资源描述
外国语学院
英文报刊选读结课论文
论文题目: Features Of English
News Language
班级: 2014级英语1班
姓名: 荣璐
学号: 2014505009
指导教师: 段丽丽
2015 年 12 月 20 日
Features of English News Language
英语新闻的语言特色
Abstract: With the deepening of the economic and cultural globalization, more and more people around the world are desperately need timely access to new situations, new experience and new things, and the news is an important way of assembling information from all over the world. Hence, to master the features of English languages is of great benefit to improve the ability of reading and understanding English news.
Key words: English news languages; features;sentence stucture
I. Introduction
Having entered into the twenty-first century, the connection between China and the other parts of the world is becoming more and more inseparable. It is known to that more and more people get to know the world not just from books, but from other media, such as newspapers, radio, television and Internet. Listening to, watching or reading English news has become such an important way for people to understand all kinds of important events that occur in the current world, to obtain valuable information in various fields, and to learn and master English. Hence, it is no doubt that we should master the features of English languages which will help us acquire the information they need timely and conveniently.
II. The features of English languages
1. The lexical features of English languages
In order to expand publicity and attract readers, timelyreporting of social events, the news vocabulary not only strive to be concise, but also had to pursue innovative and eye-catching, resulting in a lot of ‘Journalistic Words’, formed a unique vocabulary features.
a. Abbreviations
Abbreviations can be roughly devided into two kinds, the first one is individual abbreviations for longe words, such as:
① biz = business
② dorm = dormitory
③ rep = representive
④ HQ = headquaters
⑤ Tel = telephone
⑥ CO. =company
The other one is also known as acronyms, mostly the first letter of a few words will be added together to form a new words, all in capital letters spelling, to replace a set of complex and lengthy word or phrase. There are some examples:
① NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration (美国航空航天局)
② CIA = Central Intelligence Agency (美国中央情报局)
③ CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States (独立国家联合体)
④ MIA = Missing in Action (战争中失踪的人)
⑤ NPC = National People’s Congress (中国人民代表大会)
⑥ OIC = Organization of the Islamic Conference (伊斯兰会议组织)
b. Blending words and derivative words
The ues of blending words and derivative words is because news’ brevity. For example,
① heliport = helicopter + airport 直升飞机场
② videophone = video + telephone 可视电话
③ newscast = news + broadcast 新闻广播
④ medicare = medical + care 医疗保障方案
⑤ comsat = communication +stallite 通讯工具
⑥ interpol = international + police 国际警察
Derivation is the major way of modern English word-formation, here are some common affix in newspapers:
① by- “副的,次要的” : byproduct副产品、bywork副业
② -an, -ian “……地方的人,精通……的人” : American、historian
③ -acy “性质、状态、境遇” :accuracy精度、diplomacy外交
④ -ise/ize “使……化;……化” : computerize计算机化、modernize使现代化
⑤ under- “低于” : underfeed不喂饱、underreport低报
c. Slang
The use of slang is in order to cater the tastes of different readers, avoid the same words, and also to make readers feel more cordial, natural, humorous, lively, like Have-a-go workers foil wage raiders.积极要求加工资的工人挫败削减工资的工人。Here are more examples:
① buck 美元
② buddy 男子最亲近的男友
③ jack up 抬高物价
④ road-hog 乱开车的人
⑤ right on 哇
⑥ yellow dog contract 雇主与工人签订的合同(其中规定工人不准加入工会)
D.nominalization
There are many nouns in newspapers which are developed from verbs, they can show the action and state. This approach can make sentences simple and short.
① The transplant community’s reaction has been one of approval and acceptance.
② When the new system implemented, there was some concern that some transplant centers would game the system.
③ Freemen cautioned that continuing shortage of organs is the single major impediment towards increasing patient and graft suevival rates.
e. Loanwords
News reports are often mixed with a number of foreign words to add a sense of novelty, arose the reader's interest.
① Two weeks ago she was in Moscow, and her private meeting with President Gorbchev, whom she warned about backsliding on perestroika, topped the main Soviet TV evening news broadcast.
perestroika为俄语,意为“改革”,词义相当于英文reform
② To San Francisco fengshui guru Steven Post,who has interest grow from a “trikle to a torrent”, the assumption that people are affected by their surroundings is common sense.
Fengshui风水,直接借用汉字并与之同义
2. Syntactic features
a. With a simple method to express the character's personality and character, not a relative clause without apposition, and just put adjectives in front of the occupation, title or the name of a person
Francois Hollande arrived in Havana on Sunday, the first French president to visit Cuba in more than a century, cementing France’s lead in the EU rapprochement with the island.
b. Sentence is longer and the stucture is loose
In news reports, in order to provide as much as possible information within a short space, the sentences are longer.
① Many ministers from the previous government held on to their jobs, including Finance Minister George Osborne, another potential leader who was promoted to a post as Cameron’s No 2 in government.
② With the exception of nationalists in Scotland, the election left Britain’s oppsition in disarray, following Friday’s resignations of Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat chief Nick Clegg.
c. Frequent use of the passive voice
In most cases, the dominant position of the English news is the active voice, because the use of the active voice can make the reader have a direct feeling,but when the event needs to emphasize the recipients of the event, using the passive voice is more likely to achieve the goal.
The Tibet autonomous region, which shares a border with Nepal to the west, suffered casualties insome of its western counties in Saturday's quake. Twenty deaths and 55 injuries were reported onSunday, and snowy weather made rescue missions difficult.
d. Flexible use of tense
In order to meet the demand of reports, the news pay more attention to reality, choosing the tense according to happening time flexibly.
Debris covers a street after sudden flooding on Monday in Yudong, Yunan Province. Heavy rain taht started to fall on Sunday night caused a dam to collapse, affecting 3,600 villagers, the local government said. One villager was killed, nine people were injured and two people are missing.
III. Conclusion
Analyzing and mastering the news headlines, text structure, understanding the characteristics of news language vocabulary, etc. are all in order to read English newspapers better and faster, achieve the purpose of using English medium to obtain information. In current century, international and domestic situation changes fast, reading English newspapers and magazines is a way to know the latest trends in the world, to collect information on the international market as best as possible, as qickly as possible.
Works Cited (参考文献)
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4. China Daily
5. 《论英语新闻的语言特点》. 刘亚萍. 西安财经学院外交部
6. 《浅析英语新闻的语言特色》. 海霞. 新疆大学学报. 2003年9月
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