新闻语言特点

摘要现在，有很多用英语报道的新闻，但是国际上已经约定熟成一种通用的报道新闻的语言模式，那就是新闻英语。

然而，从某种程度上说，新闻中使用的英语和人们日常生活中使用的英语是不一样的。

本文就浅析新闻英语语言特征。

关键词：新闻英语特征词汇AbstractToday, there are many media reporting news in English, but what they used is a common mode of English news internationally, that is, news English this particular style. However, the language used in English newspapers is quite different from general English to some extent.Key words: News English Features WordsContentsAbstract (3)1．Introduction (5)2．Understanding the news english (5)2.1 Definitions of news english (6)2.2Natures of news english (6)3．Lexical features of news english (6)3.1 Short words (7)3.2 Abbreviations (8)3.2.1 Acronyms (8)3.2.2 Clippings (8)3.3 Frequent use of new words (9)3.3.1 Sense-shift (9)3.3.2 Part of Speech Shift (10)3.4 Borrowed words (10)3.4.1 Loan words (10)3.4.2 Proper names of persons or places (11)3.4.3 Slang (11)Bibliography (12)An Analysis of the LinguisticFeatures of News English1IntroductionWith increasing international exchange between China and the other parts of the world, language study is becoming an indispensable part in daily life. Especially nowadays, as English has increasingly come into world-wide use, there has arisen an acute need for more information on the language and the ways in which it is used. Reading English newspapers opens a special window for people to be dipped into new things and stories that come forward everyday, and give people the opportunity of picking up language. They are the primary mass medium from which people receive new information. Newspapers have a rich mix of content —news, advice, comics, opinions, puzzles and data. Some people go right for the stock market tables, others to sports or a favorite column ist. Unlike radio and television, people don’t have to wait for what they want. Newspapers are important in people’s lives, and as a medium they adapt to changing lifestyles.Today, there are many media reporting news in English, but what they used is a common mode of English news internationally, that is, news English this particular style. However, the language used in English newspapers is quite different from general English to some extent. It is a common occurrence that people are often confused with the wide-range new expressions and have no idea about its unique structure and the use of rhetorical devices and so on. Then how can people cope with such linguistic problems to read the English news effectively and understand it accurately. How can journalists write an informative news story? The paper is to give an analysis of the basic linguistic features — lexical features and grammatical features of English news. The main purpose of this paper is to improve reader’s ability to read English news. It is hoped that it will be particularly useful to those who have strong interests in reading English news.2Understanding of News EnglishLanguage is changing constantly, especially in today’s world, the advancement of science and technology, the development of society and civilization, and the complication of our life bring into a lot of new expressions, which frequently appear in news English. Through reading English news, people can not only know the things happening around them but also acquire some knowledge about English, therefore, reading English news is by all means an effective way to learn modern English.Generally speaking, news English belongs to general English, i.e. the main part of Standard English. As an applied language, it has formed unique features which differ greatly from general English.2.1 Definition of News EnglishTo figure out the linguistic features of news English, it is necessary to know what news is. The word “News” derives from Greece. In American reporter Joest’s opinions, the word “News” comes from the word “New”. It is clear that freshness is one of the most essential features of news.Most of the traditional dictionaries share the view that news refers to the report of current events in a newspaper or on radio and television. Here it summarizes two major aspects of the essence of news, that is, real time and by means of mass media, i.e. newspapers, magazines, radio and television. They consistently skip a thriving industry in mass communication: the on-line news, which should not be ignored in the study.News English belongs to news, it is the news that was written in English. So we know news English very well.2.2 Natures of News EnglishFrom the definitions of news English mentioned, it is not difficult for people to understand the features of news English. English is the general language in the world, so news English is very important in the world. News English is the important news for people to know the world. According to Zheng Baowei (2003), news has four distinctive natures, so the news English also has the four distinctive natures.First, news English must be true. News is the report of facts which are the basis of news. Without facts there would be no news. Second, news English must be new. It is said that the word “news” comes the word “new”. News English is a kind of information conveyed to the people, but it is not the common information; instead it is about the things in its newest state. Third, news English must be timely. If the true and new facts were not released timely, news English would become old and valueless. Therefore, the mass media must disclose the facts to the masses as soon as possible. Last, news English must be made known to the public. In the modern society, the news English media ate the most important and most-frequently-used channel for people to get to know the outside world. Everyday newspapers, radio broadcast and TV continuously release a large amount of news English, and all the news English is open to the public.Based on the above definition and natures, people should pay attention to the words and sentences in news English. News English is the applied language, which is different from the ordinary English, it has a distinctive style of language forms and stylistic features.3Lexical Features of News EnglishThis part will focus mainly on the lexical features of news English. News English has its main task of getting across the message and informing its readers. The language ituses is, accordingly, different from either the literary language of novels and essays or the persuasive language of advising. News English, therefore, has its own distinctive features. Only after having picked up the basic characteristics of news language, can people have a good command of skills or ways to read news English.3.1 Short WordsOn the one hand, economy in style is a must in English news; on the other, newspapers are written to be read hurriedly by persons of all walks of life. As a result, short words are called for to meet the needs of this kind. In some literature concerned with English news, short words are also named monosyllabic words or midget words. Midget words, the short and dynamic expressions, are preferred by journalists for their rich meaning and concise wording. The high-frequent midge words can be classified into three groups.First, short words predominate over longer ones. As discussed above, readers show little patience to redundant words. Also they bear a resistance to complicated and long words, which, on the other hand, would be the second choice for news editors if other words are available to convey similar meaning while occupying a bit less space. Now take a look at the following examples which are taken from the American popular magazine, Time.“AT&T also upped the ante for its CEO, Robert Allen.” (Time, M ar.1, 1993, P49) “Tit-for-Tat strikes highlight the depth of Israeli-Palestinian strife.” (Time)The underlined words in the sample sentences above, “up” and “strife” are the synonyms of “increase” and “conflict” respectively. Obviously, they take less spa ce in print-out and express the meaning thoroughly. Even though the word “up” used here as a verb is to some extent informal, it does not really contradict the essence of news stated “diversity”, that is, it is “the mix of the serious and the less serious.”Second, single words replace phrases. Some midget words are so frequently appearing in English news that they have formed the specific contextual meaning differentiated from their common usages and even some words come to be exclusively used in news repo rting. A typical example is the word “woo” as used in the following news taken from BBC broadcast. “Arroyo set to woo China on trade: Philippines leader Gloria Arroyo aims to strengthen economic ties with China during a visit to Beijing.” () Here the word “woo” takes the place of the phrase “seek to win”, which is widely used in the genres other than journalistic writing. Also, the replacement sometimes causes difficulties in news-reading if the audience is not sufficiently acquainted with news English. For example, Chinese readers, who know about the basic knowledge of British parties, would still be confused by the following news: “A Tory candidate says even a long-time Labor seat in a Notts former coalfield is a possible target” (), because “Tory”, as the substitution for “the British Conservative Party”, is quite new to them.Last, propositions and particles substitute for phrases or clauses. Propositions are meaningful in their own right, especially for the ones that overlap with adverbs or particles. Grammatically these propositions can function as phrases or clauses in certain contexts. The word class thus is not supposed to be ignored in news English.Linguists H.L. Mencken and Simeon Potter once pointed out that excessive use of short words is one of the most distinctive characteristics of English news. The following short words often appear in English news:aim — purpose, object, intention (目的，目标，意图)ban — prohibition ,restraint, interdict (禁止，遏止，制止)bid — offer, attempt, endeavor, proposal (出价，试图，努力，建议)cut — reduction, shortening, curtailment, abridgement (减少，减短，缩减，节略) meet — meeting, assembly, conference, convention (会议，集会，会谈，大会)key — very important (关键的)now — at the present time soon — in the neat future3.2 AbbreviationsAs discussed above, simplification is the universal tendency in journalistic writing, which justifies the wide-spread contractions in English news. Here are two main devices of contractions commonly used in journalistic style: acronym and clipping. 3.2.1 AcronymsAcronym is “a word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and rang ing.”()The following part is going to take the behind-the-scene’s look at the secret of acronyms applied to journalism since shortening might cause unease and confusion among readers even though they save a bit newspaper or magazine space.Most of technical and medical terms are in the form of acronyms in news reporting on the ground that the original forms of these terms are usually too complicated for laypersons while the acronyms are much simplified and suited for mass audience. Readers are in fact more comfortable with such words as “DNA”,“LASER” than their original terms of “genetics deoxyribonucleic acid” and “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.Here are other examples:CPC — Communist Party of China (中国共产党)IMF — International Monetary Fund (国际货币基金组织)WHO — World Health Organization (世界卫生组织)PC — personal computer (个人电脑)DINKS — double income, no kids (丁克族)3.2.2 ClippingsAnother common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part of the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping or shortening. In modern times, people tend to be economical in writing and speech to keep up with the tempo of new life style. To save time one is likely to clip words that are frequently used. There are six types of clipping:Front clipping: the shortening occurs at the beginning of the word, like bus (fromomnibus).Back clipping: the shortening occurs at the end of the word, e.g. photo (from photograph).Front and back clipping: the shortening occurs at both ends of the word, a typical example of which is flu (from influenza).Middle clipping: the shortening occurs at the middle of the word, for example, motel (from motor hotel).Phrase clipping: the shortening occurs in phrase, like pub (from public house), pop (from popular music)Free clipping: the shortening is not strictly in line with a certain rule, such as bike (from bicycle), Aussie (from Australian). (Feng Shimei, 2002:101-102)Because they are much frequently appearing in news reporting, readers do not feel uncomfortable with the clipped words at all and some of them are so popular that readers would ignore or even forget their original forms.3.3Frequent Use of New WordsWhat are new words? This is definitely a hard question which can never be answered satisfactorily, because there is no certain yardstick to measure which words are new. As far as the new words contained in English news are concerned, they are any words, phrases or meanings that come into popular use in English or enjoy a vogue for the appearance of certain social phenomenon, advent of a new technology and the other new phenomena.Nowadays, new words are entering the English language at an ever-increasing speed. People live in an age of knowledge explosion. With the development of science and technology in the modern society, high-tech products no longer belong exclusively to the science laboratories, but become part of people’s life. It has been gradually found that it is hard to express those new things and ideas with the existing words. In this case, new expressions have been created. The mass media take the responsibility to inform the audiences about the recent development of the technologies that have much impact on them or in which they may show great interest. That is why such news reports are crammed with the words and phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions or the associated concepts. It is well known that language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in it. Language is influenced and shaped by culture; it reflects culture. In general, new words or expressions ate formed by some lexical devices such as derivation, compounding, initialism or acronym and blending. Apart from that, some new words are from sense-shift of changing the old meaning into new and special one. With the popularity of new words through mass media, some of them have been accepted and collected into dictionaries.3.3.1 Sense-shiftBy sense-shift are meant words which extend new meanings from their original meanings. This is common in English news. For instance, “roommate” shifts from “aperson with whom one shares a room or rooms” to “cohabitant”; the original meaning of the word “gay” is “happy”, but now it is used to refer “homosexual” or “homosexuality”. The meaning has changed completely. All in all, the original meanings of these words have been enlarged or extended, which enrich the news language to a large degree. This is also a distinctive characteristic of modern English.3.3.2 Part of Speech ShiftIn English news, it is a common linguistic phenomenon that shifting the part of speech of a word forms a new meaning. A noun can change into a verb, with an adjective of an adverb can be a verb or a verb changes into a noun, etc. The shifting may not only produce new meanings, but also make sentences simple, novel and vivid. Take the noun “mothball” for example. It means a marble-sized ball, originally of camphor, stored with clothes to repel moths, while in these days, it can be a verb or an adjective, meaning “to remove from active service or to use and put into protective storage”. One more example: “brief” can be used as a verb, which means “to give concise preparatory instructions, information, or advice to” i nstead of its adjective meaning “succinct or concise”.3.4Borrowed WordsThe vividness of the words employed in English news can also be achieved by borrowing loan words, the proper names of persons or places, slang and jargon. In what follows, a detailed analysis of these three respects will be made.3.4.1 Loan WordsWide use of loan words is another distinct lexical feature of English news. English grows not only through coinage of new words and employment of existing English words in novel ways, but also through adoption of foreign words and phrases that produce colorful and precise expressions. Some examples follow to illustrate this point.“Britain has hardened its stance over European Community (EC) economic and political union, indicating the sine qua non of the Maastricht summit next week would be prompt solutions to the most contentious issues.” (The Christian Science Monitor, Dec.5, 1991)In this piece of news, “sine qua non” is a loan word which comes from Latin and means “绝对必要的条件，必备的资格”.There are some other loan words that often appear in English news. It is hoped that the following words are helpful to readers when reading English news. For example: From Latin:ad infinitum 无限的；永远的de facto事实上；实际上；现存的From German:blitzpolitik 闪电式外交政策Zeitgeist 时代精神From French:envoy 使者；代表；使节coup de main 突击；突袭From Japanese:dan 柔道空手道围棋等运动员等级的段Go 围棋From Russian:glasnost 公开性；开放intelligentsia 知识分子；知识界From Chinese:kung fu 功夫tofu 豆腐3.4.2 Proper Names of Persons or PlacesIn English news, reporters would like to use the proper names of persons or places that are widely known or famous among many people to stand for the corresponding country or government or organization. This is a striking feature of English news. For example:Bonn had also told Damascus it did not intend to impound the tanks and expressed a desire to settle the issue cordially. (The New Zealand Herald, Feb.5, 1992)The francophone Summit offered Mitterrand government an opportunity to protect French as an international language, a status it is steadily losing to English. (China Daily, Nov.22, 1991)The underlined parts in the examples above stand for Germany, Syria and France respectively. There are many other examples:Big Apple 大苹果→纽约市Hollywood 好莱坞→美国电影业；美国电影界Fleet Street 舰队街→英国新闻界White House 白宫→美国政府；美国总统Zhongnanhai 中南海→中国政府3.4.3 SlangSlang is an indispensable part in modern English vocabulary. It plays a crucial role in English expressions. In the last century, especially since WWⅡ, the development of slang has been very fast and the range of its employment is wider and wider. It is common to use a lot of slang in English news.Bibliography【1】马朋超. A Case Study on Analysis of the Stylistic Features of News Coverage[J]. 东方企业文化. 2010(15)【2】张莉. Discourse Analysis of English News-A Contrastive Study of Stylistic Features of Straight News and News Features[J]. 文学界(理论版). 2010(10)【3】程道才. 专业新闻写作概论[M]. 北京: 中国广播电视出版社, 2002:72-73 【4】翟晶玮. 浅谈新闻英语的文体特点[J]. 科技资讯. 2010(17)【5】杨丽霞. 新闻报道中模糊语的语用功能[J]. 西北第二民族学院学报, 2005(3).11。