Headlines in The Guardian editorials: the syntax and semantics of noun phrases

Abstract

The Guardian editorial headline is viewed as a two-component structure punctuated with colons in which the first part names the topic and the second one provides its comment. The article examines the frequency and diversity of eight noun phrase patterns and gives structural and functional analysis of their constituents. The author studies how categorial features of nouns, adjectives, and prepositions manifest themselves on a phrase level. Three types of semantic relations between noun-noun components are defined. Two more aspects under consideration are complexity and coordination in noun phrases.