Headline Pidgin

Newspaper headlines are written in a specialized pidgin language whose proper interpretation requires some experience. The headline is an early precursor of the sound bite, reducing an entire article to a short and snappy summary intended to entice the reader.

Some words and phrases only occur in headlines. Think of prexy and veep, for instance.

In Michael Frayn's novel, The Tin Men, written in 1965, an institute is exploring the computerization of those fields of human endeavor that seem to be describable in terms of a finite number of options. Frayn suggests that certain newspaper articles such as

• Paralysed Girl Determined to Dance Again
• They Think Britain is Wonderful
• I Plan to Give Away My Baby, Says Mother-to-be

Frayn then focuses on the sublanguage used in the headlines, and muses about what he calls UHL, or Unit Headline Language, a comprehensive lexicon of the multi-purpose monosyllables that show up in headlines. He imagines how one day's headline of STRIKE THREAT can be easily modified for the following day into any of:

• STRIKE THREAT BID
• STRIKE THREAT PROBE
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA

Getting into the spirit of a game, his character notes that a series of related headlines could be generated, growing longer each day:

• STRIKE THREAT
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK HOPE
• STRIKE THREAT PLEA PROBE MOVE SHOCK HOPE STORM

Moreover, units of the language could be joined at random to form plausible headlines:

• LEAK ROW LOOMS
• TEST ROW LEAK
• LEAK HOPE DASH BID
• TEST DEAL RACE
• HATE PLEA MOVE
• RACE HATE PLEA MOVE DEAL
• ROW HOPE MOVE FLOP
• LEAK DASH SHOCK
• HATE BAN BID PROBE

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