A Study On Punctuations In Newspaper Headlines

This article aims to investigate and analyse in detail the usage of punctuations (colons,quotation marks,question marks,exclamation marks,dashes and suspension points) in newspaper headlines.This article is divided into four sections.Section One investigates the usage of quotation marks in newspaper headlines and their pragmatic functions.The quotation mark is the most frequently used punctuation in newspaper headlines.Section One analyses its usage from three major aspects:the basic meaning,the figurative meaning and the exceptional meaning.The basic meaning part consists five sub-sections:reference,emphasis,abbreviation,constructed abbreviation and new terms.The figurative meaning part includes three sub-sections:anonymity, analogy and meaning extension.The exceptional meaning part comprises five sub-sections: the change in part of speech,the change in emotional connotation,the change in applicable context,unusual word combination and the alternation in fixed combination. The pragmatic functions include its rhetoric and its effect.Section Two examines the usage of colons in newspaper headlines.In newspaper headlines,colons have ten specific functions:to indicate opinions and comments,topics, facts,outcomes,treatment,methods,objects,descriptions,origins and questions.Section Three analyses the usage of exclamation marks,question marks,suspension points and dashes in newspaper headlines.The usage of question marks can be categorised into three scenarios:an interrogative headline with a question mark at the end; an interrogative headline without a question mark and a headline a question mark in the middle.The exclamation mark has two functions:expressing one's emotions and voicing one's opinions.Dashes serve to explain the abovementioned text or the turn of the argument.Suspension points are used to either show the omission of parts of the quotation or hint the implicit meaning,creating greater impact than explicit expression.Section Four addresses the usage of punctuations and the repetition issue in newspaper headlines.Punctuations serve four main functions:to consolidate and reinforce the content,to emphasise key points,to communicate feelings to resonate with readers and to summarise succinctly for clarity.Repetition occurs in three areas:the repetition of question marks,the repetition of exclamation marks and the repetition of question and exclamation marks.