Newspaper language

It has long been recognized that newspaper writing has eventually evolved into a separate language style, characterised by a number of features all of which serve the specific purposes of this means of public communication. Depending on the character of reading stuff, which may vary from brief news Items to big informational articles, from analytical comment and feature articles lo advertisements and announcements, certain devices have come into practical usage and are widely employed as professional tools.

While a detailed analysis of newspaper style can be found in numerous books devoted to the subject, this chapter gives you an outline of some of its general features.

Newspaper vocabulary abounds in political vocabulary of a general character (top agenda, nuclear weapons, politician, peaceful talks, terror-attack); political terms (to infringe the UN resolutions, weapons inspection, primaries, midterm elections, refugee, political asylum, coup);

legal terms (cross-examination, penitentiary legislation, juvenile delinquency, summons);

economic terms (fiscal year, ordinary shares, depreciation, blue-chip stocks, tax evasion);

technical terms, both of a general character and those reflecting latest developments in science, technology and medicine (manufacturing, alloys, injection molding machines, biotechnology, remote access service, third-generation networks, immune system, side effects, heart attack, to implant a stent, angioplasty); cultural terms (first night performance, mainstream filmmakers, script writer, psychedelic artist, acid rock); sport terms (coach, World Cup, Super Bowl, midfielder, defender, semi-finalist).

Since reading a newspaper or a magazine does not as a rule imply a time-consuming routine (unless some material attracts the reader's special attention), a cursory glance should suffice to understand the keynote of each particular piece of information. To facilitate easy and quick understanding, newspaper writers often resort to cliches, stereotyped expressions, familiar phrases (crisis deepens, apparatus of repression, under cover of the night, people sick of listening to political rhetoric, hands-off approach, to pull out of a deal, tough battle, major job cuts, the tide of events is in our favour).

The need to save space results in an extensive use of abbreviations (GM foods, DNA, EU, NATO, WMF, WTO). Abbreviations are especially frequent in headlines, as they not only stand out graphically, but also are quite often either ambiguous or enigmatic, which can be instrumental in attracting the reader's attention. To understand whether GM stands for General Motors or for genetically modified and to make sure that SUVs means sport-utility vehicles, while NTT is deciphered as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one has to have a closer look at the contents of the article.

In conclusion of this extremely brief summary of newspaper vocabulary peculiarities, it should be noted that emotionally coloured words serve to reflect the writer's stand on some particular issue and thus are quite frequently used in journalistic writing (ecological devastation, scandalous behaviour, staggering sum, vicious attacks, fabulous story).

As for grammatical peculiarities of newspaper style, they are mainly pronounced in 'news-in-brief sections. Most news items consist of one or two phrases, which are predominantly complex sentences with a developed system of clauses. Study the following examples taken from the 'Wall Street Journal' front page What's News:

Zimbabwe outlawed insulting gestures and statements aimed at the motorcade of President Mugabe, whose 20-car entourage has faced growing anger in the streets over the country's food shortages and economic crisis.

International schools in Jakarta were closed and under guard amid embassy warnings that Southeast Asian offshoots of al Qaeda considered them targets.

The failed hijacker of an El Al flight bound for Turkey is an Israeli Arab who hoped to fly back to Tel Aviv for a Sept. 11 style attack, his Turkish interrogators said.

Twenty Spanish children taken hostage by a knife-wielding teenager at a school near Barcelona were freed by a plainclothes officer, who overpowered him while delivering a pizza. Authorities said the assailant, a former pupil, had demanded a€l million ransom.

Syntactical complexes (especially the nominative with the infinitive) which allow an impersonal presentation of facts without referring to the source of information are another typical feature (the project is expected to start.., the president appeared to have made his choice...)-

Since headlines arc the epitome of newspaper writing, special focus will further be made on some stylistic devices used in headline writing.

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