A study on the features of online English news

鄭益娟

Abstract： Online English news has become an inseparable part of individuals daily life. This paper makes a study on the language features of online English news form three respects： lexical features， syntactic features and discourse pattern. In the end， it tries to give suggestions on improving skills in reading online English news.

Key words：Online English news；features

1.Introduction

1.1 Online English news

Online English news， presented on the website page of Internet， is a sub-type of English news. In the meanwhile， online English news presented on the APP extends its wings. This paper focuses on the features of online English news. Three aspects are studied： the lexical features； the syntactic features and the discourse pattern. It intends to give feasible suggestions on reading online English news.

1.2 Basic elements of online English news

There are six basic elements of online English news： where； when； why； who； what； how. In the early time of nineteenth century， news reporters regarded these five "W" as the basic rules of news writing. They were produced by John in Associated Press. It is not the necessary case that these six elements are all listed in a piece of news. On some occasions， some less important elements can be omitted form the news.

2.Features of online English news

2.1 lexical features

2.1.1 Short words

Short words are commonly used in English newspapers for the sake of space. News has a tendency of using short words or shorter words. Many English words can express the same meaning. Some of them are composed of more letters， some others are fewer. So it is obvious that journalists prefer to use short words in order to more space. Also， these short words can be understood more easily because they are more vivid and lucid.

2.1.2 Neologism

Nearly most of these new words first appeared in the news， through the spread of the news media. For the British and American readers， to understand these new words is not difficult； but for Chinese readers， it is difficult. The composition of these new terms， basically have some rules， as long as we are familiar with the English word-building method， it is helpful for us to identify new words， understand new words and learn more vocabularies.

2.1.3 Acronym

Acronym is also a common seen in online English news. It is the word formed from the initial letters of a group of words. The first letters of each word are put together and capitalized. Acronyms are widely used in newspaper for that it can emphasize the authority as well as save the space. We are familiar with the usage， like ASEAN - the Association for South-East Asian Nations.

2.2 Syntactic features

2.2.1 Ellipsis

Ellipsis means an item is omitted. It is the most common features in headlines. Incomplete elliptical sentences or phrases consist of nouns and verbs. The reason is to highlight the most important content and make it more distinct. Articles， personal pronouns， linking verbs and auxiliary verbs are often omitted in headline.

2.2.2 Tense

General present tense and simple past tense， both are dominant tenses in Online English News. It is not surprising that in Online English News report， simple past tense is often seen， because most of events of the news coverage are reported to have taken place， while the past tense is most suitable for describing such events just past.

2.2.3 Voice

Journalists believe that active voice is more colorful and so seems to be appealing to the readers. The active voice makes the news more believable in the readers' eyes.

2.3 Discourse pattern

Inverted pyramid form， chronological structure and mixed structure are the most frequently-used discourse patterns.

A piece of online English news， in inverted pyramid form， consists of three parts： headline， lead and body. headline is the most probable thing that comes first into sight. The headline is the concise conclusion of the whole news. The lead， which is usually the first sentence or a paragraph to summarize the most important materials or elements. The remainder of the story一the body一gives examples and detailed information.

Under such structure， stories are organized in time order， the first parts act as recommendations to draw the readers' attention. As the story evolving， the climax appears sequentially.

Mixed structure represents the combination of inverted pyramid structure and the pyramid structure. That is to say， the whole story will begin with an abstract lead to illustrate the major factors firstly， and then following time order to figure out the details. The features of such structure lie in that the whole passage is powerful both at the beginning and the ending.

3. Conclusion

This paper concentrates on the features of online English news in the following three aspects： the lexical features； the syntactic features； the discourse features.

In terms of lexical features， the word choice is of great importance. Short words， neologism， abbreviation and acronym are four of the choice of words in online English news. In terms of syntactic features， it is suggested that readers have a basic understanding of this usage to avoid unnecessary obstructions in reading. As for discourse pattern， fast reading skills are necessary. Be equipped with some knowledge of figure of speech is also conducive to the comprehension of online English news.

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