Abstract:

Nowadays, news communication has been developing along with the rapid development of science and technology. It is widely recognized that news is the primary means of disseminating information, and that headlines are essential to the news.After all, not all readers have enough time and patience to read the news report from beginning to end. Lots of people are so busy with their work that they only read headlines themselves when reading newspapers. As a result, the news headlines determine the value of news. The headlines of news should be terse, accurate and eye-catching. Because of these requirements, English news headlines have acquired distinct stylistic characteristics. This paper briefly discusses the features of English news headlines from the perspective of lexicology, syntax, rhetoric and punctuation, in hope of helping readers to understand the content of English news better.

Key words:English news headlines; lexicology; syntax; rhetoric; punctuation

摘要：

如今新闻传播事业随着科学技术的迅猛发展而发展。新闻是信息传播的主要手段，新闻标题是新闻的重要组成部分。毕竟，并不是每一位读者都有足够的时间和耐心从头至尾读完新闻。许多人忙于工作，只能阅读新闻标题。因此标题的选择决定新闻的成败与价值。新闻的标题必须做到简洁、准确、抢眼。正是因为有这些要求，英语新闻标题形成了自己独特的文体特征。本文试从词法、句法、修辞与标点四个层面简单探讨新闻标题的特征，从而帮助读者更好地理解新闻的内容。

关键词：英语新闻标题；词法；句法；修辞；标点

Introduction
With the further deepening of reform and opening up and China's accession to WTO, China’s contact and exchanges with the world become increasingly frequent. China needs to learn more about the world, and the world needs a better understanding of China. In this sense, a great deal of information needs to be conveyed by news media. Since English is recognized as the universal language, the most important way of getting information is to read English news. As a saying goes,a good title means the article half done. Headlines, an inseparable component of news, serve as the role of eyes. Headlines reveal the main content of English news concisely and explicitly, enabling readers to get as much information as they can in the shortest amount of time.
International communication has become more and more frequent with the acceleration of global integration.English,the most universal language in the world, is playing a more and more important role in the process of economic globalization and high speed information conveying. English news is one of the main ways of disseminating information in the international community and their headlines surely play an increasingly important role in our dairy life. This paper has four parts, mainly discussing the linguistic characteristics of English news headlines so as to understand this particular type of writing and specific news reporting better.