markers; the use of the present tense of verbs (where they are

used) as opposed to or in place of any other tenses; the replacement of verbs by
nominalizations; the suppression of declarative verbs and the disappearance of signs of
speech (quotation marks; personal pronouns).
1.1.4. Contrastive analyses on headlines
Kniffka's (in Bell, 1991) detailed comparison of leads and headlines finds a high
level of structural correspondence between the two. The subeditor tends to reproduce the
syntactic patterns of the lead in the headline. Kniffka finds that the presence of active or
passive voice in the lead is carried over to the headline. According to Kniffka, headline
structures appear to be very regular across languages. He confirms his analysis of both
German and American English news texts, finding their leads and headlines structurally
identical. The regularity is so consistent that he concludes there is a shared international
grammar of lead and headline writing.
Scollon (2000), in his study of five days of three editions of the same newspaper in
its Chinese and English editions, argues that the English headlines, following on general
western journalistic practice put the main point right in the headline in what has also been
called a deductive rhetorical mode. The Chinese editions, on the other hand, use the
headlines to establish the setting but do not provide any further information about the
content of the talks, which is the inductive ordering of the topics elsewhere found in
contrast between Chinese and English language news stories. In other words, the major

15

difference lies in whether the headline focuses directly on the central topic found within
the body of the story or the setting.
1.1.5. Studies on headlines in Vietnam
In Vietnam, newspaper headlines are investigated by some authors who have
different concerns. Ánh (2003) finds out some discourse features of headlines and articles
in English containing syntactic features, cohesive devices, collocations, phrasal verbs and
idioms. The syntactic features in her research include the selection of verbs, passive
structures, and the use of non-finites, implicit expression of opinions, modality and word

order. She concludes that headline writers often omit definite and indefinite articles, the
verb „to be‟, auxiliary verbs and titles before proper names; they widely use punctuation,
visual images and simple tenses instead of progressive and perfect forms to state the topic
of the article and to attract a large number of readers. Bích (2009) study on English –
Vietnamese translation of electronic news headlines also gives some distinctive
grammatical characteristics of English news headlines with dominance of phrases,
statements, expansion of present simple tense, and frequent omission of words such as the
verb „be‟ and articles.
Concerning English and Vietnamese translation, Trang (2008) carries out a study on
translating English newspaper headlines into Vietnamese newspaper headlines on Dantri
online newspaper. She analyzes the language structures of English and Vietnamese
headlines in order to find whether they are equivalent between the two languages. In
English, syntactically she concentrates on verbal, nominal, adverbial, simple, compound
and complex headlines. In Vietnamese, her focus is on one-word, phrasal and sentence
headlines. However, her aim is at translation. Therefore, more studies on comparing the
characteristics of English and Vietnamese news headlines are necessary. This study intends
to investigate the application of syntactic and lexical features in English and Vietnamese
newspaper headlines in order to uncover to what extent the two languages are compatible
in these domains.

16

1.2. Theoretical background
1.2.1. Newspaper headlines
1.2.1.1. Concept of headlines
Mc Arthur (1992:464) proposed that the word headline is “probably from the
headline on a sailing ship, a rope which held a sail tight to a spar or ran along the upper
edge of a flag to strengthen it”.
From the original literal meaning, headline is defined as a heading, usually in large,
heavy type, at the top of an article in a newspaper, magazine or other publications

indicating the subject of the article. The following definition is quoted in English language
dictionary as “headline is the title of a newspaper story, printed in large letters at the top
of the story, especially in the front pages” (Sinclair, 1998:389).
As for Gimmer (1997:497), headline is a “head of newspaper story or article
printed in large type and devised to summarize the story or article that follows”.
Danuta‟s (1998: 121) opinion about a headline is that it is a unique type of text. It
has a range of functions that specifically dictate its shape, content, and structure and it
operates within a range of restrictions that limited the freedom of the writer. In other
words, headline should encapsulate the story in minimum words, attract readers to the
story.
According to Ungerer (2000:48), "a headline describes the essence of a
complicated news story in a few words. It informs quickly and accurately and arouses the
reader's curiosity".
In brief, headline is the title given to a news item or an article. It is a condensed
form of writing. It is in fact a part of a whole. The specific functional and linguistic traits
of the headline provide sufficient ground for isolating and analyzing it in a specific “genre”
of journalism.
1.2.1.2. Functions of headlines
According to Danuta R. (1998), a headline serves the following functions: It gets
the reader's attention; summarizes or tells about the article; helps organize the news on the
page and indicates the relative importance of a story. Therefore, “the reader can skim the
headlines and have an outline of the news of the day, and some ideas of its relative impact
and importance.” (Danuta R.,1998:14)

17

Danuta R. says that headline plays conflicting roles which is carrying information
and attracting readers‟ attention. For carrying information, the headline should deliver
some details on what happened, who was involved, where it happened, what the
circumstances were which is simplified into what, who, where, how. However, to what

extent headlines perform what-where-who-how function depends on the certain
circumstances.
Besides, according to Danuta R. (1998), headlines have a persuasive function when
they are to attract readers‟ attention. However, they are also written to influence readers.
1.2.2. Syntactic and lexical features
As mentioned before, this study considers lexical and syntactic features in English
and Vietnamese newspaper headlines in order to see how they are different. Below is a
brief description of syntactic and lexical features. All the examples are the headlines taken
from the corpus with denoted dates.
1.2.2.1. Syntactic features
According to Maggie (1998), „syntax‟ means „sentence construction‟: How words
group together to make phrases and sentences. More generally, it refers to the study of the
interrelationships between all elements of sentence structure, and of the rules governing the
arrangements of sentences in sequences. It allows various possibilities to be exploited for
effective linguistic communication.
In Ban‟s (2009:32) opinion, syntax is a division of grammar which studies the ways
to combine the elements of language conventionally from „words‟ upwards, and two
internal levels of syntax are at phrases and sentences.
In order to get an overall picture of the structure of English and Vietnamese
headlines, a description of syntactic features of headlines including structural and
functional headline types of the two languages will be introduced in the following sections.
a. Structural headline types
Below are the basic types of headlines in terms of their structures: sentential and
non-sentential headlines.
 Sentential headlines
Sentential headlines are all headlines that have a regular sentence structure, i.e. all
headlines with a subject and a finite verb phrase which is characterized as a phrase "in
which the first or only word is a finite verb, the rest of the verb phrase (if any) consisting of

18

non-finite verbs" (Quirk, 1985:149). As far as sentence structure is concerned, there are
two main types of sentence: simple and multiple sentences (Crystal, 2006:216). The most
natural sentence structure is the simple sentence: it is the first kind which children learn to
speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people
of all ages. In written work, simple sentences can be very effective for grabbing a reader's
attention or for summing up an argument as they are simply understandable.
 Simple sentences
As Leech (2006:104) explains, a simple sentence consists of just one independent
clause. Consistent with this rule, when a simple sentence is further analyzed, there is just
one subject and one finite verb phrase. These are the main elements but several others (e.g.
adverbials), which are obligatory, can be present in addition to the subject and verb. Quirk
1985: 204) distinguishes seven clause types. The following table illustrates these types
with the examples from the corpora:
Types
English
Vietnamese
1. S-V
Shanghai bicycle culture
S
returns. (Aug. 27
th
2011)
V
Chỉ số giá tiêu dùng tháng 8 tại Hà Nội
S
tăng. (Aug. 26
th
2011)
V

2. S-V-O
Safari experts share
S V
their tips. (Aug. 27
th
2011)
O
Hà Nội tuyên dương
S V
112 sinh viên xuất sắc. (Aug. 28
th
2011)
O
3. S-V-C
2012 will be best Olympics.
S V C
(Aug. 26
th
2011)
Mực khô trở thành nỗi lo. (Aug. 29
th
2011)
S V C
4. S-V-A
Internet access returns
S V
to Lybia. (Aug. 28
th
2011)
A

Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng làm việc
S V
với các nhà khoa học. (Aug. 26
th
2011)
A
5. S-V-O-O
Banks give customers
S V O
opportunity. (Aug. 29
th
2011)
O
Viettel ra mắt người dân vùng biển
S V O
gói cước mới. (Aug. 27
th
2011)
O
6. S-V-O-C
Smart phones make parents
S V O
nervous. (Aug. 28
th
2011)
C
Những yếu tố khiến bệnh ban đỏ
S V O
nặng hơn. (Aug. 27
th

2011)
C
7. S-V-O-A
Pollution puts tigers
S V O
in danger. (Aug. 28
th
2011)
A
Bệnh viện xả thẳng nước thải y tế
S V O
ra môi trường. (Aug. 26
th
2011)
A
Different adverbials can be freely added into any of these types. Apart from the above
mentioned types of simple sentences, multiple sentences must be considered as well.

19

 Multiple sentences
Multiple sentences are described by Crystal (2006:226) as sentences with two or
more clauses that are linked either by coordination or by subordination. According to the
type of the linking words, these constructions are classified as compound sentences and
complex sentences.
- Compound sentences:
As Biber (1999:227) points out, "there are three major coordinators in English- and,
or and but". These coordinators do not only link clauses, but also words or phrases.
Sometimes, no coordinator is present and clauses are linked by a comma. For example:
Eng: Europe Stews on Greece, and Markets Sweat Out the Wait (Aug. 28

th
2011)
Viet: Giá hàng hóa tăng hàng loạt nhưng sẽ không có biến động lớn (Aug. 29
th
2011)
(Goods price increases at mass but there will not be a great fluctuation)
As it was already said, compound sentences contain two or more clauses, and the
important thing is that all clauses in such a sentence are at the same level. In other words,
they can stand on their own independently, which is not true for complex sentences.
- Complex sentences
Individual clauses of a complex sentence are linked by subordinators, such as since,
although or when, etc. and can be further classified as the main clause and one or more
subordinate clauses. For example:
Eng: DNA tests say Lindbergh fathered three children in Germany. (Aug. 26
th
2011)
Viet: Cha mẹ làm gì khi trẻ biếng ăn? (Aug. 26
th
2011)
(What will parents do when children do not have good appetite?)
The first clause is a subordinate one and the second is the main in the English
example and vice versa in the Vietnamese one.
The subordinate clauses are always dependent upon the main clause and cannot stand
as a sentence on their own (Crystal, 2006:226). As Quirk (1985:283) says, the dependent
or subordinate clauses function as an element of a sentence. Leech (2006:17-18) further
explains that we can classify them on the basis of their functions within the main clause as
nominal, adverbial, comparative or relative. Sometimes the subordinate clauses do not
contain a finite verb phrase (non-finite clauses- e.g. Teen helps fight human trafficking –
Aug.27
th

2011) or they lack a verb completely (verbless clauses- e.g. If possible, nominate
them!- Aug.27
th
2011).

20

It is necessary to consider the non-sentential units as they are characteristic for the
language of newspaper headlines and they form a great deal of the materials analyzed for
the purpose of this paper.
 Non-sentential headlines
The structure of such headlines is lower than a regular sentence; they are
constructed in an irregular way. Crystal (2006) calls such structures minor sentences.
Although independent sentences are the main building blocks of texts or conversation,
non-sentential structures are also frequent. Non-sentential headlines can be divided
accordingly whether they do or do not contain a verb phrase. Structures with a verb phrase
are non-finite clauses (with the exception of verbless clauses), whereas structures without a
verb phrase are just phrases, which will be further described respectively.
 Non-finite clauses:
According to Biber (1999:259, 262), non-finite clauses are usually dependent
clauses, i.e. they appear in a sentence together with a main clause. In some circumstances,
however, dependent clauses can be used separately.
Leech (2006:71) describes these clauses as clauses which have a non-finite verb
phrase and subdivides them into three categories: infinitive clauses (e.g. Bank of America
to Cut 3,500 Jobs - Aug.28
th
2011), -ing clauses (e.g. Finding Planets Around Other
Stars - Aug.28
th
2011), and .ed clauses (e.g. One Killed in Israeli Port City - Aug.28

th

2011). All three types have a varied range of syntactic roles, which means that they can
stand on positions of different clause elements, such as subject, direct object, or
complement. Moreover, apart from the three above mentioned types, Biber (1999:261)
describes the fourth type of non-finite clauses- so called verbless clauses. For these
clauses, he says, ellipsis of the verb „be‟ and the subject is typical (Factory Growth Fastest
in 20 Years - Aug.26
th
2011).
 Phrases:
″A phrase may consist of a single word or a group of words″ (Biber, 1999:38). In
other words, phrases are built up from words and they usually consist of a head and
modifiers which are not necessarily present. Under the head we understand a word in the
phrase ″around which the other components cluster and which dictates concord and other
kinds of congruence with the rest of the sentence outside the phrase″ (Quirk, 1985:1238).
The head is essential for categorizing phrases. The phrase types are following: noun

21

phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases (Biber,
1999:41).
Individual phrases function as clause elements, i.e. they built up a clause. Usually,
the most important element of a clause is verb phrase which was focused previously as
finite and non-finite. So now a greater interest will be put on noun phrases, as they often
stand on their own in headlines.
- Noun phrases
Noun phrases have a noun as the head which can be preceded by determiners and
accompanied by modifiers- either premodifiers or postmodiefiers (Biber, 1999:41-42).
Sometimes an adjective can be the head of a noun phrase. Mardh, who devoted her time to

the analysis of headlines, denotes the headlines consisting of a noun phrase and not
containing a verb as nominal. In order to examine syntactic variation within the noun
phrases across the two languages, the structural types of nominal headlines were analyzed
according to unmodification, premodification, postmodification and pre -post modification.
+ Unmodification: Structures in which the head of noun phrase is not modified by
any other item are referred to as unmodified structures (Quirk, 1985).
+ Premodification: A premodifier is a modifier that precedes the word it modifies
(Quirk, 1985).
Ex: Artificial Sweeteners (Aug. 26
th
2011)
+ Postmodification: A postmodifier is a modifier or quantifier that follows the
constituent it modifies (Quirk, 1985).
Ex: The Future of Data Storage (Aug. 29
th
2011)
+ Pre-post Modifications: Structures which have both pre- and post-modifiers are
referred to as pre-post modified headlines, e.g.
Ex: Weekly prompts from a mentor (Aug. 29
th
2011)
b. Functional headline types
Analyzing headline types by function, they can be divided into four functional
types: statements, questions, directives, and exclamations (Mardh, 1980; Quirk, 1985;
McLoughlin, 2000).
 Statements
In Quirk(1985:803)'s words, "statements are primarily used to convey
information". It means that their primary purpose is to inform about something. They

22

should always include a subject which usually precedes a verb. In other words, they have a
declarative structure - "a structure which declares or makes something known" (Crystal,
2006:218). A statement headline describes a state of affairs, actions, feelings or belief. For
example:
Eng: Iran jails US hikers for 8 years. (Aug. 26
th
2011)
Viet: 10 cá nhân được nhận giải thưởng Tôn Đức Thắng. (Aug. 27
th
2011)
(10 people receive Tôn Đức Thắng prize)
 Questions
In the common core, questions are usually used when speakers need some
information they lack, and they expect an answer provided by their listeners. Questions in
speech may be indicated by placing the operator in front of the subject and by initial wh-
word (Ex: Where is Gadhafi’s money now?- (Aug. 29
th
2011)). A common structure of a
question, it means a verb-subject structure (Ex: Is Samsung aiming to snap up HP’s PC
business? (Aug. 27
th
2011)), is called interrogative. Also, a rising intonation may be a
characteristic feature of questions. In writing, a question mark has such a function. It may
convert any structure into a question (Ex: Anne Hathaway, future rap star? (Aug. 29
th

2011)). And on the other hand, as Leech (2006:106) points out, not all clauses with the
interrogative structure must necessarily be questions, ex. “Will you turn down the radio?”
is interrogative in structure but a command in function. A question headline is addressed to

a reader or listener and asks for an expression of fact, opinion, belief, etc. For example:
Eng: Music‟s best kept secret? (Aug. 28
th
2011)
Viet: Công cụ thị trường nào cho lãi suất? (Aug. 27
th
2011)
(Which market tool is for interest?)
 Directives
Directives are all sentences that have the imperative structure, i.e. sentences with
no subject usually and with a verb in its base form (ex. Send your image to iReport! (Aug.
29
th
2011)) Their function is to "instruct someone to do something" (Crystal, 2006:219).
Usually directives are very simple sentences with the function to urge somebody to do or
not to do something, and therefore it is not necessary to consider tense, modality or aspect
of the verb (Biber, 1999:254). Directive sentence, according to Hạo (1991), is the sentence
that has illocutionary value, affects second person, and requires this person to make a
unilateral or a co-operating action. Directive sentence is also a mean to order, request, or

23

require someone to do something. When using directive sentence, the speaker expects that
the hearer will obey.
A directive headline expresses a request or advice:
Eng: Put these question marks by the hardware. (Aug. 29
th
2011)
Viet: Hãy bỏ cơ chế Xin - Cho(Aug. 29
th

2011)
(Leave off ask-give mechanism!)
 Exclamations
As Crystal (2006:219) says, exclamations usually show impression and are often
just minor sentences, such as Gosh!, or Oh dear!. However, their structure can be that of a
major sentence as well with the first element being how or what followed by a subject and
a verb. Sometimes their form is reduced and no verb is present.
An exclamation headline shows the writer‟s or speaker‟s feelings:
Ex: Đừng làm mình bị tụt hậu! (Aug. 29
th
2011)
(Don‟t make us lag behind!)
1.2.2.2. Lexical features
Lexicology, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary; and, in its
technical sense, it deals with the analysis of words (Quirk, 1985). Under lexicology, the
individual words such as nouns, verbs, articles, adjectives, adverbs, numerals,
conjunctions, pronouns and prepositions will be analyzed in both English and Vietnamese
headlines in order to determine the frequency of their occurrence. Below is a short
description of nouns and verbs which are considered the most important parts of speech.
a. Nouns
A noun is a word which (a) can occur as the subject or object of a verb or the object
of a preposition, (b) can be modified by an adjective, and (c) can be used with determiners.
Nouns typically refer to people, animals, places, things, or abstractions (Murphy, 1997).
For example:
Eng: Don Lemon‟s new marriage dilemma.(Aug.29
th
2011)
Viet: Một trường phổ thông trong căn hộ nhỏ. (Aug.27
th
2011)

(A secondary school in a small flat)
The distinct features of nouns used in headlines are the frequent appearance of the
proper nouns, the acronyms, and the abbreviations (Baddock, 1988). These features were

24

investigated in headlines of the two languages to determine the frequency of their
occurrence.
 Proper nouns
Proper nouns are basically names of specific people, places, months, days, festivals,
magazines, and so forth (Quirk, 1985).
 Acronyms and abbreviations
Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words. This process is
widely used in shortening extremely long words or word groups in science, technology and
other special fields (Fromkin & Rodman, 1999). For example:
Eng: C.I.A Demands Cuts in Book About 9/11 and Terror Fight (Aug. 26
th
2011)
Viet: TP HCM sẽ kiểm soát chặt tình trạng nghệ sĩ trang phục phản cảm (August
26
th
2011) (HCM city will tightly control the state of artists with anti-emotion clothes)
Abbreviation is a reduced version of a word, phrase, or sentence. It is also called
clipping (Crystal, 1992):
Ex: Japan Govt. to Nationalize Regional Bank (Aug. 28
th
2011)
b. Verbs
Verb is an important lexical category, and the one which is seemingly universal.
Verb categories will be analyzed in both English and Vietnamese headlines to see

differences and similarities across the two languages.
 Voice
Voice is the form of the verb, which shows the relation between the action and its
subject. In English and Vietnamese, there are two voices: the active and the passive. If the
subject performs the action, then the verb form is in the active voice. If the subject receives
the action, then the verb form is in passive voice (Fallahi, 1991; Ban, 2009). For example:
Eng: Three arrested in American‟s kidnapping in Pakistan. (Aug.29
th
2011)
Viet: Gần 200 ảnh được trưng bày. (Aug.29
th
2011)
(Nearly 200 photos are displayed)
Voice will be considered in this study to examine the frequency of its occurrence in
the headlines of the two languages.
 Dynamic and static verbs
According to their lexical meanings, verbs can be divided into dynamic and static
verbs. A type of verbs which typically occurs in the progressive form and in the

25

imperative, and which expresses such meaning as activity, process, and bodily sensation is
referred to as a dynamic verb (Quirk, 1985). Static verbs (also called stative or state verbs)
do not usually occur in the progressive nor in the imperative, and which express a state of
affairs rather than an action (Quirk, 1985). Hòa (2009) gives the concept of dependent and
independent verbs in Vietnamese in which dynamic and static verbs belong to the latter.
He shares the same opinion with Quirk (1985) about these two types of verbs. For
example:
Dynamic verb: Eng: South Koreans leave N.Korean resort (Aug.29
th

2011)
Viet: Thượng nghị sĩ Mỹ Jim Webb thăm TP. Hồ Chí Minh.
(American Senator Jim Webb visits Hồ Chí Minh city) (Aug.29
th
2011)
Static verb: Eng: Libya does not need UN peace keepers (Aug.29
th
2011)
Viet: Cần chủ động bình ổn giá thực phẩm. (Aug.29
th
2011)
(Need to actively stabilize food price)
 Syllables of verbs in headlines
In headlines, monosyllabic verbs are used frequently as substitutes for longer, more
colloquial expressions. The analysis of verbs according to their syllables in the English and
Vietnamese corpora was done in order to investigate their similarities and differences in
the two languages in this respect.
c. Omissions in headlines
Omission is one of the major features of newspaper headlines (Bell, 1991). Turner
(1972: 72) says: "Determiners and the verb 'to be' are almost universally omitted in
headlines". For the sake of brevity and saving space, most closed words and some open
words in headlines are often omitted or reduced to a minimum in headlines. For example:
Eng: Under 40, blindsided by breast cancer. (Aug.28
th
2011)
Viet: Luật doanh nghiệp đang “hành” doanh nghiệp? (Aug.29
th
2011)
(Enterprise law is “disturbing” enterprises?)
As can be seen from the above examples, the verb "are" in the English headline and

"có phải" in the Vietnamese one are omitted.
In the sample headlines, an investigation is made in order to find out the frequency
of omission of words across and within the two languages.


26

To sum up, this Chapter dealt with some previous studies on newspaper headlines
as well as a syntactically and lexically theoretical description of English and Vietnamese
headline features. The syntactic characteristics include headline types by structure and by
function, and the lexical ones concern parts of speech mainly with nouns and verbs and
omissions as typical of headline language. The next Chapter is a detailed analysis on the
newspaper headlines collected in a four-day corpus.

27

CHAPER 2
ANALYSIS ON COLLECTED NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
The previous chapter has reviewed some related literature and established the
framework of the theoretical background from which the syntactic and lexical
characteristics of headlines have been covered. The information regarding the materials,
procedure and data analysis of the study will be presented in this chapter.
2.1. Materials
In carrying out the contrastive analysis to explore the similar and different
characteristics of the English and Vietnamese headlines, two daily newspapers were
randomly selected among all available news sources, namely The New York Times for the
English headlines and Hà Nội Mới for the Vietnamese ones. The newspapers were not
chosen purposefully in order to ensure the objectivity of the study. Furthermore, in order to
take the headlines more easily, the researcher made use of the websites of the two above
newspapers for performing the procedure of collecting the data. Therefore, the English

headlines are from the website and the Vietnamese ones are from
.
The headlines issued during a four-day period from August 26
th
to August 29
th
, 2011.
The number of English and Vietnamese headlines arrived at a total of 227 and 232 from
the two sources respectively. The headlines taken for analysis belong to various fields such
as economics, culture, politics, science, technology, health, travel, sports, etc. which are
updated every day in the two newspapers.
2.2. Procedure
This research is directed towards studying the syntactic and lexical features of
English and Vietnamese corpora in such a way that by a systematic comparison, the
differences and similarities between the sample headlines of the two languages will be
identified.
At the start, the investigation began with the description of the basic units of analysis
in the English headline structures and continued with the analysis of the Vietnamese
headlines. In doing so, for the analysis of the structure of English headlines, the
grammatical framework provided mainly by Quirk (1985), Biber (1999), and Crystal
(2006) was chosen, and for the analysis of Vietnamese headlines, the grammar provided by
Hạo (1991), Ban (2009), and Hòa (2009) was used to inform the study.

28

In the following step, the researcher synthesized all the syntactic and lexical features
analyzed previously and did statistical computations on the percentage for each typical
feature of English and Vietnamese news headlines in order to give out the differences and
similarities.
2.3. Data analysis

The analysis of data was conducted in two stages. In both stages, a detailed analysis
of the corpus of 227 English and 232 Vietnamese headlines at lexical and syntactic levels
was done to see the similar and different characteristics between the two languages.
2.3.1. First level of analysis
The first level included the analysis of the syntactic features of the headlines across
and within the two languages. As for the syntactic features, the following two major areas
were studied in the headlines: Structural headline types and functional headline types.
2.3.1.1. Structural headline types
All headlines in the corpora were divided into two major groups according to their
structure: Sentential (those with a regular sentence structure - major sentences) and non-
sentential headlines (those with an irregular sentence structure). The first group consisted
of all headlines that contain a subject and a predicate. The second one included the
headlines without a predicate, often just with a non-finite verb phrase or in the form of a
phrase. The frequency of the different types of headlines in terms of their structure is
shown in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1. Frequency of structural headline types in the English and Vietnamese corpora
Type of headlines
English
Vietnamese
No.
%
No.
%
Sentential
160
70.5
135
58.2
Non-sentential
67

29.5
97
41.8
Total
227
100
232
100
The table shows that the proportion of sentential headlines is comparatively higher
in the English headlines (70.5%) than in the Vietnamese ones (58.2%) and the number of
English non-sentential headlines (29.5%) is lower than that of Vietnamese ones (41.8%).
As can be noticed in the table, sentential headlines tend to be used much more than non-
sentential ones in English.
a. Sentential headlines