Training, Language and Culture (Jun 2023)
How headlines communicate: A functional-pragmatic analysis of small-format texts in English-language mass media
Abstract
Headlines in English-language mass media are a research challenge due to their unique discursive characteristics as small-format texts. Understanding their role as an independent unit of communication between authors and readers is essential for comprehending the nuances of headline construction and interpretation. This paper comprehensively describes major functional-pragmatic properties of headlines within modern media discourse, focusing on the theory of small-format texts. The study intends to answer two research questions: 1. What are the distinctive characteristics of small-format title texts in media discourse? 2. How do small-format texts interact with the primary texts of the publication, affecting their semantics? The paper employs functional-linguistic, stylistic, statistical methods, and discourse analysis to examine a corpus of over 350 headlines randomly selected from British and American press. Informative small-format texts primarily convey the essence of the article, while persuasive small-format texts employ nonlinear discursive means to express pragmatic meanings of indirect persuasion, often utilising puns, irony, humour, and intertextuality. The paper reveals the complex system of pragma-semantic space established by journalists within the overlapping functional fields of both the headline and the primary text of the publication at three interconnected levels: the linear sum of the meaning of lexical units, the nonlinear formation of the semantic space, and the nonlinear hypertextual unity of pragma-semantic spaces between the headline and the article. The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of small-format texts in mass-media discourse, shedding light on their significance in communication and providing insights for media professionals and linguists.
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