Archive for Headlinese
November 16, 2019 @ 7:26 am· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese, Spelling
This Washington Post item confused me for a few seconds:
I first interpreted the headline as "Donald Trump is confident that Roger Stone is guilty on all counts, and" (whoops) "he (=Trump) faces up to 50 years in prison"?
I was sent down this particular garden path by the recent flurry of news stories about the president throwing various supporters under the metaphorical bus. But the whole -ant v. -ent mess didn't help.
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May 27, 2019 @ 12:04 pm· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese
British headline-syntax example of the week: "Sheffield deaths: House murders accused mother in court", BBC News 5/27/2019.
The link was sent in by H. Kepponen, who notes that
the story is not about a domestic residence killing a woman inside a courtroom with malice aforethought, but about a mother who has been charged with murdering two of her children in a house … and who was brought to court today.
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May 12, 2019 @ 11:15 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Ambiguity, Headlinese
"The Lost Harvest of Chinese Food Plants in Venezuela", By José González Vargas, Caracas Chronicles (May 11, 2019)
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April 20, 2019 @ 6:30 am· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese
A headline sent in by Yoram Meroz: "Congressman Florida Man hired former Trump staffer fired after hanging around white nationalists", Daily Kos 4/19/2019.
Yoram wrote "Here's a headline I could probably decipher, but I haven't tried."
I tried and failed — I leave it to our clever commenters to solve the mystery.
The references are easy to understand, from the body of the story and extensive other coverage — the "Florida Man" is Matt Gaetz, and the "former Trump staffer" is Darren Beattie.
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March 28, 2019 @ 6:50 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Headlinese
Headline in the Washington Post (a few minutes ago):
A professor at China’s permier university questioned Xi Jinping. Then he was suspended.
Obligatory screenshot:
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March 3, 2019 @ 9:48 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Headlinese, Redundancy
As opposed to the salubrious kind, presumably….
FOX 5 DC News (3/3/19) headline:

"Fairfax County police identify victims of deadly triple homicide in Springfield"
Fairfax County police have identified the three people found shot dead at a home in Springfield overnight.
As Bob Dylan and Paula Cole might have sung, "Where have all the editors gone …"
[h.t. Don Keyser]
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February 19, 2019 @ 11:10 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Headlinese, Misnegation
From today’s Financial Times:

I think they meant "anti-anti-Semitism ceremony".
[h.t. Donald Clarke]
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December 3, 2018 @ 12:22 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Errors, Grammar, Headlinese, Idioms, Lost in translation
For the last few weeks, the New York Times has been running a hyped-up, gushing series of lengthy articles under the rubric "China rules". On a special section in the paper edition for Sunday, November 25, they printed this gigantic headline in Chinese characters — and made a colossal mistake:
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October 19, 2018 @ 1:05 pm· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese, Pragmatics
Commenting on the (7/12/2016) headline "US government plans to use drones to fire vaccine-laced M&Ms near endangered ferrets", Joyeuse Noëlle on Tumblr noted that
The best part of this title is that in the second half, each new word is completely unpredictable based on what comes before it.
“US government plans to use drones to fire” okay, I see where this is going
“vaccine-laced” wait
“M&Ms” what
“near” not ‘at’?
“endangered” what
“ferrets” what
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May 4, 2018 @ 12:23 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Bilingualism, Headlinese, Multilingualism, Writing systems
Bob Bauer sent in this photograph of a recent headline from a Hong Kong newspaper:
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March 6, 2018 @ 8:53 pm· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese
"Dead mouse in protein supplement claimant admits lying", BBC News 2/7/2018:
A man has admitted to lying about buying a pack of protein powder containing a dead mouse.
Adam Brenton tweeted criticism of Myprotein Impact Diet Whey seller The Hut.com Ltd and contacted local press with his claims.
The story was widely republished but "unequivocal" evidence proved the mouse was not present at delivery.
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October 29, 2017 @ 8:22 am· Filed by Mark Liberman under Headlinese
Vic Marks, "No Stokes is not no Ashes hope if England stick together in Australia", The Guardian 10/29/2017.
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