Allusive headlines reflecting German and British cultural identity

Julianna Nádai (Széchenyi-István-Universität, Győr) [BIO]

Email: nadaij@sze.hu

ABSTRACT:

My contribution aims to reveal the implicit messages of headlines in German and British press publications. The purpose is also to demonstrate how culture infiltrates into German and British economic special language. Study of linguistic creativity concerning various cultural references in headlines can provide a new, specific subarea in linguistic researches. Hidden cultural references of various topics made the headlines more than the semantic meaning of utterances. My presentation will focus on 1) literary allusions and 2) proverbial/anti proverbial expressions in press publications which are understudied areas in linguistics.

1. A proper understanding of literary allusions has been a subject of several studies both in literature and international communication. The specialty of the present discourse is rooted in the special context of literary references, that is, economic press articles of German and English. Titles of and lines from literary works like poems, novels dramas (that is allusions) are frequently used as headlines.
2. The criticality of (anti)proverbs lies in the differences of frequent proverbs used in each culture. Comprehension of headlines made up of (anti)proverbs is strongly related with cultural and language environment of a nation and the individuum as part of a nation (community). Based on my research I will make a comparison on the differences of the role and types in headlines in German and British cultures.

The research is of great significance in educational terms, as well. Institutions of higher education of economy must be able to use authentic and actual press publications when teaching German and English to ensure that graduates have reliable knowledge acceptable on international labour market. Comprehension of headlines of articles on economy requires complex knowledge an awareness of culture.

The analysis is elaborated by qualitative research methods. Data for analysis os headlines are collected from leading (inter)national weekly papers. The samples come from the period embracing the issues from June 2005 and June 2007.