The Stylistic Features of Newspaper Headlines

Abstract

The present study entitled The Stylistic Features of Newspaper Headlines: A Case of English Dailieswas carried out to identify and analyze the stylistic features of newspaper headlines in terms of lexical, rhetorical and syntactic features. This research is qualitative and quantitative in nature which is based on only the secondary data. The data for the study have been collected through observation checklists. I used non-random sampling procedure to select headlines of English dailies that is twenty from The Himalayan Times (here after THT) and twenty from The Kathmandu Post (here after TKP). The descriptive and simple statistical tools were used to analyze the data. This study found that proper nouns are the highest and abbreviations are the second highest lexical features used in the headlines. In the same way,most of the rhetorical features used in the headlines are alliteration and metaphor in which alliteration is the highest and metaphor is the second highest rhetorical features used in newspaper headlines. Analysis of syntactic features shows that simple sentences are the highest numbers of syntactic features and phrases cover second highest features of the total syntactic features in the analysis of headlines. This thesis is divided into five chapters. Every chapter consists of necessary headings and sub-headings. Chapter one introduces background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definitions of the key terms. Chapter two consists of review of related literature and conceptual framework includes the review of related theoretical and empirical literature, implications of the study, and conceptual framework of the research. Chapter three deals with methods and procedures of the study which includes design of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, research tools, sources of data, data collection procedures, data analysis procedures, andethical considerations. Chapter four consists of analysis of data and interpretation of results. Findings, conclusion and recommendations are presented in chapter five. The final part of the study consists of references and appendices.