A Corpus-based Study On Hyphenated Compound Words In News English

News English has unique features which greatly differ from general English. Through the comparison of the application of hyphenated compound words (HCW) in written news English reports (WNE), broadcasting news English reports (BNE) and general English (BNC), this paper intends to find out the characteristics of written news English in the usage of HCW from the linguistic perspective. The findings are as follows:a) HCW are used more frequently in WNE and BNE than those in BNC. Also, compared with BNE, HCW are of much higher frequency in WNE.b) The most frequently used numbers of HCW's components are two-words and three-words HCW in the three corpora. HCW are made up of various numbers of words in WNE.c) There are five types of HCW in the three corpora according to different parts of speech—adjective, noun, adverb, verb and interjection hyphenated compounds. Besides, there is no difference in the orders of the five types in the three corpora. Adjective hyphenated compounds are of higher frequency than the other types of HCW. Noun hyphenated compounds rank the second.d) HCW used as pre-modifiers are more commonly employed in WNE and BNE than those in BNC. The frequency of HCW used as pre-modifiers in WNE is higher than that in BNE.e) Mean word length of the components of HCW in WNE and BNE is shorter than that in BNC. Words with one-letter to four-letter are much more frequently used to compose HCW in news English than those in BNC.f) With regard to parts of speech of the components of HCW, nouns are more commonly used to make up HCW in the three corpora. The words of proper noun are more frequently used to compose HCW in WNE than those in BNC and BNE.