The Language of Headlines in Amharic Newspapers
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Date
2021-06
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AAU
Abstract
This study constitutes a linguistic account of newspaper language, an aspect of media language.
There are only few studies that investigated the language of the media at depth though language
is at the heart of media communication (Aitchison & Diana 2003: 1). Likewise, a linguistic study
of newspapers has not got any attention in Ethiopia. This study was, thus, set out to explore
prominent linguistic properties that characterize the language of Amharic newspapers by taking
headlines, as a case in focus.
The analysis was made on 1852 news headlines collected from four Amharic newspapers,
namely addis admas, addis nəgər, addis zəmən and riportər, which were selected based on their
high circulation rate and coverage of wider topics. The data were collected from these
newspapers on randomly chosen issues for four months between March 2008 and October 2008
G.C. A simple frequency analysis was made to discern some potential patterns in the frequency
of occurrences of the headlines. Thereafter, the observed linguistic data were described and
explained using a combination of stylistic approach, Accessibility Theory, audience design and
an evaluative language framework.
Headlines in the Amharic newspapers demonstrate certain grammatical features. Names with
different formats are predominantly employed to refer to news actors in news headlines. This
usage violates the Accessibility Theory which stipulates the use of the most explicit referring
expressions text-initially. The use of lower and high accessibility markers instead of the lowest
accessibility markers in headlines may be motivated by the need to get the attention of readers
and to prompt them to read the rest of the news story.
Constituents, which are obligatory for the production of a well-formed and acceptable sentence,
are omitted in news headlines. Most of the ellipses cannot be easily recovered either from the
situational or structural contexts. The use of such unorthodox grammatical structures may be
associated with the respective newspapers’ desire to enhance the relevance of the news stories
for their readers, and hence increasing their readership and attract advertisers, which are their
sources of income. Most of the conventional and complex structures found in the headlines of the
Amharic broadsheet newspapers, however, tend to meet the ideational function.
ii
Another feature of the headlines is that the perfective aspect is predominantly used to express
actions, events or processes which are completed, implying non-recency in the news stories.
Headline writers resort to other tenses and aspectual categories in response to some pragmatic
factors, such as to entertain an additional voice in the text (heteroglossic situation) and to make
the action relevant to the readers (interpersonal function).
Basic-level vocabulary occurs with high frequency across the four Amharic newspapers’
headlines. Occurring in the headlines also include overtly emotive vocabulary items, words with
strong phonic effects that form alliteration and rhyme, shortened forms of phrases in the forms of
abbreviations, acronyms and blends, low-level items and borrowed words. Specifically, the
borrowings in the headlines do not only occur owing to cultural differences between the donor
languages and Amharic but also due to stylistic factors.
In all the declarative headlines, a punctuating point (።) marking the ending of a clause is virtually
non-existent though interrogative headlines are marked by a question mark, and quotation marks
are regularly used to indicate attributed material. Such usages are associated with the need to
save space and to enhance pace in reading the headlines.
The headlines of the Amharic newspapers contain evaluative terms which indicate the opinions
or attitudes of the respective journalists or the newspapers. It proved that news reports, which
have been widely described as ‘faceless’ are subjective and impartial.
Based on the degree and extent of adopting some or all of these features at the levels of grammar
lexicon and semantics, the four Amharic newspapers were categorized into two. Accordingly,
addis zəmən and riportər demonstrate features of a broadsheet newspaper, while addis nəgər and
addis admas exhibit the characteristics of a tabloid newspaper. There are, however, certain
overlapping features in these newspapers. Evaluations along the lines of negativity and
expectedness, which are supposed to feature more in tabloids, are dominantly found in addis
zəmən and reporter, respectively. The use of more full clause headlines, which are normally the
attribute of a broadsheet newspaper, are observed in addis admas that demonstrates more
features of a tabloid. In using these linguistic patterns in their headlines, the Amharic newspapers
are accommodating and responding to the language habits of their respective readership, which is
what Bell (1984:159) called audience design.
iii
The study would be a contribution to our general understanding of linguistic variation which is
induced by situational factors, such as medium and function. It also benefits the existing practice
of headline crafting and language pedagogy.
On the basis of the data analysis and the conclusions drawn, two issues pertinent to the Amharic
newspapers in question require attention. Firstly, longer words and expressions as well as
reportive passives and needless repetitions that commonly occur in the headlines of addis zəmən
and riportər do not only affect clarity but also their sincerity. These newspapers should,
therefore, give serious attention to this concern so as to enhance intelligibility in the headlines
and to improve the credibility of the newspapers. Secondly, loanwords are overriding,
particularly in addis admas and addis nəgər. As this hinders quick comprehension, efforts should
primarily be made to exploit the linguistic resources available in Amharic not only to avoid core
borrowings but also to make up new words at least for some of the cultural borrowings.
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Keywords
the language of the media at depth though language is at the heart of media communication