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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

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


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

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
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3
4
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5
6
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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
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19
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26
27
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30
31
32
32
32
33
33
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36
36
36
37
37
38
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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

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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:

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

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

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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

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)

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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


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

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

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

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

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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


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

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)

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

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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

"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.

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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

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