Bare nominals in American-Spanish headlines
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Daniel M. Sáez Rivera
Abstract
The common absence of definite articles (especially in the singular) in newspaper headlines is one of the most remarkable linguistic features in the American-Spanish press, in contrast to the Spanish press. Using the examples of headlines in previous studies and 800 headlines found from 22.04.2011 to 18.05.2011 in a sample of newspapers from Spain and from the Americas in 〈www.prensaescrita.com〉 as a corpus, the objectives of this article are threefold. Firstly, it is tried to draw geographical differences regarding the presence or lack of definite articles in American-Spanish headlines, seeking to establish whether what in the American context seems to be an exception, namely the lack of bare singulars in Argentinian verbal headlines nowadays, a feature common with the Spanish press (as Hurtado 2008, 2011 has recorded), is also found in other parts of the Americas. For this purpose, the corpus used by Hurtado (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Cuba and Chile) is expanded to all of the Americas. Secondly, it is considered whether English could have some influence on the above mentioned lack of articles in American-Spanish headlines and the lesser dropping of articles in Spain and Argentina. Thirdly, a discourse explanation of the lack of definite articles in American-Spanish headlines mainly rooted in Spanish stylistic studies (Alonso 1951; Lapesa 2000b: 469) is offered. Properties of journalistic discourse are also considered in the explanation and headlines are viewed as a Discourse Tradition.
Abstract
The common absence of definite articles (especially in the singular) in newspaper headlines is one of the most remarkable linguistic features in the American-Spanish press, in contrast to the Spanish press. Using the examples of headlines in previous studies and 800 headlines found from 22.04.2011 to 18.05.2011 in a sample of newspapers from Spain and from the Americas in 〈www.prensaescrita.com〉 as a corpus, the objectives of this article are threefold. Firstly, it is tried to draw geographical differences regarding the presence or lack of definite articles in American-Spanish headlines, seeking to establish whether what in the American context seems to be an exception, namely the lack of bare singulars in Argentinian verbal headlines nowadays, a feature common with the Spanish press (as Hurtado 2008, 2011 has recorded), is also found in other parts of the Americas. For this purpose, the corpus used by Hurtado (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Cuba and Chile) is expanded to all of the Americas. Secondly, it is considered whether English could have some influence on the above mentioned lack of articles in American-Spanish headlines and the lesser dropping of articles in Spain and Argentina. Thirdly, a discourse explanation of the lack of definite articles in American-Spanish headlines mainly rooted in Spanish stylistic studies (Alonso 1951; Lapesa 2000b: 469) is offered. Properties of journalistic discourse are also considered in the explanation and headlines are viewed as a Discourse Tradition.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Laying bare nominal determination 1
- Some cross-linguistic aspects of bare NP distribution 35
- Bare nominals, bare predicates 63
- Spanish bare plurals and topicalization 95
- Information structure and the distribution of Spanish bare plurals 121
- Bare nominals in American-Spanish headlines 157
- Bare singular arguments in Brazilian Portuguese 189
- The distribution of specific and definite bare nominals in Brazilian Portuguese 223
- ‘Bare quantifiers’ and topics in Italian 255
- Coordinated bare nouns in French, Spanish and European Portuguese 283
- Bare vs. non-bare nouns 301
- Index 329
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Laying bare nominal determination 1
- Some cross-linguistic aspects of bare NP distribution 35
- Bare nominals, bare predicates 63
- Spanish bare plurals and topicalization 95
- Information structure and the distribution of Spanish bare plurals 121
- Bare nominals in American-Spanish headlines 157
- Bare singular arguments in Brazilian Portuguese 189
- The distribution of specific and definite bare nominals in Brazilian Portuguese 223
- ‘Bare quantifiers’ and topics in Italian 255
- Coordinated bare nouns in French, Spanish and European Portuguese 283
- Bare vs. non-bare nouns 301
- Index 329
