An Analysis of English News Headlines

A headline is an indispensable component of a news report and is the eye of the pages on the newspapers,through which the readers can gain as much information as possible in the newspaper within the shortest time and search for clues to stories that interest them,as the headline is the condensation of the wholestory.Despite their own characteristic ways of editing headlines,English newspapers share something in common,namely brevity,accuracy,clarity and eye-catehingness.However,these features unique to English newspaper headlines constitute a big barrier to readers' understanding of the headlines and they may become quite at loss when reading headlines at the very beginning.This thesis aims to make an analysis of English news headlines in terms of their features at structural,lexical and rhetorical levels and hopes to help readers understand English news headline better.