Abstract:

As the eyes and guide of English news, English news headlines possess unique linguistic features and forms of expression. In this paper, the author will take China Daily in November and December 2014 as an example to study linguistic features of English news headlines from aspects of grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, voice and tense. The study shows that English news headlines attract readers’ attention with terseness, preciseness, interest and fashion. An unique grammar system called “headlines” by journalists has played an important role in it. Limited by the space of newspapers and time, English news headlines sometimes open a new path. The usage of vocabulary is varied even extended without following the grammar, in order that more information can be transmitted. Studying English news headlines from aspects of grammar and linguistic features and then concluding a set of unwritten grammar is useful to readers, editors and linguists.
 
Key words: English news headlines; linguistic features; China Daily

摘要：

作为英语新闻的眼睛和导向，英语新闻标题有着独特的语言特征和表现形式。本文以《中国日报》为例，从语法、词汇、标点、语态和时态几个方面探讨英语新闻标题的语言特征，研究材料选自2014年11月和12月的《中国日报》。研究结果发现，英文新闻标题以其独特的简约性、准确性、趣味性和时尚性吸引着读者的眼球，这其中有着一套独特的语法体系，新闻学者称之为“标题语言”。受时间和空间的限制，英语新闻标题有时候会另辟蹊径，表现为词汇功能用法多样甚至拓展延伸，没有完全合乎语法规则，以传达尽可能多的信息。从英语新闻标题的语法角度和语言特色角度研究分析，概括出一套适用于英语新闻标题的不成文的语法规则，对读者、新闻编辑者、语言学家都有一定作用。

关键词：英语新闻标题；语言特征；中国日报

Introduction
Since the birth of Venice Gazzetta in the 16th century, the western modern newspapers has survived for four or five hundred years. At first, the style of newspapers is similar to books. The vertical layout and the horizontal type layout appears in different times one after the other. The development of newspapers is still in an initial stage on the whole. In the 20th century especially when it comes to the 1960s, journalists begin to pay much attention to the layout of newspapers. Furthermore, readers are put in a more important position, which makes English news follow certain rules gradually.
China Daily, as Chinese national English daily, is established in 1981. It is issued more than ninety thousand around the world and more than sixty thousand overseas. As an important window with which China and the whole world know each other , China Daily is a preferred English media in China for people around the world, is the only Chinese newspaper that enter into the international mainstream society and is the media which undertakes the most periodicals of international conferences. China Daily is a typical one in English newspapers and has certain research value.