Analysis Of Intertextuality In News Headlines

With the development of Internet, the medium from which people can get information has been more and more diversified. Therefore, how to stand out from the large number of newspapers becomes the major subject for news media. At the meantime, living in the society which is characterized by fast pace and information explosion, readers are also seeking for quick and accurate understanding of the information.Intertextuality is a term which displays the relationship between texts. In 1981, Beaugrande and Dressler introduced this concept into linguistics and discourse analysis and it quickly became a well-known concept in the study of non-literary texts. Memetics is a new theory to explain the law of culture evolution. Chinese Scholar Xu Shenghuan first analyzes intertextuality in literary works from the memetic perspective, proving the explanatory power of memetics to intertextuality. However, the author's inquiry into a lot of journals and thesis at home and abroad show that the study on intertextuality in news texts from the perspective of memetics is still rare, which provides the first motivation for this research.The thesis takes the concept of intertextuality and memetics as the theoretical basis and chooses the intertextual headlines in Internet news reports as the analysis samples. Firstly, it overviews the previous research on intertextuality and memetics. and then, it demonstrates the interrelationship between intertextuality and memetics. Moreover, it analyses the manifestation and pragmatic roles of intertextuality in the specific Internet news headlines. Through the study, the author finds that the realization of intertextuality stems from the spread of memes; the frequently used intertextual techniques includes quotation, allusion and parody; intellectuality can show the headlines'credibility and authority, convey rich information with a simple style and attract readers with humorous language.The thesis is expected to offer effective help for news editors to create significant and eye-catching headlines and for news readers to skillfully decode the meanings embodied in the headlines.