Headlines in the Guardian editorials: the syntax and semantics of noun phrases

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Headlines in the Guardian editorials: the syntax and semantics of noun phrases

L. Pavlenko



Annotation

The Guardian editorial headline is viewed as a two-component structure punctuated with colons in which the first part names the topic and the second one provides its comment. The article examines the frequency and diversity of eight noun phrase patterns and gives structural and functional analysis of their constituents. The author studies how categorial features of nouns, adjectives, and prepositions manifest themselves on a phrase level. Three types of semantic relations between noun-noun components are defined. Two more aspects under consideration are complexity and coordination in noun phrases.

Keywords: editorials, headlines, noun phrases, determiners, modification, semantic features.



Анотація

Л. Павленко. Заголовки у редакційних статтях The Guardian: синтаксис і семантика іменникових словосполучень

Постановка проблеми. Ми розглядаємо заголовки як першу взаємодію між авторами новин, які кодують повідомлення, і читачами, які декодують повідомлення, щоб задовольнити свою потребу в інформації. Це складне завдання для обох сторін, оскільки специфічна граматика, образна мова та стратегії переконання передбачають розуміння культурного коду та соціально-політичного контексту. Заголовок редакційної статті The Guardian розглядається як двокомпонентна структура, розділена двокрапками, в якій перша частина називає тему, а друга виступає як коментар. Отже, мовні засоби для вираження цих повідомлень потребують глибокого вивчення.

Мета статті. Метою нашого дослідження є виявити типові моделі іменникових словосполучень (ІС) у редакційних заголовках The Guardian та детально описати їх структурні та семантичні особливості.

Методи дослідження. Ми використовуємо метод лінгвістичного спостереження, описовий метод та контекстуально-інтерпретаційний метод для аналізу ІС. Структурний метод застосовано на основі дистрибутивного аналізу та аналізу за безпосередніми складниками.

Основні результати дослідження. Ми встановили високу частотність ІС і визначили, що всі загальновідомі вісім моделей ІС використовуються у редакційних заголовках The Guardian. Однак їх розподіл непропорційний: структури PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN / DETERMINER + PREMODIFIER + NOUN найбільш вживаються для найменування теми, а NOUN + POST-MODIFIER / DETERMINER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER для її коментування. Типовою є премодифікація за допомогою іменників та постмодифікація за допомогою прийменників. Поєднуючи традиційний і системно-функціональний підхід до прикметників у препозиції, ми з'ясували, що вони в основному є субстантивованими та функціонують як характерологічні епітети у темі; водночас у коментарі спостерігається тенденція до описово-оцінних епітетів. У статті описано семантичні кореляції у фразах, де головний та залежний компоненти виражені іменниками.

Висновки і перспективи. У роботі висвітлено різноманітність та поширеність структурно різних ІС. Автори редакційних статей намагаються уникати складних словосполучень з декількома іменниками у препозиції, оскільки це може спричинити смислову неоднозначність. ІС із сурядним зв'язком зафіксовано лише в темі й наведено їх семантичні моделі.

Об'єктом подальших досліджень можуть бути інші типи словосполучень у редакційних заголовках The Guardian та стратегії розвитку теми у частині-коментарі.

Ключові слова: редакційні статті, заголовки, іменні фрази, детермінанти, препозиція, постпозиція, семантичні ознаки.



Introduction

A growing body of literature has studied news media applying various approaches and narrowing the research to particular genres, content features, or structural elements. An editorial represents the newspaper's opinion on a variety of urgent topics and plays an important role in explaining, persuading, or criticizing a subject of particular public interest. Headlines, in their turn, attract the readership's attention and introduce a piece of news in a concise way. We thus regard headlines as the first interaction between news writers and readers. Using different language means, the former encode the message and raise the curiosity; based on their educational, cultural, or social background, the latter decode the message to satisfy their need for information. It is a challenging task for both parties as headlines often follow the specific grammar, use figurative language, and implement persuasion strategies. That is why, verbal tools and linguistic rules that direct and regulate headlines must be in the researchers' scope to examine theoretical and practical aspects. Our obtained results further develop the domain of media discourse and provide practical findings about structural features of The Guardian editorial headlines.

Theoretical background. Structural elements and thematic diversity in mainstream newspapers are key problematic issues that attract linguists. For example, news values and linguistic style are those criteria which were used to build a novel prediction model. It tested the potential of headlines to influence the popularity of news exchange in social media (Piotrkowicz, Dimitrova, Otterbacher, & Marker, 2017). The systematic case study with the help of critical discourse analysis examines ideology in depicting a pressing political issue in broadsheet media, The Guardian included (Amer, 2017).

S. Marcoci (2014) focuses on syntactical and lexical features of English newspaper headlines that can help readers, especially non-native speakers, comprehend the core of the discussed issues. Maintaining the practical approach, she highlights readers' challenges in decoding noun phrases, unpacking noun strings, and deciphering telegraphic syntax in ellipsis (pp. 710-712). This work also contains bright examples of short words used in a journalistic language.

Moreover, our review of recent articles about editorials shows the tendency to cross-cultural studies in this field. Researchers compare and contrast linguistic material from the English-speaking country and the country of their origin to find similarities and differences in for native and non-native speakers. In this respect, we can mention, for instance, a corpus-based empirical investigation of clause subordination in two Ghanaian and two British newspaper editorials (Frimpong, 2017). The author provides a very detailed account of nominal, relative, and adverbial clauses clearly demonstrating the dominant position of the nominal one in each newspaper (pp. 88-101). Employing contrastive analysis to English and Persian headlines, F. Khodabandeh (2007) provides a set of similarities (e.g. frequent usage of nouns, dynamic verbs, and simple declarative sentences) and differences (e.g. low frequency of abbreviated words or verbals in Persian media). Despite the fact that the linguistic data in this research contained examples from different randomly selected online media, one observation is important for our study: pre-modified nominal headlines is atypical feature of English headlines. Thus, one of our tasks is to investigate the correlation between premodification and postmodification in noun phrases in The Guardian editorial headlines.

Noun phrases (NPs) are among the most commonly discussed linguistic units in different languages and in different genres. The authors of a comprehensive study «The “Noun Phrase” across Languages: An emergent unit in interaction» doubt the uncontroversial nature of this category and its stable internal structure that is stated in the scientific community (Ono, & Thompson, 2020). The reason for such claims is their empirically-based approach to NPs in an impressive range of European languages (Finnish, French, Swedish, Spanish, and English), Mandarin, Japanese, and some indigenous languages in Australia, Malaysia, Kenia, and Argentina. Investigating natural discourse, they establish distinctive features of their interactional data which are not always in compliance with the traditional view on NP complexity, categorial properties (e.g. argument role), and nominalization.

Researchers can follow a traditional semantic approach and focus on a specific issue, for example, determination in 5-genitive constructions and noun+noun sequences (Koptjevskaja-Tamm, & Rosenbach, 2005) or interpretation of semantic relations among NP constituents (Moldovan, Bad- ulescu, Tatu, Antohe, & Girju, 2004). The problem of complexity in NPs is viewed either from the semantic angle (Abdullah, & Frost, 2007) or in the academic written discourse (Priven, 2020). In our work, we apply the results of these studies to explore the possible ambiguity in The Guardian editorial headlines.

The diachronic analysis of British and American most popular newspapers performed by D. Biber, J. Grieve, and G. Iberri-Shea (2009) and D. Biber and B. Gray (2011) greatly contributed to the systematized understanding of modification in NPs. The authors mention, though, that their corpus comprises only news articles rather than editorials. So, it is appropriate to use their findings in our study. The aim of our research is to further extend current knowledge of noun phrases and to identify typical patterns used in The Guardian editorial headlines with the detailed analysis of their structural and semantic features.

Methods. In our work, a method of linguistic observation is followed by a descriptive method to examine the sample of NPs. The structural method was implemented on the basis of immediate constituents analysis. It helped to identify NPs among other types, to distinguish different NPs patterns, and to examine the functions of phrase components. We also employed a contextual-interpretation method to reveal how these phrases introduce important topics to attract readers' attention, manifest the authors' pragmatic intentions and, in such a way, contribute to the social and cultural context represented in editorials. These methods provided a many-sided approach to NPs in the Guardian editorial headlines. The corpus includes 265 editorial headlines in online issues from January to May 2021 selected by the method of continuous sampling.



Results and discussion

The Guardian editorial headline consists of two parts punctuated with colons. The Guardian view on summer holidays: the changing search for elsewhere As we characterize NPs from each part separately, we suggest the following terms in our work: topic is the linguistic unit used before colons and comment is the linguistic unit used after colons. Structurally, the topic is always a NP, while the comment can be either a phrase or a sentence.

In grammar, the term phrase is generally applied even if this syntactic structure consists only of the head, the nucleus constituent; in NPs, it is expressed by a noun or a pronoun. In the present research, we use the systematic study on nouns and NPs presented in “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language” (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985, pp. 241-333, 1235-1353) and “An Introduction to English Grammar” (Greenbaum, & Nelson, 2009, pp. 33-36, 66-71). These linguists identify such patterns (Greenbaum, & Nelson, 2009, p. 67):

NOUN

DETERMINER+ NOUN

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN

NOUN + POST-MODIFIER

DETERMINER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER

All these models are found in our sample though their number is not proportional. The structural analysis of phrases is accompanied by the semantic classification of constituents, and semantic relations between constituents. To interpret semantic correlation, a set of 35 semantic relations at various syntactic levels (including NP level) is used as a basis (Moldovan et al., 2004). Logically, we exclude synonymy/antonymy and those types which demand subject/predicate (e.g. theme or stimulus). We also share authors' opinion that encoding such relations is a challenging task because some types can overlap or suggest different interpretations in different contexts (ibid, p. 3).

NOUN (topic). There are 12 phrases including 5 proper nouns and 7 common nouns. Semantically, the first group contains only personal and geographical names and no temporal names; there are common nouns as well as abstract ones in the second group.

The Guardian view on Belarus

The Guardian view on Dante

The Guardian view on schools

The Guardian view on textocracy

DETERMINER+ NOUN (topic). There are 22 phrases under discussion.

Determiners are divided into three categories: pre-determiners (multipliers and fractions as well as words all, both, such, what), central determiners, and post-determiners (cardinal and ordinal numerals). Central determiners are the most diverse category that includes a definite article, an indefinite article, demonstratives, possessives, interrogatives, relatives, and indefinites (Quirk et al., 1985, pp. 253-264; Greenbaum, & Nelson, 2009, pp. 52-55). In our paper, we follow this classification but it is necessary to stress that linguists can use other terminology or group determiners in different ways. For example, the authors do not single out such a group as determiners but include them into pre-modifiers together with adjectives and genitive NPs (Delahunty, & Garvey, 2010, p. 290). In their turn, M. Halliday and Ch. Matthiessen (2014) use the term determiner but as an element embedded in a very developed network comprising the specific Deictics (demonstrative or possessive determiners, or embedded possessive nominal groups) and non-specific Deictics (total or partial determiners) (pp. 364-370).

We detect only central determiners (definite articles) in our sample, mainly with abbreviated names of organizations.

The Guardian view on the NHS

Another usage of definite articles is determined by the topic itself when the readership easily identifies it from their knowledge of a specific situation.

The Guardian view on the pandemic

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN (topic). In our sample, we have 90 phrases.

Different linguistic units can function as pre-modifiers: adjectives, participles, nouns, genitives, adverbs and adverbial phrases, and sentences (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1322). In this part of our article, we analyze only examples with one pre-modifier and multiple premodification is discussed further.

1. Proper nouns as pre-modifiers. Various approaches have been proposed to investigate/solve the case of proper names used as modifiers in NPs. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the article “Special Issue: Different Perspectives on Proper Noun Modifiers” by T. Breban and J. Kolkmann (2019) which provides a detailed overview of linguists' contribution to understanding their status in different languages. The language data in their focus includes NPs like the Lincoln road, the Watergate scandal, and Kerry supporter. The article can be a very helpful starting point to the theoretical analysis in this field. These findings prove the potential of a discussed noun subclass to modify another noun (cf. Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1330). This type of phrase modification is used in The Guardian editorial headlines but our aim is not to state, for example, its syntactic or semantic features but to examine and describe the way it moulds the author's message. Our sample contains numerous examples of such NPs and they can be regarded a distinctive feature of headlinese. In M. Halliday and Ch. Matthiessen's functional grammar (2014), the term Thing defines the semantic head of the nominal group and proper nouns are one of the options to express it as well as common nouns and pronouns. No matter how many words form a proper name, these linguists mention that it belongs to noun compounds (without any detailed analysis) and name it Thing (p. 384).

In their elaborated paper on nominal adnominals in English and Swedish, the authors treat such constructions as PropN+N sequences where a PropN (Proper Noun) constituent consists of either a name/surname or a name and a surname (Koptjevskaja-Tamm, & Rosenbach, 2005, pp. 39-52). It is in accordance with their purpose to examine non-prototypical s-genitive constructions and N+N sequences. However, to the best of our knowledge, it is not yet established whether one personal name is viewed as a pre-modifier to another personal name.

Within this research, we consider that there are technically two constituents in NPs with personal names denoting a name and a surname together. Such an approach helps clearly differentiate the variety of pre-modifiers in this pattern and single out multiple noun modification in NPs with more than one pre-modifier (see further in the article).

Proper Noun + Proper Noun (personal name + personal surname)

The Guardian view on Nicolas Sarkozy Proper Noun + Common Noun

Unexpectedly, we did not find any NPs of this type in the selected headlines. At the same time, a distinct preference for possessive case was identified; the majority of examples concern personal names and geographical names. M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm and A. Rosenbach (2005) use the term pre- nominalpossessive NPs for such units (p. 49).

Proper Noun (in a possessive case) + Common Noun The Guardian view on Cummings' testimony The Guardian view on Afghanistan's future 2. Common nouns as pre-modifiers.

Common Noun + Proper Noun. In this case, common nouns always identify a political, military, academic status or a royalty and nobility title and the like. The Guardian view on Prince Philip The Guardian view on Lord Frost Common Noun (in a possessive case) + Common Noun Our linguistic data illustrates low frequency of such NPs (only 3 examples) in comparison with the following type.

The Guardian view on women's football The Guardian view on cricket's dilemma Common Noun + Common Noun

In the literature, there seems to be no general definition of such constructions. Depending on the level of analysis and the aims of the study, linguists use different terminology, for example, multiple noun premodification (Quirk et al., 1985), complex nominals (Moldovan et al., 2004), or noun+noun sequences (Koptjevskaja-Tamm, & Rosenbach, 2005). M. Halliday and Ch. Mat- thiessen (2014) write about a sequence of Classifier + Thing where the semantic connection between the constituents can be so strong that it perceived like a compound noun (p. 378).

In addition, the number of nouns before the head element is not always strictly specified but the ambiguous character of such noun strings is emphasized.

As stated above, we start the analysis of semantic correlation between noun-noun constituents with the set of 35 options and reveal relatively low variety of semantic relations. Our list includes property/attribute holder (the characteristic or quality of an entity/event/state), purpose (a state/action intended to result from another state/event), and manner (the way in which an event is performed or takes place). The whole comprehensive register with definitions and examples is available in “Models for the Semantic Classification of Noun Phrases”. The authors also introduce the term semantic space, “...the set of semantic relations an NP construction can encode” (Moldovan et al., 2004, p. 2).

The Guardian view on cherry blossom (property/ attribute holder)

The Guardian view on adult education (purpose)

The Guardian view on madhouse economics (manner)

The context is necessary to decode the semantic space in the following NP (a single case in our sample) and it illustrates potential ambiguity of complex nominals.

The Guardian view on open-air art (property/ manner/ location)

A remark must be made about NPs in which the pre-modifier is expressed by the word Covid (this spelling is used though other mass media sources have variants Covid-19, Covid, Covid-19, or covid). To date, this newly coined blend does not seem to have unanimous agreement as for its status of a proper noun or a common noun. If it names a disease, then it is a common noun like malaria or chicken pox. At the same time, if it is capitalized, it can function as a proper noun like famous blended brand names Instagram or Microsoft. We consider it a common noun that mainly contributes to property/attribute holder semantic relation in the discussed NPs.

The Guardian view on Covid ethics The Guardian view on Covid science 3. Adjectives as pre-modifiers.

The traditional approach to adjectives groups them into central and peripheral based on four criteria, identifies their attributive and predicative syntactic functions, and describes their intensifying or restrictive effect on a noun. Semantically, adjectives are classified into stative/dynamic, gradable/non-grad- able, and inherent/non-inherent (Quirk et al., 1985, pp. 402-436). On a phrase level, they modify a noun head and some types (e.g. the old, the English, the unknown) even act as a head of a NP (ibid, pp. 423-426). In the systemic functional approach, linguists employ the term a Nominal Group for a NP including such elements as Deictic + Numerative + Epithet + Classifier + Thing (Halliday, & Matthiessen, 2014, p. 364). Epithets and Classifiers are predominantly adjectives. In addition, Epithets can be experiential or interpersonal/ attitudinal and Classifiers assign a noun head (Thing) to some subclass. It is stressed that sometimes the distinction between these two elements is not distinct (ibid, pp. 376-377). Concerning our research, the traditional approach allows us to examine adjectives in pre-modifying position from the morpho- syntactic angle, while the notion of Epithet and Classifier contributes to semantic and discourse perspective.

Thus, the analysis revealed a strong tendency to denominal adjectives that are derived from nouns denoting nationality, origin, style or with the meaning involving, or relating to.

The Guardian view on British history The Guardian view on Republican extremism The Guardian view on anti-Asian hate The Guardian view on environmental politics The Guardian view on botanical gardens

Proceeding to functional analysis, we had a hypothesis that editorial writers prefer expressing their subjective attitude (by interpersonal/ attitudinal Epithets). In fact, we observe the representation of an objective feature of a noun-head (by experiential Epithets) or its reference to a definite subclass (by Classifiers).

The Guardian view on global protests (experiential Epithet)

The Guardian view on declining birthrates (experiential Epithet)

The Guardian view on dark skies (experiential Epithet)

The Guardian view on electric cars (Classifier)

The Guardian view on voting rights (Classifier)

The Guardian view on secondhand clothes (Classifier)

There are single examples of attitudinal Epithets, yet some of them can be interpreted as experiential ones depending on the context.

The Guardian view on Super Thursday The Guardian view on two-tone nostalgia The Guardian view on liberal Christians

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN (topic). This pattern is represented by 25 items. Only central determiners (definite and indefinite articles) are found in our sample, mainly with definite articles.

1. Proper nouns as pre-modifiers. The analysed examples clearly fall into four distinct types depending on a noun class.

The Guardian view on the Cameron inquiry (personal names)

The Guardian view on the Afghanistan withdrawal (geographical names) (cf. a possessive case above)

The Guardian view on an NHS recovery (names for organizations)

The Guardian view on the AstraZeneca vaccine (neologisms/coinages)

2. Common nouns as pre-modifiers. In contrast to the previous pattern, only two examples in our sample demonstrate this type.

The Guardian view on the picture book (property)

The Guardian view on the vaccine rollout (purpose)

3. Adjectives as pre-modifiers. Our linguistic material contains very few NPs (six to be exact) which shows a significant difference with the Pre-Modifier + Noun pattern. They are denominal and participial adjectives performing the function of experiential Epithets.

The Guardian view on the French left The Guardian view on the public realm The Guardian view on the cladding scandal NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (topic). There are 12 units.

The internal structure of a NP can include the element which follows the head and it is referred to as a post-modifier (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1239; Green- baum, & Nelson, 2009, p. 67), a Qualifier (Halliday, & Matthiessen, 2014, p. 381), or a complement (Delahunty, & Garvey, 2010, p. 303). Despite the variety of terminology, scientists agree that this constituent is realized by a prepositional phrase, a finite clause (relative and appositive), a non-finite clause (with -ing participle, -ed participle, and infinitive clauses).

Prepositional phrases as post-modifiers. Structurally, such a phrase itself typically consists of a simple or complex preposition and a NP, a nominal wh- clause, or a nominal -ing clause. There are 11 examples in our headlines sample with 10 post-modifiers expressed by a prepositional phrase. This proves the frequency of this postmodification type. Semantically, they proportionally fall into several groups denoting a variety of meanings.

The Guardian view on culture in 2021 (time)

The Guardian view on democracy in America (location)

The Guardian view on Europe by train (means)

The Guardian view on violence against women (opposition)

The Guardian view on rules for Covid hotspots (purpose)

As for clauses as post-modifiers, there is a single NP with an infinitive clause. semantic noun phrase title guardian

The Guardian view on calls to reopen schools

DETERMINER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (topic).

Prepositional phrases as post-modifiers.

This pattern is illustrated by 11 phrases; all of them have central determiners (a definite article) and only prepositional phrases follow the head. However, as compared to Noun + Post-modifier pattern, we observe the of-con- struction which is thoroughly investigated as prepositional postmodification. Quirk et al.(1985) examine the of-construction and the genitive construction considering lexical, relational, syntactic, communicative factors, as well as objective and subjective relation (pp. 1275-1282).

The Guardian view on the art of lexicography

We want to make a brief remark about the following examples. Though the genitive noun phrase is more common with personal names, it mainly concerns/refers to possessive genitives whereas here we encode other meanings (cf. Quirk et al., 1985, pp. 321-322). It justifies the of-construction in this NP pattern.

The Guardian view on the murder of George Floyd (genitive of objective) The Guardian view on the return of Donald Trump (subjective genitive) The of-phrase postmodification is likely to be determined by cataphoric reference of the definite article (ibid, p. 268).

Another half of prepositional phrases demonstrate other semantic classes. The Guardian view on the riots in Northern Ireland (location)

The Guardian view on the CDU after Merkel (time)

The Guardian view on the needfor news (purpose)

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (topic).

Based on six examples we have for this pattern, it is possible to note the shift from nouns to adjectives in pre-modifying position; there are no denomi- nal adjectives as well. All of them function as experiential Epithets.

The Guardian view on online abuse offemale journalists The Guardian view on new work from Proust

Postmodification is represented only by prepositional phrases with different meanings.

The Guardian view on intercommunal violence in Israel (location)

The Guardian view on top-down politics in a pandemic (the period of time) DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER+NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (topic). There are no editorial headlines with such a pattern. We assume that the reason is the complexity of NPs. In fact, we have another observation: the longer the pattern, the fewer examples can be found. News writers tend to name the topic under discussion as precise as possible to attract readers' attention.

Now, we turn to the discussion of structural and semantic characteristics of constituents in NPs used in the headline after colons. Having provided the theoretical grounds for our analysis above, here we suggest only the account of NPs in The Guardian editorials with some brief explanations.

NOUN (comment). In comparison with this pattern before colons (topic), no NPs were found here.

DETERMINER+ NOUN (comment). There are only 3 examples and all of them have central determiners. no joke no scrutiny

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN (comment).

A striking difference is observed in frequency of this pattern with various pre-modifiers in the topic part (90 NPs) and we have found only 2 NPs here. growing pains mixed messages

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN (comment).

This pattern is more numerous than the previous one (12 NPs) and central determiners prevail here. However, in comparison with such patterns in the topic, mainly indefinite articles are used. Another distinct difference manifests itself in the functional focus of adjective pre-modifiers: the preference is given to attitudinal Epithets. a fatal error a dangerous distraction a bitter harvest

We must also stress that there are no proper or common nouns in premodification. The possible explanation can be the authors' pragmatic intentions when they move from classifying NPs in the topic to qualifying NPs in the comment.

The Guardian view on India's farming revolt: a bitter harvest The Guardian view of Brexit: a tragic national error NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (comment). The pattern is frequently employed and our linguistic material (16 examples) demonstrates structural and semantic variety.

1. Prepositional phrases as post-modifiers.

Sins of omission (the of-construction)

confidence from clarity (source) time for change (purpose) poetry in a pandemic (period of time) democracy in danger

In the last example, we see the metaphorical/figurative use of place preposition and it is the only case we found.

2. Clauses as post-modifiers. Mostly NPs with infinitive clauses of different complexity have been identified, but still this pattern is wider used than in the topic. Though R. Quirk et al. (1985) warns about possible functional ambiguity of infinitive postmodification (p. 1267), the analysis did not reveal such examples in The Guardian editorials. questions to answer time to come back from the dead There is a single NP with -ed participle.

Ministers outclassed by teachers

DETERMINER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (comment).

This group comprises 28 NPs under analysis. A slight diversity of central determiners can be mentioned here with persistent predominance of definite and indefinite articles.

Another name on the roll of is honor more lessons from lockdown no time to bank on a recovery

Similarly to the above discussed pattern, this one proves that not only phrases but also clauses function as pre-modifiers. Yet, we confirm that the preference is given to prepositional phrases of different semantic classes.

1. Prepositional phrases as post-modifiers. The majority of examples contain the of-construction; in addition/moreover, they do not always reflect the genitive relationship.

A package of shortcomings the price of dishonesty

Polysemy of prepositions must be taken into account as well. a battle with no winners (result) a tool to handle with care (manner) a challenge to government (recipient) a monument to failure (target; metaphorical use) a problem for all (recipient) a time for solidarity (target) a shot in the arm (place)

2. Non-finite clauses as post-modifiers. a plan to divide and misrule the need to integrate

3. Finite clauses as post-modifiers. a pandemic that is out of control the revival that's nothing like the 1970s PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (comment).

With 3 examples in our sample, we can only state that news writers do not favour this pattern; never the less it can be emotionally charged and attract readers' attention.

Heavenly wisdom for our troubled times

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER (comment).

This pattern is rather widespread in The Guardian editorials in this part of the headline unlike its absence in the topic part. Only central determiners are used (definite and indefinite articles) and only adjectives function as premodifires. Postmodification is realized only on a phrasal level. We also established one common feature for the selected 7 examples: attitudinal Epithets (pre-modifiers) help authors emphasize the most important aspect of the discussed topic and make their message persuasive. a vivid portrait of failure a risky bet on vaccines a dangerous development with deep roots

While discussing the sequence of pre-modifiers in NPs, R. Quirk et al. (1985) segment the space between the determiner and the head into four premodification zones (pp. 1338-1340). Zone 1 (precentral) includes peripheral non-gradable adjectives. Zone 2 (central) consists of gradable adjectives, which satisfy all four suggested criteria of adjectival status, namely, an attributive function, a predicative function, degrees of comparison, and usage of an intensifier very. Participles and color adjectives constitute Zone 3 (postcentral). The most diverse is Zone 4 (prehead) where we can find the following groups:

a) adjectives that are derived from proper nouns and relate to nationality, origin, and style;

b) denominal adjectives that express the meaning consisting of, involving, or relating to;

c) nouns.

The authors characterize this group as the “«least adjectival and most nominal» premodifiers” (ibid, p. 1339). We applied this approach to analyse the selected NPs with multiple pre-modifiers and to define Zones, which they belong to. The patterns under consideration are PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN and DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN in the topic part.

PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN. There are 22 phrases under analysis.

Two pre-modifiers. This group is the most numerous one and demonstrates the diversity of pre-modifiers with the clear tendency to use proper nouns in the genitive case followed by common nouns or adjectives. All of them represent Zone 4.

The Guardian view on Patel's asylum proposals (noun + noun)

The Guardian view on climate change lawsuits (noun + noun)

The Guardian view on Europe's social democrats (noun + adjective)

The Guardian view on Britain's pandemic record (noun + noun/adjective) In the last example, pandemic can be either a noun or an adjective. Another typical order of pre-modifiers in this group is an adjective followed by noun.

The Guardian view on new climate goals (adjective + noun)

The Guardian view on public sector jobs (adjective + noun)

We identified only two examples typical for Zone 3.

The Guardian view on Biden's green revolution (noun + colour adjective) The Guardian view on Covid's widening gaps (noun + participle)

Our sample contains two examples in which one of the pre-modifiers is a numeral. Such a combination of constituents is rare and does not fit the Zone division, but we assume that it functions like a prehead taking into account its position in NP.

The Guardian view on Trump's second impeachment (noun + ordinal numeral)

The Guardian view on Biden's 100 days (noun + cardinal numeral)

As it is mentioned above, there are technically two constituents in NPs with personal names denoting a name and a surname together. As a result, there are numerous examples of this kind.

The Guardian view on George Floyd's legacy

Three pre-modifiers. This group is less numeral but it also demonstrates the tendency to use proper nouns in the genitive case followed by common nouns. As it is mentioned above, there are technically two constituents in NPs with personal names denoting a name and a surname together.

The Guardian view on Boris Johnson's race review (noun + noun + noun) The Guardian view on Julian Assange's extradition ruling (noun + noun + noun)

The variety of pre-modifiers (noun + participle + adjective) can be seen only in one example from our corpus.

The Guardian view on football's failed super league Like in the previous pattern, the type and function of these pre-modifiers testifies to their prehead position (Zone 4).

Four pre-modifiers. The performed linguistic analysis proves that such a pattern is rare in The Guardian editorial headlines and we can illustrate it only with the single example from our sample.

The Guardian view on Boris Johnson's mutant virus plan (noun+ noun + adjective + noun)

We can explain it in the following way. In fact, multiple-noun pre-modification often causes ambiguity, so news writers strive for clarity when presenting the topic to discuss with readership.

DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN. Our sample includes 22 phrases.

The research detected only NPs with two pre-modifiers in this pattern that, definitely, differs it from the previous diverse one. What is common for both patterns is the prevailing usage of two noun constituents, either common or proper.

The Guardian view on the US infrastructure plan (noun + noun)

The Guardian view on a heritage culture war (noun + noun)

In comparison with the PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN model, we found only two examples of premodification by a noun in the genitive case but the reason for it is purely grammatical, the presence of a determiner.

The Guardian view on the government's Covid response (noun + noun) The Guardian view on the world's rarest stamp (noun + adjective)

The last example of noun-adjective order above is followed by the only NP in our sample with multiple adjective pre-modifiers. Yet, one of them is de- nominal showing the origin.

The Guardian view on the Iranian nuclear deal (adjective + adjective) Thus, it is determined that these two patterns predominantly illustrate the sequence of pre-modifiers in NPs characteristic of Zone 4 (prehead). Concerning patterns PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN and DETERMINER + PREMODIFIER + NOUN in the comment part, we can suggest only four examples from our linguistic data but they show the tendency to multiple adjective premodification. The preference for this word class comes from the persuasive nature of editorials and pragmatic intentions of journalists who not only introduce the topic for discussion but also can mold readers' attitudes and opinions.

JoeBiden's bold bet (noun + noun + adjective) slow, uncertain justice (adjective + adjective) a tragic national error (adjective + adjective) a new social divide (adjective + adjective)

Another observation is that no cases of multiple pre-modifiers are found in PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER and DETERMINER + PREMODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER.

One more aspect in our study is coordination in NPs. Our linguistic data contains 22 examples with the coordinating conjunction and. Structurally, it is the combination of two noun constituents without any modification; determiners are used only in three NPs.

The analysis revealed a distinctive feature: coordinated NPs appear only in the topic and do not contain adjective pre-modifiers. Adjective or multiple pre-modification might cause potential misinterpretation, so news writers try to avoid ambiguity, especially in headlines.

From the point of content, these NPs follow such models: a person/people AND a person/people

The Guardian view on Harry and Meghan a country AND a country

The Guardian view on Jerusalem and Gaza a country AND some political/ economic/ social issue

The Guardian view on Africa and coronavirus some political/ social/ economic issue AND its aspect (e.g. cause/effect; problem/solution)

The Guardian view on disability and Covid The Guardian view on Brexit and bureaucracy The Guardian view on poverty and crime



Conclusions

The results of this study prove that NPs dominate in The Guardian editorial headlines in comparison with other types of phrases. We have found that all commonly accepted patterns are used. Nevertheless, our linguistic evidence clearly demonstrates the most frequently utilized types of NPs, namely, PREMODIFIER + NOUN and DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN. In a two-component headline, they name the topic; proper and common nouns as well as denominal adjectives function as pre-modifiers. The semantic analysis of noun-noun constituents has defined relations of property/attribute holder, purpose, and manner between a head and a pre-modifier. The systemic functional analysis of adjectives as pre-modifiers has not confirmed our assumption about news writers' preferences for interpersonal/ attitudinal Epithets in the topic, but it has revealed this tendency in the comment. There is no variety of determiners: only central ones (definite and indefinite articles) are used with few exceptions.

This research has also identified prepositional phrases as typical postmodifiers and classified them into proportional semantic groups. It is worth noting that postmodification on a clause level is very rare which can be explained by condensed nature of editorial headlines. NOUN + POST-MODIFIER and DETERMINER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER patterns prevail in the second part, the comment. Moreover, our sample does not contain such patterns as DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER in the topic and NOUN in the comment. We claim that the longer the pattern, the fewer cases to employ it while presenting the topic as authors tend to name it as precisely as possible to gain readership's attention. Another conclusion concerns the reverse correlation as for the position of NPs in headlines: DETERMINER + PRE-MODIFIER + NOUN + POST-MODIFIER pattern is widespread in the comment where attitudinal Epithets and complex prepositional phrases ensure explication of the message. As for coordination in NPs, such units appear only in the topic and we have provided their semantic models.

This work investigates the sequence of pre-modifiers (from two to four constituents) using the Zone approach and the data show that multiple modification is mainly realized by two modifiers.

Future work will concentrate on other linguistic units on a phrasal and sentence level in The Guardian editorial headlines and strategies of developing the topic in the comment part.



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