Space Constraints And Language Expression

Everything and its moving form exist under certain time and space. Every substance’s forms of existence influence nature of the substance. Language is no exception.Many scholars in linguistic field have noticed that, there are obvious differences in grammatical expression between the speech we utter and the words we write down. However, few people have notice so far that, same with syntactic differences between ’uttered speech’and’written words’, there are more typical expressions on headline language, especially news headline language:plenty of syntactic phenomena can only appear in headlines but never in other context, even in the text of the same written discourse. Likewise, some grammatical phenomena in written text can be ungrammatical in headlines. This is the so-called ’Headline Phenomenon’.What is the nature of’Headline grammar’phenomenon indeed? There are no effective explanations so far.In this respect, Mr. HU Fanzhu once put forward a theoretical hypothesis:just as existence form of language in time (in phonetics) will influence language structure, producing rhythm syntax hence; the existence form of language in space will most probably influence syntactic appearance of language, which makes possible the construction of ’kong jian yu fa’.We believe this hypothesis will bring significant inspiration to researches on chinese grammar.Language is firstly a symbolic chain in time, which will constrain language structure inevitably. In this respect, there have been profound discussions in linguistic ield. Scholars such as FENG Shengli put forward the point that rhythm influences;yntax, hence establishing rhythm syntax. Nevertheless, we find that once words were)roduced, language can be presented through a course not only in time, but also in space. Therefore, Language in the space expanded, which may also be some kind of role in the structure of the language----although Chinese linguistic field has not paid sufficient attention on this point.Newspaper language is presented in certain space, so it can hardly avoid influences from the space where it exists. Same as what is influenced by spatial factors, the relationship between headlines and layout space is closer:news headlines should meet the demand of strictly limited space while provide information as eye-catching and attractive as possible. These bi-indexes result in significant changes of grammar.The present thesis starts from collecting and sorting current definitions of news headlines and proposes sub-grammar for the first time. Based on this, it explores a series of changes on news headlines in terms of wording, syntax and punctuations, under bi-pressures of’layout space constrains’and’intensification of visual stimulation’. Moreover, it points out that nature of news headlines is comparatively independent sub-discourse, which appears as sentence, but in function performs between sentence and discourse.By putting forward the concept of sub-discourse for the first time, the present thesis discloses relationship between sentence and discourse, as well as the differences of language usage between speakers and listeners.The present thesis is also the first one which studies newspaper language from a new perspective of’layout space’.Meanwhile, the present thesis, for the first time also, discusses two mechanisms of layout space taking effect on news headline grammar:constrains and compensation, and make further explanations a series of changes of news headline grammar.Therefore, the present thesis can be regarded as a research of journalistic linguistics, as well as a research of stylistic linguistics.The present thesis includes six chapters.Chapter One:Introduction. This part introduces topics, objects of the present thesis and the foundation and related theories of the present research. It points out the weak points and trend of current linguistic studies on news headlines. It finally explains research methods and resources of the present thesis.Chapter Two investigates headline wording features under spatial factors. Key illustration:Simplification of news headline language; Three-dimentionalization of news headline word meanings; Alphabeticalization in news headline word images; Abnormalization of collocation in words of news headlines. It also points out that these changes of ways of word using are made under the influences of space constrains and intensification of visual stimulation of newspaper layout.Chapter Three inspects syntactic structure features of news headlines under influence of spatial factors. Key illustration:De-subject tendency in news headline syntax due to two indexes:space constrain and visual stimulation; Special grammar phenomenon of lack of syntactic elements has to be normalized in that some components such as function words, quantity words, words denoting time, which should be used in main body can be eliminated in headlines; Some ungrammatical sentences in traditional sense such as verb-object phrase plus object can be recognized as grammatical in headlines; It also puts emphasis on discussing special structure’X ye Y’Chapter Four explores practical feature of punctuation in headlines under the influences of spatial factors. Examples to illustrate this point:In the same discourse, distinct distributions of punctuation in headlines and main body; Zero-tendency of dots used in news headlines; Special functions of quotation marks, colons, question marks, separation dots, which also includes legalization of abnormal collocation caused by quotation marks; Different grammatical levels before and after colons; Question marks indicate a full sentence even after uncompleted sentence; Separation marks change structure among words, etc.Chapter Five redefines news headlines and proposes essential feature of Sub-discourse of news headlines. Based on the hypothesis of special grammar, it investigates function of special factors on sub-indexes of news headlines such as space of headline, size of words, space or line used, etc. Furthermore, it discusses how two layout mechanisms of limit and compensation impact grammar of news headlines. Based on these, eight propositions are put forward from three aspects:wording, syntax and punctuation.Chapter Six:Conclusion. This chapter sums up the present subject and proposes some thoughts for future research.