Breaking Down BBC News Headlines: A Study of Structure Types
Abstract
This study aims to find the structure types used in BBC News headlines. This research used Morley's (2000) theory for sentence types and Matthews' (1981) theory for phrase types as well as Brown & Miller's (1991) theory to analyze its constituent structure. This research used descriptive qualitative method to explain the final result of the research. The data sources were obtained from 186 BBC headlines for the period July 2023 which were then presented in a table according to the frequency of occurrence. The results showed that based on the sentence types, there are three sentence types found, namely simple sentences, complex sentences, and compound sentences. Among the sentence types used, simple sentences are the most frequent, with 151 occurrences, followed by complex sentences with 20 occurrences, and compound sentences with three occurrences. Furthermore, based on the phrase types, 11 headlines with noun phrase structure and one headline with verb phrase structure were found. It is hoped that after this research is conducted, it can make a positive contribution to the development of science, especially in the field of syntax.
Downloads
References
Belli, E. (2023, July 26). Aberdare’s Priory Hospital firms fined £400k after workers assaulted. BBC News.
Bornstein, D. (1997). An Introduction to Transformational Grammar. Winthrop Publisher.
Brown, K., & Miller, J. E. (1991). Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure. Routledge.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspect of the Theory of Syntax. THE M.I.T. PRESS.
Clayton, J. (2023, July 12). Elon Musk announces new AI start-up. BBC News.
Creswell, J. W. (2017). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (3rd ed.). SAGE Publication.
Ernawati, A. (2014). An Analysis Types of Sentences Used By the Students’ Essay Writing at the Third Semester of IAIN Tulungagung in the 2013/2014 Academic Years. IAIN Tulungagung.
Giddings, A. (2023, July 27). Georgian glasshouse discovered at Attingham Park. BBC News.
Goyal, S. (2020). News Headlines; Types, Elements, and Qualities of a Good Headline.
Heath, N., & Ellis, S. (2023, July 25). New energy grant for “greener and warmer” Bristol homes. BBC News.
House, H. C., & Harman, S. E. (1950). Descriptive English Grammar (2nd ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Karunakaran, J., & Ang, L. H. (2023). A Comparative Analysis of Adjective Types and Functions in Print Media: The Star Newspaper and Reader’s Digest Magazine Headlines. International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.15282/ijleal.v13i1.9188
Maharani, F. (2015). Syntactical Analysis of Newspaper Headlines. Humanis, 11(1).
Matthews, P. H. (1981). Syntax. Cambridge University Press.
McGregor, W. B. (2009). Linguistics: An Introduction. Continuum International Publishing Group.
Morley. (2000). Syntax in Grammar. Continuum.
O’Grady, W. (2010). An Emergentist Approach to Syntax, in Narrog, H. & Heine, B (eds.). Oxford University Press.
Rahmawati, N., & Rachmi, S. (2021). Syntactic Analysis of the Sentence Pattern in Online News Article at The Jakarta Post’s Website. ASELS_2021. https://doi.org/10.51773/asels2021.v1i1.21
Rowlatt, J. (2023, July 25). Electric cars are the future, but is the UK ready? BBC News.
Tabula, R., & Agbayani, R. (2015). Syntactic Patterns of News Headlines in Philippine and American Newspapers. JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research, 22(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.7719/jpair.v22i1.335
Wiryastuti, N. P., & Maharani, P. D. (2023). Subordinate Clause Functioning as Direct Object in Complex Sentences Found in BBC News Instagram Caption. Prosiding Seminar Kolaborasi Akademik Dosen-Mahasiswa, 1(1).
Yuricki, E., & Arfani, S. (2019). Syntax Analysis on The News Title of Cyber Media on Detik Twitter Account (@Detikcom). DEIKSIS, 11(3), 199–209.
