A Study Of Rhetorical Iconicity In Newspaper Headlines

Iconicity of linguistic signs, contrary to the principle of arbitrariness by Saussure,focuses on the similarity or correspondence between the signifier and the signified. Peirce strichotomy of linguistic sign divides iconicity into three subtypes: imagic iconicity,diagrammatic iconicity and metaphorical iconicity, with imagic iconicity dealing with thedirect resemblance between the sound/form of linguistic signs and meaning/content theyrepresent, diagrammatical iconicity the resemblance between the structure of linguisticrepresentation and the structure of content it conveys, and metaphorical iconicity a mappingfrom a concept to another concept.Studies on iconicity in the past several decades have centered at the linguistic aspects,namely the aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, and text structure. With the researchgoing deeper, iconicity is not only regarded as a language attribute, but also as a rhetoricaldevice. Scholars attempt to employ the iconicity theory to analyze the different texts such aspoems, advertisements, fiction and oratorical speech. However, the application of iconicity inthe genre of news, especially in the news headlines, is not sufficient and in its infancy.The newspaper headline, as the eye and soul in a whole piece of news, is the mostprominent part in the news text. The important features of newspaper headlines are terse,expressive, highly summarized and original with the aims to transfer information and toattract the readers. Based on the features of newspaper headlines and the previous analysis oficonicity theory, this thesis digs into the iconic relationship between the form of newspaperheadlines and the contents of the news to test how iconicity theory is applied at thephonological, morphological, syntactic and textual levels.The application of imagic iconicity and diagrammatic iconicity in newspaper headlinesis central to the paper. With headlines in influential newspapers and magazines in the past twodecades as the data, the paper finds that imagic iconicity in newspaper headlines is reflectedin phonological iconicity and graphological iconicity. Direct phonological iconicity innewspaper headlines is embodied mainly in onomatopoeic words while indirect phonological iconicity is reflected mainly in some concrete figures of speech, such as alliteration andend-rhyme. Graphological iconicity is reflected mainly in typesetting and word font.Generally, imagic iconicity brings vividness and adds attractiveness to the newspaperheadlines by creating the sense of beauty in sound and vision.Diagrammatic iconicity in headlines, the other aspect central to this paper, isinvestigated under the four principles of iconicity, including distance iconicity, sequencingiconicity, quantity iconicity and markedness iconicity. Specifically, distance iconicity finds itsway in newspaper headlines in such aspects as the present tense, omission and punctuation;sequencing iconicity in headlines is achieved by two means of the natural order and thelogical order; quantity iconicity in headlines mainly presents itself in the use of repetition andreduced forms and markedness iconicity is applied by the use of special punctuations,typesetting and allusions. The four of principles of diagrammatic iconicity highlights theheadline features of being terse, highly summarized, and attractive, thus achieves therhetorical effects to make headlines more beautiful, original, attractive, and intelligible.The large amount of examples and detailed analysis of the rhetorical roles and stylisticeffects of iconicity in headlines lead to the conclusion that the application of iconicity innewspaper headlines makes headlines more terse, original, outstanding and attractive. Inaddition, the research effectively tests and strengthens the explanatory power of iconicity intexts.