On Translation Of English News Headlines

With the improvement of cultural exchange between China and Western countries, Chinese readers have more access to authentic English news from newspapers and magazines in English-speaking counties. Because of its significant role in news, the news headline, especially its E-C translation, is drawing more attention. Domestic research on the subject is underway, however, with its focus largely concentrated on linguistic features and translation strategies of English news headlines.The thesis attempts to construct a theoretical framework for the translation model by making Hans J. Vermeer's Skopostheorie its basis and incorporating Peter Newmark's text function theory and Justa Holz-Manttari's theory of translational action. News headlines have four basic functions: informative, expressive, aesthetic and vocative. The primary Skopos of headline translations is to transfer essence of information to target readers and the ultimate Skopos, to entice them into reading news. The realization of Skopos depends on fulfillment of the functions in target language. In the light of the four functions, the translator should re-exam translation process in terms of information transferring, cultural distinction, aesthetic feeling and emotion evoking.To a certain extent, translation of English news headlines is a re-creation of original headlines and news contents in the target language.