AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

EXPRESSIVE HEADLINES ON THE NEWS PORTAL DELFI.LT

KEYWORDS: article headline, emotional-expressive vocabulary, stylistics.

Recently, there has been particularly extensive discussion of the language of online media and its manipulative nature (Miliūnaitė 2011), as the quality of the information presented and the objectivity of the news pale in comparison with journalists’ or editors’ efforts to attract readers’ attention at any cost, while no one dares any longer to doubt the influence of the media in shaping public opinion and even national self-awareness (Radvilavičiūtė 2013). That this is not a passing phenomenon is demonstrated by the neologism delfinizmas, recorded in the Database of Lithuanian Neologisms (hereafter ND) in spring 2014, denoting “the trend among online news portals of creating ambiguous, unclear article headlines that do not match the content.”

The subject of this article is the expressive headlines of articles published on the news portal delfi.lt¹, collected by the article’s author from October 2012 to June 2014. The analysis of the headlines draws on Regina Koženiauskienė’s definition; an article title is understood as “a usually short, one-sentence text that conveys the essence and main content of a publication” (Koženiauskienė 2013: 46). As Rūta Marcinkevičienė points out, headlines that “take the form of a sentence rather than a phrase become independent texts—like theses or summaries, at the surface level of hypertext, through which not everyone ventures deeper into the jungle of the text” (Marcinkevičienė 2010). Many readers of news portals, if the headline does not catch their interest, make do with the information it provides, which not only functions as an independent text but also determines an article’s popularity. Whether a text is read at all, or read all the way through, depends on the headline’s wording and presentation. For this reason, emotionally charged vocabulary is often used deliberately in headlines, since they “serve commercial purposes—to give a text something like a product image and attract readers, and therefore do not necessarily reflect or summarize the content of the entire text. Much more often, they identify one aspect or a piquant detail” (Marcinkevičienė 2010). As Diana Liepiny­tė-Kytrienė notes, “headlines [...] become short news items for people who want to save time. This is also related to the abundance of information available online. On delfi.lt alone, about 60 new articles are published every day²” (Liepiny­tė-Kytrienė 2013: 3). Thus, by enticing readers with expressive headlines, it is hoped that such articles will not tell

Regina Koženiauskienė distinguishes between neutral headlines (with a nominative function) and expressive headlines (with an expressive function), depending on the rhetorical function performed by the article title (Koženiauskienė 2013: 46).¹

Indeed, the count was made by D. Liepiny­tė-Kytrienė, who analyzed delfi.lt headlines in terms of mentions of individuals.²

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in the vast flow of information and will be noticed by internet users. Of course, it should be noted that online media are read only by people who use a computer and the internet. According to data from Statistics Lithuania, in 2014 internet use was highest among people in the following age groups: 16–24 (97.3%), 25–34 (94.5%), and 35–44 (86.3%). Although it tends to be emphasized that delfi.lt is the most popular news portal in Lithuania³, catering to the needs of people of various ages, taking into account the data from Statistics Lithuania, it can be argued that the main delfi.lt reader is a young or middle-aged person; headlines are therefore crafted to appeal to the modern generation.

The aim of this article is to analyze the expressive headlines of articles published on the news portal delfi.lt and to determine which linguistic means of expression are used to attract readers’ attention⁴. The article examines the purposes for which metaphorical nouns and adjectives, vivid verbs, neologisms, slang, vulgarisms, antonomasia, personal names, phraseological expressions, quotations, and foreign-language insertions are used in headlines.

METAPHORICAL NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES

The metaphorical nouns and adjectives used in article headlines can be divided into two groups:

1. conventional words used figuratively (definitions of some figurative words are included in the Dictionary of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language (hereafter DŽ₆) and the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter LKŽ_e), while the figurative meanings of others, though not recorded in dictionaries, are nevertheless widespread in usage and readily understood by readers);

2. occasional words used figuratively (their definitions are found neither in DŽ₆ nor in LKŽ_e)⁵.

The use of figurative words from the first group aims to avoid the conventional, neutral expression of journalistic style, and it is hoped that the use of metaphorical nouns and adjectives will entice readers, for example:

Is it time to put a bridle on rental prices in Lithuania? [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 09 05, Ugnė Karaliūnaitė)⁶

³ According to audience.lt data, 1,151,537 users visited the delfi.lt portal in October 2014—the largest number among all news portals in Lithuania.

⁴ D. Liepinytė-Kytrienė has investigated the means of influence used in headline-factual statements on the delfi.lt internet portal. An article based on the aforementioned author’s master’s thesis, “Means of Influence in the Headlines of the delfi.lt Internet Portal: The Aspect of Mentioning a Person,” was published in the journal Taikomoji kalbotyra.

⁵ The main difference between these nouns and adjectives used figuratively is that words in the second group arouse curiosity: headlines are deliberately crafted so that the substance of the article is unclear and incomprehensible from its title, compelling visitors to the online media portal to read the entire text to the end. Words in the first group (conventional metaphorical nouns and adjectives), although they lend journalistic texts new color, are clear to readers. A person who is not interested in the issue raised in the headline, the event being discussed, or the situation will not read such an article.

⁶ The language of the usage examples has not been edited.

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Café owner: I lose serious customers because of one such bumbling fool [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 06 07)⁷

Fraud suckers — from Lithuania to Asian countries [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: ELTA) 2012 10 24)

A prankster in Kaunas – a “special” container [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 30, Paulius Garkauskas)

E. Zubas kept his goal unblemished, and his team secured its fourth victory [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: BNS) 2013 05 05)

The development of shale resources signals “Gazprom’s” sunset [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 05 16, Ramūnas Bogdanas)

To fight unemployment – abracadabra [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: diena.lt) 2013 04 08, Justinas Argustas)

The Dictionary of Foreign Words (hereafter TŽŽ) gives two meanings for the word abracadabra: “1. a meaningless word to which magical power was attributed in the Middle Ages and which was written on amulets; 2. nonsense, incomprehensible words.” A reader, recognizing the magical power attributed to this word, understands from the headline alone that the text concerns meaningless, convoluted, perhaps even unfeasible measures to reduce unemployment in the country, cf.:

How can unemployment be tackled? Jobs need to be created, especially in areas where unemployment is high. Such banal and abstract proposals are listed by ministry officials working in the task force convened by the prime minister.

The gist of this article is also easy to anticipate:

An accident following the “train” principle: 4 cars collided in Kaunas [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 09 11)

A reader who knows that a train is “a formation of railway carriages and a locomotive” (see DŽ₆) will understand from the headline that the train principle means “a sequence of events based on cause-and-effect relationships”⁸. Cf. the first sentence of this article:

The accident unfolded according to the “train” principle: a “Hyunday Lantra” crashed into a slowing “VW Caravelle” minibus; a “Opel Vectra” coming from behind hit that car; and an “Opel Corsa” hit the “Vectra”.

The examples show that nouns and adjectives used metaphorically enliven the text; however, in the article author’s view, they do not sufficiently intrigue the reader. A visitor to a news portal grasps the gist of a text from its headline, so such articles would be read only by those interested in news about sports, business, or another field. It is hardly possible to understand what an article is about from its headline alone when it contains words with the second group of figurative meanings (occasional metaphorical naming words), for example:

The future of big cities – Swedish skyscrapers that “float for free”? [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: technologijos.lt) 2013 05 23)

⁷ In this study, the article author’s first and last name are given only if the author was identified in the article published on the news portal delfi.lt.

⁸ Definitions of words without a source reference were created by the author.

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It is likely that, intrigued by such headlines, curious readers will want to read the entire article. The answer to why Swedish skyscrapers are given somewhat unusual and, as may seem at first glance, even illogical names is provided at the very beginning of the text:

At first glance, it looks just like any other skyscraper, only with some kind of strange wig. However, experts explain that this seemingly crazy and “hairy” Swedish design could be the future of high-rise buildings. The strange “hair” consists of thin filaments which, when the wind blows, convert the energy of the airflow into, for example, electrical energy.

It is clear that the article offers an apt, one-word description of Swedish skyscrapers based on their external feature. DŽ₆ gives only one meaning for the adjective hairy: “covered with hair, having hair,” whereas in this text the adjective is used with a new, figurative meaning, referring to “a skyscraper of a particular construction, covered with thin filaments into which wind energy is captured and converted into electricity or other forms of energy.” For readers who see such a headline, the visitors to the news portal delfi.lt picture a hairy skyscraper, each imagining it in their own way, for “a word used in its literal meaning often signifies only something vague, indefinite, stylistically neutral; used figuratively, it becomes a means of conveying emotion, it becomes an image” (Pikčilingis 1975: 319). Headlines created by delfi.lt abound in this vein. Admittedly, there are also headlines from which it is easier to guess what the article is definitely not about, while identifying the subject under discussion is almost impossible, for example:

A woman in Venezuela is attacked by “piranhas” [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 08)

The metaphorical noun piranijos used in the article headline is enclosed in quotation marks, so even readers without a linguistic education should understand that what is wreaking havoc in Venezuela is not “the predatory fish of the South American family of characins” (see DŽ₆), but another nimble predator:

In the Venezuelan coastal city of Maracaibo, they are called piranijomis. But these are not flesh-eating fish found in some South American rivers. They are fast and violent thieves, increasingly targeting women, cnn.com reports. [...] “It can happen downtown, on the beach, or in a shop where there are lots of young girls. The thieves grab them by the hair, take out scissors and cut their hair off. The locks are then sold to beauty salons or hairdressers,” she said.

After reading the article, it becomes clear that, because of their agility and predatory nature, the piranijomis are “thieves who steal women’s hair, unexpectedly attacking their victims in public places and selling the hair they cut off to beauty salons and hairdressers”⁹. It can be assumed that if a neutral headline had been chosen, for example, “Women in Venezuela are attacked by (hair) thieves,” far fewer people would be interested in the article, for several reasons. First, many readers might think that thieves are rampant in many countries, so Venezuela’s inability to fend off robbers is hardly news. Second, a country such as

⁹ The author of the article observed while conducting this research that most texts published on the online news portal delfi.lt are presented according to the so-called inverted pyramid principle. Readers intrigued by an article’s headline do not even need to read the whole text to the end, since the most important information explaining the news announced in the headline is presented at the beginning of the text.

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Venezuela is an exotic country for Lithuanians, who are more interested in its spectacular landscapes and the diversity of its plants and animals than in the crimes taking place there.

As the examples show, occasional words with figurative meanings are preferred when seeking to intrigue and attract the attention of news portal readers.

VIVID VERBS

Another stylistic device frequently used in headlines is vivid verbs, surpassed in frequency only by traditional idioms. In this article, all the vivid verbs featured on the news portal delfi.lt are divided into¹⁰:

1. systematic vivid verbs;

2. context-dependent vivid verbs.

Article titles are dominated by verbs with established (systematic) vividness, for example:

Illness embittered¹¹ V. Adamkus’s celebration of Lithuania [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 03 12)

Storming¹² stores – returning the junk received for Christmas [article headline] (delfi.lt 2012 12 27)

Eastern Europeans sweep¹³ cheap diapers from Norwegian stores [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 02 01)

Courts coddle¹⁴ brazen offenders urinating in public / court rulings also dissatisfy the police [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 03 30, Paulius Garkauskas)¹⁵

Systematic vivid verbs such as embitter, storm, sweep, coddle are used figuratively and undoubtedly stimulate the reader’s imagination, but their emotional-expressive effect is not as strong as that of the following context-dependent vivid verbs:

S. Jovaiša thunders¹⁶: proposals include fines of up to 15 thousand litas for offenders [article headline] (del-fi.lt (from: BNS) 2013 04 20)

A furnace entangles¹⁷ a general [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: BNS) 2013 03 18)

A new device can “sniff out¹⁸” cancer [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 05)

¹⁰ Based on Juozas Pikčilingis’s classification of word vividness and the types of figurative vocabulary identified by this author (Pikčilingis 1971: 224).

¹¹ DŽ₆: to make bitter “figurative to make unpleasant, disagreeable”.

¹² LKŽ: to storm “figurative to besiege someone while making demands.” DŽ₆ gives a completely different figurative meaning for this word: “figurative to march, climb, etc., vigorously, with intensity, and hurriedly”.

¹³ DŽ₆: to sweep “colloquial to do something (eat, walk, hit, etc.) with gusto, vigorously”.

¹⁴ DŽ₆: to caress “figurative to flatter; to target.” Cf. LKŽ “figurative to please, flatter, praise”.

¹⁵ To attract readers’ attention, articles are also published with additional headlines—subheadings. On the news portal delfi.lt, they are written next to the main headline in a much smaller font. In this study, subheadings are given after a slash.

¹⁶ To make a splash “figurative to cause surprise”.

¹⁷ To entangle “figurative to compromise.” Cf. LKŽ: to sink “figurative to get into trouble, perish”.

¹⁸ To smell “figurative to detect, find.” Cf. DŽ₆ “figurative to sense”.

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N. Venckienė wags¹⁹ Parliament and Lithuania’s legal system / prosecutors may announce a search [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 05 08, Eglė Samoškaitė)

Indeed, the figurative meanings of some contextual verbs, although not recorded in dictionaries, are nevertheless widespread in usage and therefore more or less established. In this case, contextual verbs cross the boundaries of a single context; they are used figuratively so often that, one might say, they have become formulas, blindly transferred from one headline to another:

While Lithuania nationalized Snoras, millions were pumped out²⁰ of Krajbanka [article headline] (delfi.lt 2012 10 18)

Environmentalists stung²¹ G. Nausėda, who built a glass house beneath the Pūčkoriai escarpment [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 06 17, Mindaugas Jackevičius)

Headlines intended to deliberately interest and influence the reader are dominated by verbs used figuratively. Discussing headlines, R. Marcinkevičienė distinguishes the following structural types: noun phrases and sentence-form headlines (Marcinkevičienė 2008: 176). According to the author, the second type—the sentence-form headline—“requires a verb, which is considered a very important part of the title. It is precisely the verb that gives a headline clarity, specificity, and often vividness; it is dynamic and expresses a complete thought” (Marcinkevičienė 2008: 176). Indeed, the emotional-expressive effect of contextual vivid verbs that are not widespread in usage is somewhat greater than that of systemic vivid verbs.

NEOLOGISMS

Naujadarai būna dviejų rūšių (Pikčilingis 1975: 156):

1. established neologisms (new words that continually emerge in the language and denote new concepts);

2. occasional neologisms (new words used instead of the usual names for phenomena or objects, providing additional information or serving another emotional-expressive purpose).

To give a headline a “brand-like appearance,” stylistic neologisms of the second group are most often used. Indeed, established neologisms that have successfully taken root in usage and lost their “aura of novelty” are also not avoided (Popova 2005: 9–13, cited in Jakaitienė 2010: 205), cf.:

A thief forced his way into Lithuania despite gunfire and the “hedgehog”; he was caught only after the road was blocked with trucks [article headline]

19 Vizginti “fig. to make someone act as you wish (an allusion to the film Wag the Dog).

20 Išpumpuoti “fig. to steal.” LKŽ_e lists only one figurative meaning: “fig. to unload with difficulty.”

21 Įgelti “fig. to mock, make fun of; hurt.”

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Officers of the Kalvarija Border Guard Unit, having reacted promptly, were ready to stop at the former Kalvarija checkpoint the car that had failed to stop in Poland. Here, a road spike strip, the so-called “hedgehog,” had been laid across the Suwałki–Marijampolė road. (delfi.lt 2013 03 07)

“Little Euros”²²-called children celebrate their ninth birthday [article headline]

Today, 55 children are celebrating their birthdays with their grandmothers, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, cousins. They were all born on the very day Lithuania joined the EU—May 1, 2004. (delfi.lt 2013 05 01)

As J. Pikčilingis writes, “a neologism is also readily seized upon so that one can address a listener or reader with a word carrying as many expressive additions as possible beyond its central meaning” (Pikčilingis 1975: 164). Cf. such occasional neologisms used in headlines and serving an emotional-expressive function: Kakapar kas “colloq. a park where uncollected dog waste is marked with red flags (a social campaign intended to draw the attention of irresponsible dog owners),” boomerang child “an adult child who tried living independently but had to return to the parental home because of financial difficulties,” Sarkozism²³ “the policy pursued by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012)” (see ND), Frankenstein car “a car assembled from parts of several different vehicles after a serious road accident and put back into use.”

Opened in Vilnius: “Kakapar kas” – a “minefield” marked with little red flags [article headline]

Early on Friday morning, in the small park at the intersection of the Žirmūnai and Šnipiškės districts, “Goethe’s partisans” declared war on irresponsible dog owners and held an event called “Kakapar kas”. Through this creative action, the project participants aim to draw dog owners’ attention to the “minefield” of excrement. (delfi.lt 2013 05 03)

A consequence of the economic crisis – boomerang children [article headline]

Just recently, the American Merriam-Webster dictionary added a new word, “boomerang child”. The term refers to an adult child who tried living independently and returned to the parental home because of financial difficulties. (delfi.lt 2013 01 18, Rūta Juozapaitytė)

The situation of the Roma in France after the 2012 elections: “Sarkozyism” without Sarkozy? [article headline]

The deportation policy directed against the Roma ethnic group living in France, pursued from 2007 to 2012 by the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (French: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire—UMP) and its leader, President Nicolas Sarkozy, sparked debate around the world. (delfi.lt (from: DELFI citizen) 2013 01 03, Skaistė Mašalaitė)

The Frankenstein car sets off on a chilling journey across Lithuania / “Iron Traps” project [article headline]

Lithuanian residents will be the first in Europe to have the opportunity to see for themselves the potentially devastating consequences of using cars cobbled together from parts after accidents and therefore failing to meet safety requirements. (delfi.lt 2013 09 06)

Neologisms are used not only to achieve a newer, more original linguistic expression, but also to signal a clear position toward a particular person, for example:

........................

²² The ND includes the semantic neologism hedgehog “a spiked strip used to force cars to stop on the road” and euriukas, -ė “a child born on the day Lithuania joined the EU (May 1, 2004).”

²³ In the ND entry for the word Sarkozism, the Notes for Users section provides the following information: “although in one usage example the neologism has the suffix -ism, as in the original language, systematically Lithuanian should have the ending -izmas”; therefore, sarkozizmas is included in the ND as the headword.

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The “road rooster” “road rooster” who hit a cyclist threw his complaining girlfriend out of the car while fleeing [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 03 01)

A. Jasaitytė-Čeburiak posed in an advertisement with her little daughter and her “preggo” “preggo” belly [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 06)

ND records two neologisms: road rooster and road eagle, used to describe “a driver—a road hooligan who brazenly and maliciously disregards traffic rules.” Although both road rooster and road eagle have a derogatory connotation, considering the meanings of the words rooster and eagle²⁴, it can be concluded that this newly coined compound is used deliberately in the headline. In the second example, by contrast, instead of the neutral word pregnant woman, the familiar neologism preggo, with an affectionate connotation, is chosen, expressing very warm feelings toward the expectant woman.

SLANG AND VULGARISMS

Slang expressions make their way into article headlines for a wide variety of reasons: some are intended to aptly describe the living environment of a particular social group; others are used because standard language lacks a convenient one-word equivalent; still others are borrowed from a narrow field of professional jargon in order to interest the reader, since most people have never heard many professional terms and cannot understand their meaning without further explanation. Despite the different purposes for which slang is used, it can confidently be said that nearly all slang expressions used in headlines are “characterized by a strong emotional charge” (Jakaitienė 2010: 198). As Evalda Jakaitienė states, “because of their expressiveness, they [slang expressions – A. A.] spread quickly, cross professional or social boundaries, and become widely known. Such slang expressions, once they enter the general spoken lexicon, are called by a special term—slang” (Jakaitienė 2010: 200). In the authors’ opinion, the emotional force and expressiveness of slang, which is used to a greater or lesser extent by most of society, has become considerably “worn down”; nevertheless, it aptly characterizes the social environment of particular people, for example:

After “big plastic bottles” were banned, fortified wine is being swept off store shelves [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 01 23, Ugnė Karaliūnaitė)

The grim socialization of children without guardians—in a “homeless shelter” [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 09 03, Ieva Urbonaitė-Vainienė)

Warning: students who terrorize teachers with “cell phones” face a month’s detention [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 09 02, Ieva Urbonaitė-Vainienė)

24 In Egidijus Zaikauskas’s Dictionary of Lithuanian Slang, the following meanings of rooster are given: “derog. a puffed-up, ostentatious man, a dandy, a fop,” “derog. a homosexual, a gay man (passive),” “prison slang: a weak, defenseless inmate who is sexually exploited or mocked.” The second meaning of this word listed in DŽ₆ is “fig. a weak, insignificant person.” Clearly, the negative meanings of rooster are widespread in society, whereas the eagle is perceived as a majestic, powerful bird. In an article published on the news portal balsas.lt in August 2014, psychologist Gediminas Navaitis suggests that “a few road hooligans should no longer be called ‘road eagles,’ because this is ‘an epithet that encourages and attests to coolness’” (Navaitis: 2014).

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The headlines of articles also sometimes use vocabulary employed by social groups. This is intended to attract the attention of people belonging to these groups; for example, the word mobiliakas is widespread among children and adolescents, so it may be concluded that the message in the third headline is also directed at school-age children, since the content of the notice is relevant not only to school staff but also to the young people attending the school.

Sometimes headlines cannot do without slang because standard language has no convenient one-word equivalent, for example:

The story of the Red Book: the first book could be acquired only through a bit of „blatą“ [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 05 26, Vitalius Zaikauskas)

E. Zaikauskas’s Dictionary of Lithuanian Slang gives a rather lengthy definition of blato: “old-fashioned (up to the 1990s): private connections used when one needs to obtain or do something that would otherwise be very difficult officially.” It is clear that there would be no point in seeking a socially acceptable substitute for this slang term, since blatas not only denotes certain private connections, but also reflects the reality of the period in which people lived at a particular historical time.

According to J. Pikčilingis, “some professional slang terms, in their usual setting, are, one might say, stylistically neutral. But when they enter a broader arena—that is, when they go beyond the boundaries of the relevant profession or social group—they become particularly stylistically salient” (Pikčilingis 1975: 143), for example:

Will a ban on abortion bring back „abortmacherius“ with coat hangers? / Lithuanian women return from Ireland to terminate pregnancies; take part in the poll! [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 04 07, Vytenė Stašaitytė)

The general public is certainly unfamiliar with this professional term used by medical practitioners, so journalists expect that visitors to the news portal, wanting to find out what the slang term in the headline means, will have to read the entire article, which explains abortmacherio:

She added that when abortion is banned, people in such a situation still seek ways to terminate the pregnancy, and this is often done unsafely—in a non-medical facility, by people referred to in medical slang as „abortmacherius“.

There is no doubt that words used by representatives of a particular profession carry a much greater emotional charge than slang. The study found that almost always (whenever an article contains slang words), some field-specific slang term is brought into the headline in order to attract as large a readership as possible, for example:

The co-driver of the „nulinuko“ that fatally struck a female rally spectator: there is no need to look for someone to blame / who is responsible for the tragedy? [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 05 28, Mindaugas Augustis)

In this headline, the article’s author highlights a sports slang term whose meaning can only be understood from the text. As a result, curiosity prompts the reader of the news portal delfi.lt to read the entire article, which explains that a nulinukas is “a car whose starting numbers are usually made up entirely of zeros, and the purpose of the crew in this vehicle is to inspect the course before the race begins and inform the rally stewards about its condition and any hazards they notice.”

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Slang used by certain social groups, for example, pupils and students, is widespread and therefore does not carry as strong an emotional charge as, say, prison slang:

Inside prison: once you become a „dūchu“ or a rooster, there is no way to rise [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 04 27, Paulius Garkauskas)

The unvarnished depiction of prison reality lends this headline its expressiveness. As Robertas Kudirka explains, a dūchu is someone “who works for others as a servant (washes dishes, washes other people’s clothes, cleans the cell, prepares food)” (Kudirka 2014: 95). In this case, the slang term in the article’s title could not even be replaced with another, neutral word, since that would cast doubt on the objectivity of the depiction of “life inside prison”: those imprisoned there do not use neutral words for people who are enslaved to a chazeinu, “a prisoner whom another prisoner serves” (Kudirka 2014: 82). Of course, if the slang term were replaced by a word without emotional charge, the headline would immediately lose its expressiveness.

“Authors know well that readers are susceptible to the effect of their first impression, and therefore, in seeking to attract their attention, they are not content with a neutral headline; they often do not shy away from exaggerating, overdoing it—in other words, hyperbolizing—in the hope that the reader will then continue reading the piece to the end” (Koženiauskienė 2013: 46). A striking example of such “overdoing it” in a headline, aptly illustrating the aforementioned delfinizmą, is Ramūnas Bogdanas’s article with its attention-grabbing title:

A hat, pederasts and a wife’s umbrella [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 07 24, Ramūnas Bogdanas)

This article title stands out sharply from the huge flow of information on the delfi.lt portal, since coarse words or expressions are rarely seen in headlines; editors usually replace them with euphemisms. It is hardly surprising that this headline by R. Bogdanas may offend, even shock, or provoke malicious laughter among those who are wholly unsympathetic to homosexuals. As Kęstutis Masiulis observes, “emotions prevail, and year after year they are stoked ever more intensely. The level of accusation rises because media consumers, constantly accustomed to emotional discourse, gradually become indifferent, and the media, seeking to retain their attention, are forced to raise the emotional pitch ever higher” (Masiulis 2009). There can be little doubt that the person who came up with this headline²⁵ wants to stir readers’ emotions, fully aware of the negative emotional charge of the word pederast, which has arisen in contemporary European civilization. It is very likely that many visitors to the news portal, on seeing the vulgarism in the headline, assumed that the article’s author sought to mock or demean homosexuals, although R. Bogdanas has no such intention. On the contrary, in discussing the origins of homosexuality and 21st-century society, he draws on rational arguments and the experience of ancient civilizations—Greece and Rome—and explains the Greek origin of the aforementioned vulgarism; this is why a word that stirs such varied emotions is included in the article title.

One way for an article’s author to demonstrate their view of a situation or specific event is to choose slang with the appropriate emotional content, for example:

Drunken “buduliai” having fun—driving around the roundabout near Vilnius railway station [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 06)

²⁵ “Writing headlines is difficult and responsible work, experts say, and therefore it is usually done by a specialist headline writer at one of the final stages of preparing an issue. Thus, the author of the text and the author of its title are not necessarily the same person.” (Marcinkevičienė 2008: 176).

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That a stylistically marked word is deliberately used in the article headline is demonstrated by the fact that only the neutral word young people is used later in the text. Clearly, the expressive headline is intended to influence readers’ imagination, since many are likely to associate it with the character Budulis, an aggressive young man in sportswear, created for Rimas Šapauskas’s comedy show “Dviračio šou” (“Bicycle Show”). Readers should also have no doubts about the article writer’s negative attitude toward these irresponsible young people, since buduliu is commonly used to mean “an aggressive young man in sportswear (usually wearing a tracksuit, a peaked cap, and a chunky fake-gold chain).”

There is no doubt about Eduardas Eigirdas’s position toward the Labour Party, which is leading in the elections. In this case, for certain stylistic purposes, the headline uses neither slang nor vulgarism, but a distorted pronunciation of the word economy:

The leading Pravieniškės coalition will generate poverty ikanomika [article headline] (delfi.lt (from the magazine „Valstybė“) 2012 10 24, Eduardas Eigirdas)

The article headline not only mocks the way the Labour Party leader speaks, but also clearly shows article author E. Eigirdas’s opinion of the party’s dishonest participation in the elections by alluding to Pravieniškės Correctional Facility, whose residents, according to the author, are most often bribed during elections. Indeed, another coded message from the article’s author may be discerned in the ironic name Pravieniškės coalition: the party leading in the elections is one whose leaders have been charged, so one day the party members themselves may end up in Pravieniškės Correctional Facility.

ANTONOMASIA²⁶ AND PERSONAL NAMES

When reporting news concerning public figures, writers do not shy away from indirectly evaluating the activities, or even the personalities themselves, of people well known to the public, for example:

A farmer who refused to give anything to the milk billionaire: “You’d do better to take an interest in Pushkin, not Bransons” [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 06 04, Paulius Garkauskas)

Tired of Bunkės and Pikulės and the wives of rich men on the catwalk: fashion should be shown on a model, not just anyone / professional models’ fees revealed [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 04 23, Eiviltas Paraščiakas)

The examples show that the proper names of famous figures are used in a generic sense to belittle their achievements or even strip them of their celebrity or “star” status²⁷. Taking into account the activities of the Labour Party leader, who is accused of fraud, Mažvydas Jastramskis dares to call all people who have ever evaded taxes:

Uspaskichs are found in Western European countries too [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 07 23, Mažvydas Jastramskis)

²⁶ “Antonomasias are the names of famous people (historical figures, prominent public figures), mythological beings, and literary characters, the so-called vocabula sollemnia, used in a generic sense.” (Pikčilingis 1975: 258).

²⁷ In all, the author collected 17 examples of antonomasia usage from the article. In every example, the names used generically are those of negative literary characters or celebrities known for scandals.

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It can be argued that antonomasia is most often used to express the article author’s position and indirect evaluation; however, the names of famous people or literary characters used in a generic sense are not as expressive as personal names. When the name, nickname, or pseudonym of a person, literary character, or film hero is aptly transferred to someone else, readers are encouraged to continue reading the article to the end, since without broader context it is usually possible only to guess why a lesser-known person is given the name of a celebrity, for example:

Lithuanian Ksena looks for a man in London who would not be afraid of her [article headline]. In the British capital, the Lithuanian woman stands out from those around her. Her everyday wardrobe includes a Viking helmet, Indian feathers, cowboy hats, pagan dresses, furs and boots reminiscent of the warrior princess Ksena. (delfi.lt (from: LRT television programme “Emigrantai”) 2013 03 17, Orijus Gasanovas)

After reading the article based on the LRT television programme “Emigrantai,” it becomes clear that the Lithuanian woman was nicknamed after the heroine of the American fantasy action series “Xena: Warrior Princess” because of her unusual clothing.

PHRASEOLOGISMS, QUOTATIONS, AND FOREIGN-LANGUAGE INSERTIONS

Traditional phraseologisms are very often chosen as a means of stylistic effect in the headlines of the news portal delfi.lt. In the 21st century, as various online media portals compete for readers’ attention, the impact of traditional phraseologisms, compared with other stylistic devices—especially occasional phraseologisms—has weakened somewhat. On the other hand, traditional phraseologisms “embody great life experience and popular ingenuity; since they are full of wit, irony, or lyricism, they are psychologically very effective” (Pikčilingis 1975: 356), cf.:

Russia bares its teeth: we will take retaliatory action [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 04 23)

Prosecutors call the fire in Grozny not the finger of God, but arson [article headline] (delfi.lt (from: BNS) 2013 04 05)

The student who did not want to rent a gown was left as if bitten by a fly: lots of nerves and no celebration [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 06 27, Mindaugas Jackevičius)

Uncle Romas, a trader at Klaipėda’s flea market, on Lithuanians: talented, but they walk as if they had wet themselves [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 07 28, Eglė Samoškaitė)

An employee’s dismissal—if only the ground would swallow them up [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 08 13)

When leaving a job, don’t burn your bridges [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 05 15)

The contract with the bank ended with a beggar’s staff [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 09 27, Rasa Lukaitytė-Vnarauskienė)

Occasional phraseologisms are also psychologically effective; they reflect the habits of modern times and the characteristics of contemporary life, cf.:

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How much do “second Christmas” cost? [article headline]

The first of September is becoming a national holiday. Everyone is rushing around, dressing up, tidying up, shopping. The last week of August is traditionally an especially busy time not only for pupils counting down the days until the end of summer vacation, but also for their parents. (delfi.lt (from: etaplius.lt) 2013 08 23)

When discussing psychological impact and the emotional-expressive function, attention should be paid to quotations²⁸ that appeal to the reader’s memories and personal experience; as a result, visitors to the news portal decode the information presented in a headline on the basis of their own personal experience, e.g.:

The sky is falling: tales of homosexual love frighten censors [article headline] (delfi.lt 2014 05 16, Donatas Paulauskas)

How can we reboot the Sun so that it “shines for us again”? [article headline]

Stars die. One day the time will come for our star, the Sun, to die, too. In science fiction, dying stars are rebooted by explosions of atomic supercharges. Why are the Sun’s fuel reserves running low, and what can humanity do to make our star shine for us again? (delfi.lt (from: technologijos.lt) 2014 03 14)

The sun was boiling, the sun was boiling... [article headline] (delfi.lt 2013 01 21, Paulius Saudargas)

As the examples given show, anonymous quotations²⁹ predominate in headlines; these are cases “when a well-known text by someone else is quoted but no details are given; in such cases, the author apparently trusts the reader’s or listener’s erudition and general literary knowledge” (Koženiauskienė 2013: 62). Clearly, there is no point in identifying the sources of the quotations in these examples of usage, since they are perfectly familiar to everyone. The phrase used in the headline of Donatas Paulauskas’s article coincides with the title of the fairy tale “The Sky Is Falling” and describes a critical situation viewed with a touch of irony. In the second example, encoded in the headline is the title of “Švieski man vėl” (“Shine on Me Again”), a famous Lithuanian pop song performed by Stasys Povilaitis, while Paulius Saudargas’s article headline consists of a single sentence—the line from the Lithuanian folk song “Du gaideliai” (“Two Little Roosters”). It is true that one might be misled by the title of P. Saudargas’s article, since behind such an apparently lighthearted headline lie issues of pressing concern to society, cf.:

The discussions about solar energy production that raged last week gave rise to several questions.

Article authors do not always view things through the prism of the Lithuanian nation’s worldview and life experience; sometimes headlines also contain markers of a foreign culture, e.g.:

A Vilnius resident who had set up a cannabis plantation at home told the police: Alach akbar, just come in and you will all die! [article headline]

When help arrived, the patrol officers entered the apartment. G. Z. had locked himself in his room. Oriental music was blaring, accompanying a “live” vocal performance in the same style. When the police officers entered the room, G. Z. greeted them

²⁸ “By the ways in which they refer to sources, quotations are classified as classical, undocumented, and anonymous.” (Koženiauskienė 2013: 62).

²⁹ As R. Koženiauskienė explains, “anonymous quotation was characteristic of authors of early Lithuanian writings: educated society (and writers and readers of comparable education) knew by heart the works of many quoted authors—verses, speeches, poems, entire prose works by universally acknowledged authorities, even the Bible—so there was no need to mark typographically or indicate where a particular line by someone else had come from, and the concept of plagiarism did not even exist; it was not used at all” (Koženiauskienė 2013: 62).

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with the words [G. Z. greeted the police officers who entered the room with the words – A. A.] “Alach akbar, just come in and you will all die!”, then threw a screwdriver; fortunately, nobody was injured. (delfi.lt 2013 05 30)

The TŽŽ states that Allah akbar is an Arabic phrase meaning “God is almighty.” Although this Arabic slogan can be used in various situations³⁰, in this context it sounds like a Muslim battle cry.

By using insertions from foreign languages, article authors seek to show the links between phenomena from different cultures, for example, the operating principles of criminal groups, e.g.:

Coalition: krugovaja poruka [article headline]

In Russian, there is the expression “krugovaja poruka”, which could be translated into Lithuanian as “binding.” This term is used among criminals. When a new member joins a criminal gang, they are assigned a criminal task so that they break the law, become compromised, and become as vulnerable as the other gang members. The new member then becomes loyal and trustworthy because their fate is closely bound to that of the others. (delfi.lt 2012 11 28, Kęstutis Masiulis)

CONCLUSIONS

1. In the expressive headlines of the news portal delfi.lt, the following linguistic devices are used to attract readers’ attention: metaphorical nouns, vivid verbs, neologisms, slang, vulgarisms, antonomasia, personal names, phraseological expressions, quotations, and insertions from foreign languages.

2. Occasional metaphorical nouns (most often nouns and adjectives) are more expressive than conventional figurative words, which do not encourage readers to continue reading articles to the end. Occasional figurative words arouse curiosity; headlines are deliberately devised so that the substance of an article is not apparent from its title. Journalists therefore expect readers of the news portal delfi.lt not to settle for the information presented in the headline, but to read the entire article. Although conventional metaphorical nouns also enliven texts in the journalistic style, their expression is not elaborate; these figurative words do not make information difficult to understand, so readers can readily infer from the headline what the article is about.

3. Occasional neologisms are most often used to give headlines a “brand image.” In general, neologisms are employed not only to achieve more novel and original linguistic expression, but also to make a clear statement about a particular person.

4. Slang enters article headlines for various reasons: some terms are used to describe a particular social group’s living environment precisely; others are used because standard language lacks a convenient one-word equivalent; still others are borrowed from a narrow sphere of professional jargon in order to engage readers. Professional jargon and the vocabulary used by specific, closed social groups carry a particularly strong emotional charge and therefore attract readers’ attention very effectively.

5. Article authors most often use slang and antonomasia to express a negative attitude, mock, and criticize the person or situation being described.

³⁰ Based on data from the Free Encyclopedia “Wikipedia”. Available online: http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alach_akbar.

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6. Traditional idioms and vivid verbs used figuratively are most frequently found in expressive article headlines.

ŠALTINIAI

DŽ₆ 2011: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas. Vyr. redaktorius S. Keinys. Šeštas (trečias elektroninis) leidimas. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 2011. Prieiga internete: http://dz.lki.lt.

Kudirka R. 2014: Kalėjimo, kriminalinio ir narkomanų žargono žodynas. Antrasis pataisytas ir papildytas leidimas, Vilnius: Kitos knygos.

LKŽ_e 2005: Lietuvių kalbos žodynas 1–20 (elektroninis variantas). Vyr. red. G. Naktinienė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: www.lkz.lt.

LS – Lietuvos statistikos departamentas. Prieiga internete: http://osp.stat.gov.lt/web/guest/statistiniu-rodikliu-analize?portletFormName=visualization&hash=631de7a1-469e-48f0-8f4b-a2844b8f7637 (žiūrėta 2014 12 22).

ND – Lietuvių kalbos naujažodžių duomenynas. Internetinė duomenų bazė. Sud. R. Miliūnaitė, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas. Prieiga internete: http://naujažodziai.lki.lt/.

TŽŽ 2001: Tarptautinių žodžių žodynas. Atsak. red. A. Kinderys, Vilnius: Alma littera.

Zaikauskas E. 2008: Kalbos paribiai ir užribiai: lietuvių žargono žodynėlis, Vilnius: Alma littera.

W – Laisvoji enciklopedija „Vikipedija“. Prieiga internete: http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alach_akbar (žiūrėta 2014 08 29).

LITERATŪRA

Jakaitienė E. 2010: Leksikologija, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.

Koženiauskienė R. 2013: Retorinė ir stilistinė publicistinių tekstų analizė, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.

Liepinytė-Kytrienė D. 2013: Antraščių-faktinių teiginių poveikio priemonės interneto portale Delfi.lt. Prieiga internete: http://taikomoji-kalbotyra.lt/lt/2013/12/antrasciu-faktiniu-teiginiu-poveikio-priemones-interneto-portale-delfi-lt.

Marcinkevičienė R. 2010: Kokia spaudos kalba – tokia ir visuomenė? Prieiga internete: http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2010-02-23-ruta-marcinkeviciene-kokia-spaudos-kalba-tokia-ir-visuomene/40878.

Marcinkevičienė R. 2008: Žanro ribos ir paribiai. Spaudos patirtys, Vilnius: Versus Aureus.

Masiulis K. 2009: Apie lietuvišką žiniasklaidą. Prieiga internete: http://www.bernardina.lt/archyvas/straipsnis/91441.

Miliūnaitė R. 2011: Laikraštinės ir interneto žiniasklaidos kalba. Prieiga internete: http://www.bernardinai.lt/straipsnis/2011-01-10-laikrastines-ir-interneto-ziniasklaidos-ypatumai/55777.

Navaitis G. 2014: Psichologas G. Navaitis: „kelių erelius“ reikia vadinti vištgaidžiais. Prieiga internete: http://www.balsas.lt/naujiena/802027/psichologas-g-navaitis-keliu-erelius-reikia-vadinti-vist-gaidziais.

Pikčilingis J. 1971: Lietuvių kalbos stilistika 1, Vilnius: Mokslas.

Pikčilingis J. 1975: Lietuvių kalbos stilistika 2, Vilnius: Mokslas.

Radvilavičiūtė G. 2013: Žiniasklaidos kuriama Lietuva. Prieiga internete: http://literaturairmenas.lt/2013-08-30-nr-3438/1056-publicistika/1628-giedra-radvilaviciute-ziniasklaidos-kuriama-lietuva.

Gauta 2014 09 08

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THE EXPRESSIVE HEADLINES ON THE NEWS PORTAL DELFI.LT

Summary

The objects of the current article are the expressive headlines of articles published on the news portal Delfi.lt collected by the author from October 2012 to June 2014. The expression and presentation of the headline determines whether the article will be read at all; therefore, emotionally charged lexis is used deliberately. The purpose of the current article is to analyse the expressive headlines of articles published on the news portal Delfi.lt and find out the linguistic means of expression used in order to attract the readers’ attention. Metaphoric name-words, figurative verbs, neologisms, jargon, vulgarisms, antonomasias, personal names, phraseologisms, quotations and foreign language inserts are analysed in the article; out of them, traditional phraseologisms and figurative verbs were the most frequent.

KEYWORDS: headline, emotive-expressive lexis, stylistics.

AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

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