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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Publisher
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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