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AMBIGUITIES IN NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

ABSTRACT

The language of news headlines requires that the specific meaning being constructed is without ambiguity, and thus be clearly identifiable by the readers. But ambiguity and meaning-making are so related that the former is, to a varying degree, almost always present in news headlines, given a number of linguistic and non-linguistic factors influencing the writer, reader, and the language at hand (Hirst, 1987, Akinlotan 2018d, Eckert 2018). This study shows (1) the extent to which ambiguity is present in online Nigerian newspaper headlines; (2) the linguistic nature of the ambiguity, and (3) how a total of 14 linguistic predictors clearly show where we might find ambiguous headlines, the nature of the ambiguity, and the different scenarios characterising (1) and (2). A total of 14 predictors is investigated on the basis of over a thousand news headlines extracted from a Nigerian national newspaper, The Punch, showing that ambiguity has a likely incidence of 22%. Of the ambiguous proportion, 47% is lexically-motivated while 53% is structurally motivated. A logistic regression shows a combination of factors including animacy and structural complexity as important predictors showing the nature and where/ when we might find (non) ambiguous news headlines.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

Newspaper headlines are a field of language use where clarity of thought, including identification of ideas and referents, is a topmost threshold motivating lexical and syntactic choices that make up the phrasal/clausal/ sentential construction. Such writing requires expeditious processing of meaning. Hence ambiguity, the possibility that a construction offers more than one interpretation where only one is intended, is usually prevented in such writing because it may obstruct the focus and weight of the headline. Then, achieving mono-expeditious meaning in news headline writing is itself subject to a range of variation, owing to considerations of style, and also to a range of variables motivating ambiguity-free and ambiguous news headlines (Eckert 2018), Also, given the complexity of language, especially the fact that meaning processing is a negotiation between a writer and a reader who never operationalise exactly the same mechanisms of cognitive meaning, then achieving mono-expeditious meaning becomes important for both the writer and the readers (Hawkins 1994).

Although a considerable number of previous works have examined the phenomenon of ambiguity in news headlines in Nigerian newspapers, none has approached it from a corpus/variationist framework. Nor do they engage a significant number of datasets with statistical analysis of (socio) linguistic variables. In fact, almost all of the previous works available are based on a handful datasets (for examples, see Ayodele 1998, Ehineni 2014, Chinelo 2015, Nwala and Umukoro 2017), and do not show specific contexts where we might find ambiguity-free and ambiguous headlines. Further, these previous studies did not show how different determinants influence inhibition and exhibition of ambiguity, or how they influence different sorts of “ambi-type” (i.e., types of ambiguous headlines being lexically or syntactically motivated). The present study complements these previous studies, combining different approaches to studying ambiguity, a phenomenon that correlates with linguistic complexity and difficulty (Housen et al. 2019). Housen et al. (2019) have shown a variety of approaches to studying linguistic complexity including the fuzziness characterising relative and absolute (structural) complexity. Although the present work essentially lies within the purview of absolute complexity, the fact that the issue of ambiguity and meaning processing could not be completely extricated from cognitive processes suggests there is a link between relative and absolute complexity.

Furthermore, the present study contributes to the previous works by showing the extent to which ambiguity and different ambi-types are present in Nigerian newspaper headlines, together with how a range of (socio) linguistic variables independently and interactionally influence these issues. A little over a thousand news headlines (1006) collected from the online version of the widely national newspaper in Nigeria, Punch, were critically analysed, quantitatively and qualitatively, in relation to a total of 14 variables:

•    complexity of the headline structure;

•    animacy of the subject of the headline;

•    animacy of the direct object in the headlines;

•    occurrence of citation;

•    heaviness of information structure contained in the headline;

•    occurrence of modification/quantification;

•    preverbal number of subject;

•    postverbal number of persons/direct object;

•    noun type of the subject of the headline;

•    complexity of the subject NP of the headline;

•    complexity of the post-verbal NP;

•    verb type;

•    tense of the main verb; and

•    complexity of the verbal component of the headlines.

Given that these variables have never been applied to critical engagement of ambiguity in Nigerian newspapers, they are operationalised innovatively, and according to annotation procedures similar to those used in Akinlotan (2018a, 2018b). News headline structure, like any other construction where choices are made, is variable, especially because it intends to say so much in few words. Given different contexts, headlines might appear short or long, simple or complex, ambiguous or ambiguity-free. This variation allows for an interplay of (socio) linguistic variables, which if carefully examined, can provide insight into specific contexts such as where and when we might find short/long, simple/complex, ambiguity and/or ambiguous news headlines. Having said that, it is then important to identify, define, and operationalise those relevant predictors which might motivate a construction choice over the other. Since there is no prior work available that has employed this corpus/variationist/ construction approach to the structure of news headline in Nigerian newspapers, the present study thus identifies a wide range of predictors on the basis of similar studies that have applied the approach to the clausal/ sentential structure in different text types in a Nigerian variety of English (see Akinlotan 2016, Akinlotan 2017, Akinlotan and Housen 2017, Akinlotan 2018a, Akinlotan 2018b, Akinlotan 2018c).

All of these works have shown how different dimensions of structural complexity, animacy, heaviness, and omission of syntactic units within a clause structure, influence constructional choice in different genres, ranging from academic, media, business, and administrative. Akinlotan (2016) showed how genitive alternation in Nigerian English is strongly related to animacy, while Akinlotan and Housen (2017) show how structural complexity and omission of postmodifier are found in association with phrasal structure. Hirst (1987) examined semantic interpretation and ambiguity resolution, showing how ambiguity can be measured and resolved. Relatedly, Bucaria (2004) showed how ambiguity in news headlines gathered from websites is related to a wide range of linguistic variables, including the internal structure of the news headlines. Ayodele (1998) showed how the definite article is omitted, overused, or underused in Nigerian news media. Following cues from Ayodele (1998), if the definite article is omitted, underused, or overused, then such occurrence could be motivated by the complexity of the news structure.

Of course, there have been several approaches to the linguistic analysis of news headlines in other varieties of English including a computational approach to identification and learnability of ambiguous news headlines (see Wei and Wan 2017). Also, many scholars (for example Pickering et al. 2000; Ford et al. 1982) have shown how different variables influence the different stages in processing ambiguous news headlines.

Furthermore, Fodor et al. (1986) were the first to speculate on the cognitive nature of ambiguity within clause structure, which since then has been applied to different domains, including the language of the media. Following MacDonald et al.’s (1994) model of a parsing mechanism in which he argued that lexical and structural ambiguities can be explained in terms of the same processing mechanism, the present study proposes that the following variables will not only show the extent to which lexical and structural ambiguity is present but also its predictability:

•    complexity of the headline structure;

•    animacy of the subject of the headline;

•    animacy of the direct object in the headlines;

•    occurrence of citation;

•    heaviness of information structure contained in the headline;

•    occurrence of modification/quantification;

•    preverbal number of subject;

•    postverbal number of persons/direct object;

•    noun type of the subject of the headline;

•    complexity of the subject NP of the headline;

•    complexity of the post-verbal NP;

•    verb type;

•    tense of the main verb; and

•    the complexity of the verbal component of the headlines.

These variables, which have not been previously operationalised in relation to ambiguity in Nigerian news headlines, are operationalised in a binary approach, relying on clues from their similar previous operationalisation (see Akinlotan 2018d for extensive details relating to identification, conception, definition, and operationalisation).

1.2   Purpose of the Study

i.  To evaluate the extent to which ambiguity is present in online Nigerian newspaper headlines.

ii.  To examine the linguistic nature of ambiguity in Nigerian newspaper headlines.

1.3   Significance of the Study

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.4   Definition of Terms

Ambiguity: This is a type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible.

Newspaper: A printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, articles, advertisements, and correspondence.