Headline English : What's Current in Japan's Three Morning Newspapers

抄録

Headlines in The Japan Times, The Daily Yomiuri, and the Mainichi Daily News were examined for between-paper comparisons including linguistic content and current English. The findings show that The Japan Times is the most expensive and largest paper. However, The Daily Yomiuri averages the most headlines on each page in addition to being the least expensive.
Linguistically, the average word-length of each newspaper's headlines is bout the same. The use of the active voice is predominant in all three newspapers. The Japan Times tends to use the present tenses in the main verb more than the other newspapers, but they all use the present tenses most often. The Mainichi Daily News uses proper nouns as the grammatical subject most, while the others are evenly divided between the use of proper and regular nouns.
The Japan Times tends to be the most unique in its “news” coverage. However, they all contain various amounts and degrees to the extent that differences are difficult to quantify. In general, all three newspapers showed an exciting and dynamic use of English that might be likened to the copy writing of advertisers in their similar attempt to entice customers. Each newspaper offers a viable oportunity for the study of current English. The major considerations in selecting one of the three newspapers would be personal tastes and cost.