US-China Foreign Language, October 2021, Vol. 19, No.

10, 270-275
doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2021.10.003
D DAVID PUBLISHING

A Study on the Characteristics and Translation Strategies of

English News Headlines

LU Danli, ZHANG Le
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

With the rapid development and gradual maturity of the information age, the news media has become the basic
media for people to obtain information from all over the world. Due to the differences between English and Chinese
in cultural background, rhetoric tradition, and linguistic expression, news translation is confronted with the
challenge of overcoming language barriers in information transmission. The headline is the soul of news and
determines the attention of news. Mastering the headline information can help readers effectively understand the
gist of the news. Therefore, when translating English news headlines, we should first understand the characteristics
of the headlines and apply translation strategies in a targeted way. By analyzing the characteristics of news
headlines, this paper studies the principles and strategies of translation of English news headlines.

Keywords: linguistic characteristics, English news headlines, translation strategies

Introduction
The headline of a newspaper story usually gives the main idea or the gist of the story. It is a very important
part of a news report. This paper will discuss the characteristics and translation strategies of English news
headlines. This paper consists of three major sections. Section one introduces major characteristics of English
news headlines. Section two describes the translation principles of English news headlines. Section three
discusses the translation strategies of English news headlines. The final section will conclude the whole paper.

Characteristics of English News Headlines

Concise and Vivid Expression
The purpose of a headline is to give a summary of what is going on in the news so that readers can quickly
get to the heart of the story. In order to meet the requirements of the popularity of English news headlines, short
and simple words are often used. This can not only save the space of the newspaper, but also enable more
readers to understand English news and improve the readability and practicability of English news. So,
acronyms appear frequently in English news headlines, especially in the description of organizations.
Appropriate shortening of some common words in news headlines can not only reduce the length of news
headlines, but also enhance their novelty. Abbreviations are roughly divided into two categories. One category
includes shortened words. For example, “expo” is the abbreviation of “exposition”. The other category

LU Danli, Master, postgraduate student, College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology,
Shanghai, China.
ZHANG Le, Doctor, associated professor, College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology,
Shanghai, China.
 CHARACTERISTICS & TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH NEWS HEADLINES 271

combines the capital letters of each word in a phrase into one word, such as AQ (Adversity Quotient), EST
(Eastern Standard Time). No matter readers are familiar with them or not, they can find the full names or
definitions of them in news chapters.
“Newness” is the life of news language, which is determined by the content of news reports. In order to
keep close to social life and grasp the pulse of the times, news reports need to create a large number of new
words to spread new ideas and fashions, so as to attract public attention. Therefore, frequent use of new words
is a prominent feature of English news, which usually includes two types of situation (Xu, 2018). In one
situation, a new meaning is derived from an old word, such as “clone”, which means “copy” now. In the other
situation, a new word is purely created, such as “computernik”, which means someone addicted to computers.
News reports have a high requirement for information dissemination and effectiveness, so words often
change their part of speech (such as from a noun to a verb, or vice versa). For example, the headline
“Cooperative Operation Profits Farmers” has changed “Profit” from noun to verb, making the headline more
concise and clear. In addition, English news has wide audience, so a large number of easy-to-understand words
are used to enhance the overall accessibility of the headlines. Among them, using proper nouns and special
names to refer to specific meanings is one of the ways to improve the popularity of the headlines. For instance,
it is common to use the name of a building or place to refer to a country, such as “the White House” for the
United States and “the Louvre” for France.
Distinct Grammatical Features
The grammar of English news headlines is different from that of normal use and has its unique
characteristics. The news story that appears in the newspaper has already happened; so according to the basic
rules of grammar, it needs to be expressed in the past tense. But the use of past tense deviates from the essential
characteristic of news. In order to enhance readers’ experience of news events, editors should abide by the
special principle of “news present tense”, and use the simple present tense to formulate news headlines (Zhu,
2008).
A news headline should be a complete sentence, but in order to be concise and highlight important
information, function words such as articles, auxiliary words, link verbs, conjunctions, and pronouns are often
omitted from the headline on the premise of not affecting the expression of the main theme of the news. In this
way, the length of the headline is shortened to a large extent, so as to avoid procrastination and redundancy. For
example, the headline “It’s Time to Organize Your Book” could be shortened to “Time to Organize Your
Book” and the headline “Japan Is in Danger of Reform” could be shortened to “Japan in Danger of Reform”.
Punctuation marks are auxiliary recording symbols of the written system, which can divide meaning
groups, substitute words, emphasize information, and highlight the sense of reality (Zhang, 2020). Punctuation
marks can make news headlines simple and lively, leaving people with thinking space. Headlines focus on
structural clarity and often use three types of punctuation. The first is comma, which is used to replace the
conjunction “and” to save space, such as in the headline “US, Japan Meet in Women’s World Cup”. The
second is dash, which is often used to quote a statement to make the headline more intuitive and clear. For
instance, the headline “Next iPhone Update Will Let You Disable Intentional Slow Down—Tim Cook” means
that Tim Cook says that next iPhone update will let you disable intentional slowdown. The third is colon, which
is used to mean “to say” or “to think” or to replace the related verb “to be”, so as to make the headline more
direct.
272 CHARACTERISTICS & TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH NEWS HEADLINES

Abundant Rhetorical Features

In order to highlight the novelty of English news headlines, rhetorical devices are often used in order to
achieve humorous, vivid, or ironic effects. The first type is pun. In a specific context, homophone or polysemy
can be used to generate double meaning. In English, there are a lot of words with the same spelling but different
meanings. Applying this kind of puns in news headlines can increase their connotation and arouse readers’
interest. For example, the headline “Champagne Economy or Bubble Economy?” highlights the difficulty of
maintaining production in France in the economic decline caused by champagne losses. And when headlines
are created, champagne can be used to both illustrate economic losses and allude to the bubble economy. Pun
can not only induce readers’ associations, but also add humor or irony to headlines.
The second type is exaggeration, which can quickly attract the attention of readers and enhance the
influence of the headline, causing readers’ imagination of news content. However, editors should highlight the
essence of the matter when applying exaggeration so as to avoid overreaching. For example, “A Vow to Zip
His Lips” not only rhetorically indicates the action of “sew up the lips”, but also can be translated as “keep a
secret”.
The third type is euphemism. For taboo contents in a specific culture, the direct expression is not elegant,
so obscure and polite words can be used to express them, which makes the language more appropriate and
generally accepted by the public. For example, after Watergate, people often use the word “Watergate” to
describe similar political events, followed by “Monica Scandal” and “Korea Scandal”.
The fourth type is alliteration and end rhyme. “Soldiers Salary Soars”, for example, is a headline with each
word starting with an “S”. From the perspective of lexical meaning, “Rises” or “Goes High” can replace
“Soars”, but the beauty of rhythm in the original headline will be lost. It can be seen that alliteration could more
easily attract readers’ attention and leave a deep impression on readers. In the headline “After the Boom
Everything Is Gloom”, “Boom” is similar to “Gloom” in the form of final rhyme. End rhyme can not only
enhance readers’ audio-visual pleasure, but also stimulate readers’ interest in this news content. In addition, the
double rhyming rhetoric of “alliteration + end rhyme” makes English news headlines more orderly, which has a
strong sense of rhythm. In the headline “From Monster to Martyr?”, “Monster” and “Martyr” have completely
opposite meanings but with the same pronunciation of the first and the last sound. The simultaneous appearance
of alliteration and end rhyme, which concentrates on a single person in a news headline, is highly ironic and
highlights the excellent writing skills of news editors.

Translation Principles of English News Headlines

Accuracy
In the translation of English news headlines, the first principle is to ensure the accuracy of the headlines,
which is not to go against the original author’s idea and which is to grasp the important content of the news.
Once the key content of the news is not grasped in the translation, the translator may not be able to feel the
error of the translation, trapped in the dilemma of catching the meaning of words literally. The accuracy of the
news headline directly determines the quality of the whole report, so it should be regarded as the primary
standard in the translation and the theme content of the news should not deviate. As Chinese and foreigners
have different ways of thinking, it is necessary to take into account cultural differences and accurately express
the connotation and mood of the news headlines.
 CHARACTERISTICS & TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH NEWS HEADLINES 273

Refinement
When the requirement of accuracy is met, another important point of translation of English news headlines
is refinement. Due to the differences between languages, it is difficult to find the corresponding words in
Chinese for some words in English, which leads to procrastination in translation. Therefore, it is necessary to
ensure the refinement of translation. In order to ensure that the headlines achieve the effect of refinement,
translators need to analyze the headlines of English news. Abbreviations are often used to make English news
headlines more concise, so abbreviated words can also be used in translation, which is also a common method
for translating English news headlines.
Vitality
With the special nature, English news headlines have a unique way of presentation. In most cases, news
headlines are often made vivid by rhetorical devices. A good news headline can not only make readers
understand the important content of the news, but also stimulate readers’ interest and deepen reading
impression. However, due to cultural differences, translators must have a deep understanding of the culture of
relevant English-speaking countries, and fully consider the Chinese language and culture to translate with
appropriate words. In addition to ensuring the similarity in form, it is more important to ensure the mutual
communication of connotation, so as to express the original charm of language.

Translation Strategies of English News Headlines

Literal Translation
When English news headlines are clear and easy to understand, literal translation can be used. The greatest
advantage of literal translation is that it retains the language features, expression forms, and content meaning of
the original text. Although there are some differences between Chinese and Western cultures, people have a lot
in common in terms of feelings and thinking patterns. Therefore, literal translation is the most common
translation method and also the preferred strategy of translators.
Free Translation
If literal translation cannot accurately express the content of the original headline, or its readability cannot
be accepted by the reader of the target language, free translation can be considered. In general, free translation
does not need to strictly maintain the original structure, but only needs to clearly and completely express its
corresponding meaning, without paying attention to too many details in grammar. But this does not mean that
the translator can freely adjust the patterns and structure; instead, the translator must translate on the basis of
the original meaning. It allows readers to capture the true content of news from hidden information. For
example, the headline “Believing the Believers” can be translated into “人类的信仰” and “Looking Back to
Look Ahead” can be translated into “回首往昔，展望未来”. Free translation can not only accurately express
the meaning of the original headline, but also better reflect the rich and profound connotation of Chinese.
Amplification Method in Translation
If the readers of target language lack the relevant background knowledge, the addition of annotations or
related information becomes necessary. For instance, the translation of “Tyson’s Trade Treatment” is “美国女
贸易经济学家泰森的贸易对策”. For the readers familiar with the content of the original text, “Tyson” in the
headline is easy to understand. Accurately grasping the main point, however, can be difficult for the target
readers, who will mistake “Tyson” for a champion boxer. Therefore, it is necessary for the translator to add
274 CHARACTERISTICS & TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH NEWS HEADLINES

some information about Tyson as an economist, so that the target audience can accurately receive the
information. As another example, the translation of “Jack Ma: Don’t Use Trade as a Weapon” is “马云出席达
沃斯：不要把贸易当作武器”. The original headline only tells what Ma said, but the translator added specific
conference details to help the target readers better know the news information. The translated version gives the
readers background information on Ma’s stance on the trade war. Such translation is helpful to improve the
accuracy of expression and shorten the distance between events and readers. More importantly, it can stimulate
the reader’s interest to continue reading.
Method of Using Rhetorical Devices
Although news needs to be concise and accurate, distinctive headlines are a magic weapon to attract
readers. The use of various rhetorical devices can make a news report sparkling. If the headline contains some
rhetorical devices, such as puns, metaphors, and rhymes, the translation should also use the corresponding
rhetorical devices, in order to achieve the same rhetorical characteristics as the original as much as possible.
For instance, the headline “After the Booms, Everything Is Gloom” is translated by “一别繁荣，一片愁容”.
“Boom” and “Gloom” form the end rhyme and the Chinese translation perfectly shows the rhyme feature of the
original through “Rong” and “Rong” with the same pronunciation to form the end rhyme. Also, the two “yi”
achieve the effect of alliteration, fully showing the rhetorical effect with a feeling of unity. As another example,
the headline “A Bowl of Soup a Day Could Keep the Pounds at Bay” applies the pattern of an old saying “An
Apple a Day Keeps Doctor Away”, achieving the rhyme effect. So, it can be translated by “一天一碗汤，脂肪
减光光” by imitating the format of this proverb. This translating method not only accurately conveys the
intended meaning of the original headline, but also makes the news headlines more interesting.
Conversion Between Positive and Negative Words
In the process of translation, we should also pay attention to the different nature of words between
countries and understand the context of the original news. For example, in the headline “The Chinese Market, a
Bottomless Pit”, the phrase “A Bottomless Pit” in Chinese has a negative meaning. If we literally translate it
into Chinese, the Chinese market will be described as derogatory. Through reading the content of the news, the
phrase “A Bottomless Pit” comes from the mouth of the president of the famous sports brand Nike, which
happened when he inspected Shanghai. After analyzing the context, it can be found that what he wants to
express is that the market potential of China is great. In this headline, if the relevant context and expression of
the words are not analyzed, it is easy to cause negative understanding and even affect the relationship between
the two countries. Therefore, in the process of translation, we should focus on the meaning of each word in
different countries to make it fit with the original context, so that we can translate and express it accurately and
play a positive role in communication.

Conclusion
News headlines, whether in Chinese or English, reflect their own language and cultural characteristics. So,
the translation of news headlines is not only the conversion between different languages, but also a cultural
communication which must be carried out on the basis of the characteristics of English news headlines. In the
process of translation, translators will be affected by many cultural differences, such as different cultural
backgrounds, thinking patterns, and historical allusions. Therefore, it is particularly important to adopt different
translation strategies according to the specific situation.
 CHARACTERISTICS & TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ENGLISH NEWS HEADLINES 275

The purpose of news headline translation is to enable the readers of the target language to accurately
obtain the information in the source language. Readers tend to pay more attention to the content of the original
news headline, but less to its form. In order to ensure the readability of the news headlines, translators should
not only accurately convey the information of the original headline, but also make the target language conform
to the reading habit and thinking mode of the readers. Only in this way can the cultural information hidden in
the original news headlines be excavated and transmitted accurately and effectively, which helps readers of the
target language better understand the news content.

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