King Elvis
dead
‘Elvis’ is the head noun; ‘King’ is the pre modifier and dead
is the post modifier. This headline had to be short and to the point as the
subject matter was extremely devastating. The effect that the shortness of the
headline gives is hard hitting and the lack of words allow people to process
the topic and go straight to the rest of the information.
There’s a
car bomb coming into town
‘Bomb’ is the head noun, the determiner is the letter ‘a’,
the pre modifier is car and the post modifier is the phrase ‘coming into town’.
This headline is very disturbing however it is worded comically as the headline
resembles that of a jingle people sing at Christmas.
Man tries
to kidnap baby from McDonald’s parking lot
‘Man’ and ‘baby’ are both nouns however ‘baby’ is the head
noun. ‘From McDonald’s’ parking lot is the post modifier and ‘to’ is the
determiner. The style of this headline is assertive and to the point. This is
because all of the main information is in the headline but it is relatively
short.
Inmate gets
trapped in tunnel after trying to escape Brazilian prison
‘Tunnel’ is the head noun, ‘trapped in tunnel’ is the pre
modifier and the whole phrase ‘after trying to escape Brazilian prison’ is the
post modifier. ‘In’ is the determiner. This headline uses multiple verbs to
explain itself. This is because without them the reader would be confused as to
how the situation occurred.
Beauty
salon boss is ordered to pay £3000 for putting rubbish in wrong bin bag
‘Boss’ is the head noun and beauty salon is the pre modifier.
‘Ordered to pay’ is the post modifier and the word ‘to’ is the determiner. This
headline uses harsh verbs like “ordered” as it makes the situation seem even
worse. The whole noun phrase is used at the beginning of the head line to
provide the reader with the context first.
Fisherman
reels in SUPER-FISH off the coast of Japan
‘Fish’ is the head noun. ‘Fisherman reels’ is the pre
modifier and ‘in’ is the determiner. ‘Coast of Japan’ is the post modifier and ‘off’
is also a determiner. The head noun is actually just the word ‘FISH’ however
the word super, which is a superlative, is used with the head noun to make the
story seem exciting because otherwise the story would sound extremely boring. ‘Assistant’ is the head noun. ‘Shamed teaching’ is the pre modifier as it is before the head noun. ‘Escapes jail’ is the post modifier as it is after the head noun and the ‘a’ at the end is the determiner. This headline is in active voice as it starts off with the teaching assistant. This makes the sentence make sense because if it was in passive voice it would be too long and complicated.
Man Found
Dead In Graveyard
‘Man’ is the head noun and ‘found dead’ is the post modifier.
‘In’ is the determiner and there is no pre modifier as it is active voice and
the sentence starts off with ‘man’. This headline gives a comical yet shocking
element to its story as you would usually find dead people in a graveyard
however as it has made a headline the audience would be intrigued because there
would be something unusual about it.
Missing
girl, 16, murdered
The word ‘Girl’ is the head noun and ‘missing’ is the pre
modifier. ‘Murdered’ is the post modifier and ‘16’ is use of extra information
to give more detail to the story. This headline is short and to the point which
gives the reader of the article an instant response of shock and sadness
because of how upsetting the event is. This headline is active voice as it
begins with the phrase ‘missing girl’. This also tells the reader that this
story had gone on for a while because she went missing, this makes the story
seem even more distressing.
Baby stolen
at hospital
‘Baby’ is the head noun as it is the focus of the sentence.
There is no pre modifier however ‘stolen at hospital’ is the post modifier. ‘At’
is the determiner and stolen is the verb which helps make the sentence make sense
as it puts it in past tense. This headline is also short and to the point and
is in active voice. The active voice helps make the headline even more heart
breaking as the word it starts off with is ‘Baby’. The word baby makes the is
associated with innocence and allows certain readers like mothers, for example,
to relate to the topic as it could affect their emotions.
Interesting choices here Tom! Good focus and analysis on both a semantic and pragmatic level.
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