Wordplay And Transformational Strategies In English-Persian Online News Headlines Of Euronews

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Date
2016-03
Authors
Monsefi, Roya
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Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Within the endless stream of information available on the news media market, news headline language is characterised by several linguistic, pragmatic, rhetorical and functional features that distinguish it from other varieties of language that are not specialised. In the present thesis, the rhetorical features of English news headlines and their translation in Persian, through wordplay investigation, using a sample of 200 news headlines (100 English, 100 Persian) are studied. Wordplay is investigated because it leads to the persuasiveness of message that is sometimes so subtle that the readers might not even recognise it. A taxonomy of wordplays is constructed according to Leigh’s (1994) model which made it possible to access a comprehensive checklist. The way the persuasive element, i.e. wordplay, is presented for the Persian headline readers is examined using the descriptive method and in light of textual rhetorical analysis. The theoretical framework is based on van Dijk’s (1988a) model of transformational strategies primarily because the concept of translation in global news is quite unique and involves transformational activities like reshaping, editing, synthesising and repackaging of the source news. Accordingly, the changes in wordplay retention can be determined. The outcome of the study suggests that English news headlines are more likely to contain one or more clearly defined wordplay than Persian news headlines. The types of wordplays used in the news headlines of two languages are similar with the difference that litotes, onomatopoeia and asyndeton are used exclusively in English and anaphora and periphrasis only in Persian news headlines. In both languages, the most frequent wordplay is that of tropes or more specifically metonymy. However, there are some wordplays such as polysyndeton, anadiplosis, antimetabole, epistrophe and polyptoton that are absent in both English and Persian headlines. The majority of unused categories fall under the category of schemes. The transformational changes that take place in rendering wordplays vary in prevalence ranging from maintaining the wordplay in headlines with metonymy, personification, allusion, simile, irony and hyperbole to complete deletion of wordplay in headlines with ellipsis, pun, anastrophe and apposition in most instances
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