48
votes
Accepted
Why can I write "Please open window" without an article?
Signs and notices of this kind are often written in "headlinese," an abbreviated style that omits articles, forms of to be, and other unnecessary words. Similar examples include signs like &...
- 3,972
26
votes
Structure of the headline "Olympics organizers scramble as furor over woke blasphemy grows."
[Olympics organisers scramble] as [furor over woke blasphemy grows].
[Modifier + Subject + Predicate] + as + [Subject + Modifier + Predicate]
Grows is a verb and is the predicate of the subordinate ...
- 22.2k
25
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
Why we listen to music is a noun phrase.
Why do we listen to music? is a well-formed question.
Either could work as the title of an article, say, or a blog post. Titles are not required to be well-...
- 137k
25
votes
Shouldn't there be a ('s) in "University of Texas('s) Basketball Coach"?
There's no need for "'s" in that headline.
"University of Texas" is a noun phrase, and here it directly modifies "basketball coach" to form a compound noun. We understand ...
- 51.1k
19
votes
Shouldn't there be a ('s) in "University of Texas('s) Basketball Coach"?
This is in Headlinese, which often omits words with little semantic content.
Your amended form is still Headlinese. A fuller form (such as you might expect to find in the article under the headling) ...
- 77.1k
18
votes
Accepted
What does 'in first for' mean?
The line you are asking about, as you have stated, is a title of a journalistic piece. It is written in the style of headlinese. So the language is pithy to the point that it does not conform to ...
- 18.9k
18
votes
Isn't the phrase "minutes show" grammatically weird at the end of this text?
It is odd, but it is "headlinese".
Compare with
My husband is an idiot, wife says.
For impact and style, the content of the quote is put first. The attribution is put in a bit at the end. ...
- 232k
17
votes
Why can I write "Please open window" without an article?
An older term for this kind of writing is “telegraphic style.” Telegrams charged by the letter, so people would send messages as short as possible to save money. Businesses, such as banks and ...
- 8,509
14
votes
What does "where" mean in "Where does Brexit leave Britain?"
The idiomatic use of the word leave is problematic, to be sure! Moreover, the sentence in question is, at best, poorly stated!
Perhaps an illustration would help.
Let's say two guys are bemoaning ...
- 623
14
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
Why We Listen To Music=The Reason We Listen to Music
versus:
Why Do We Listen To Music? = A question.
Titles of written texts (books or articles) can be quite complicated. In the examples above, ...
- 49k
14
votes
What does 'in first for' mean?
The sentence is written in "headline English" - no articles or linking words, a compressed summary. In a first for the UK, the Government clears (allows) the Cuadrilla company to frack (obtain gas ...
- 75.7k
11
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
I don't think the answers sufficiently cover "What's the difference between "Why We Listen to Music" and "Why Do We Listen to Music"?". It's possible that it should simply be a separate question, but ...
- 1,881
9
votes
"This Page Intentionally Left Blank"
You're right that this is not a complete sentence.
It is using a different grammar, one that is often used for titles (of books, papers, reports) and official notices. It is similar to Headlinese (...
- 77.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Can the word "advantage" be used as an adjective?
Headlines tend to be short, instead of being fully grammatical sentences. This particular headline is not even literally true.
In this example, "Advantage" is not an adjective describing "Australia"....
- 24.4k
7
votes
Accepted
The zero article in ''Game of Thrones''
The first novel in the book series does have the article: A Game of Thrones.
The producers must have decided that they like the shorter title, probably because it rolls off the tongue better. Like ...
- 333
7
votes
Interpreting this headline: "Split 7 Ways, Immigrant Neighborhood Seeks to Unify Its Political "
The usage "split [a number] ways" means "split into [that many parts]."
Even knowing that, the meaning of the headline overall is not immediately obvious (as is often true with ...
- 18.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Tenses used in title
It's usual to write news headlines in the present tense, to give them a sense of immediacy.
In a traditional printed newspaper, the second part would probably have been a subheading in smaller type. ...
- 61.4k
7
votes
Structure of the headline "Olympics organizers scramble as furor over woke blasphemy grows."
Sample:
The parse is this:
Olympics organisers scramble// as furor /over woke blasphemy/ grows.
Paraphrase: Olympics organisers scramble at the same time that furor over woke blasphemy grows.
as ...
- 49k
6
votes
What does the 'to' mean when the word is used in the newspaper?
Newspaper headlines by their very nature are designed to grab as much attention as possible, in the least possible space, and as such, almost have a grammar of their own.
One example of this is the ...
- 9,863
6
votes
Accepted
About "Some Like It Bot"
It's a pun on the well-known phrase "some like it hot."
This originates from the nursery rhyme Pease Porridge Hot. Wikipedia lists a number of works of art or literature titled "Some Like It Hot."
...
- 7,409
6
votes
Does "Pope to meet U.S. bishops" use the word "to" to emphasize?
No, it is not used for emphasis. Headlines follow different rules than the typical, standard sentence. The verb BE is often omitted, and to-infinitives are used to express a future event (Wikipedia):
...
- 45.4k
6
votes
IS the phrase "Gentle Into That Good Night" making a reference to something else in this context?
It is a reference to a well-known poem by Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night in which he exhorts his elderly father not to accept death willingly.
The text is here.
- 61.4k
6
votes
What is the meaning of this sentence. "feared murdered'?
It is typical headline writer's way of condensing information into as few words as possible. Translated it means
It is suspected that Vito Corleone has been murdered
In this context feared = ...
- 9,522
6
votes
Why can I write "Please open window" without an article?
This kind of sign has meaning when attached to a specific window. It does not need the article because it relates to the window it is attached to. The same for "Keep off Grass" only works on ...
- 4,582
5
votes
What does "where" mean in "Where does Brexit leave Britain?"
The sentence is intended to be read as, "In what state does Britain's leaving the EU leave it?" That is, where does Britain go after making such a decision? Is Britain better or worse off having ...
- 51
5
votes
"Norway to ban full-face veil in nurseries, schools and universities" - is this correct?
The people who write headlines (editors) are not the people who write the stories (reporters).
Headlines are written in headlinese.
Headlines are written to sell papers or to drive advertising ...
- 1,476
5
votes
"Two [men] {get / were / got / } involved in a fistfight"
The form with "were involved" is the most ordinary and common form of this. The form with "got involved" is also perfectly normal, but some might regard this use of the verb "get" as colloquial, and ...
- 77.1k
5
votes
Why do we have to use 'to' instead of 'will'?
Hard to say definitively without seeing the article in question, but often a newspaper headline will use the "to" phrasing as an abbreviation for "set to" or "plans to" or something similar. This is ...
- 3,003
5
votes
Accepted
The correct omission of the definite and indefinite articles
This is known informally as headlinese. In article headlines, it is common to use truncated grammar, such as omitting articles (as in your example) or altered verb forms.
- 4,485
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