Page 21 - Windhoek Graduation (20 May)(SESSION 2)(PhDs, Masters)

Executive Dean: Dr Alfonse Mosimane
Faculty of Education and Human Sciences
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, SOCIETY AND DEVELOPMENT
Associate Dean: Dr Martha Akawa

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH STUDIES

CANDIDATE: NEKONGO Rauha N

CURRICULUM VITAE

Rauha Ndayaamena Nekongo was born in Omhalapapa in Ohangwena
region. She Matriculated from Hambili Haufiku SSS as a top student in 2002.
Her qualifications include Bachelor of Education (UNAM), Bachelor of English
(hons) (NUST), and Masters of Arts in English studies and a PhD in English studies
from the University of Namibia. Her professional career includes working as an English teacher at Cosmos high
school, Khomas high school, Otjikoto high school and Centaurus high school. Her academic experience includes
part-time lecturing and research supervision at Great Zimbabwe University, NUST and UNAM and full-time at the
Namibia University of Science and Technology.

CANDIDATE’S DISSERTATION

A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPER SPORTS HEADLINES FROM THE NAMIBIA, NAMIBIAN SUN AND NEWERA
NEWSPAPERS 2017-2018

The doctoral study was undertaken and completed under the supervision of Prof. Jairos Kangira from the
University of Namibia as Main supervisor and Dr. Collen Sabao from the University of Namibia as Co-Supervisor

The candidate analysed how journalists use language and linguistic resources to craft newspaper headlines. A
corpus of 150 purposively sampled sports headlines from The Namibian, Namibian Sun and New Era newspapers
was analysed to determine the types of deviations, the literary devices that journalists use in crafting headlines
as well as to establish the interconnectedness of headlines and the articles they head. In addition, the study
examines the aesthetic value headlines brings to news reporting in the Namibian context. In doing this the
study comparatively analyses headlines in Namibian newspapers to assess if they follow global trends of
news headlining. Being qualitative in nature, the study allowed the researcher to analyse and classify data
in categorised literary devices such as metaphors, personification, antithesis, oxymoron, synecdoche, simile,
hyperbole and so on, as well as into different deviations such as lexical, phonological, grammatical and other
linguistic techniques such as ambiguity. Textual analysis was an applicable method of analysis.

The study observes that news writers use literary devices namely: synecdoche, similes, metaphors personifications,
metonymy, antithesis, hyperbole, euphemism and oxymoron when formulation headlines. Metaphors, especially
war metaphors, stood out as a dominating device together with personification and synecdoche. Additionally,
lexical, grammatical and phonological structures are employed to achieve the desired headlines. The study
also notes that ambiguity in sports headlines is achieved through omission of some words or use of prepositions
such as ‘to’ or ‘for’ as well as through some verbs. It is the vagueness effect of the headlines that attracts
readers to the newspapers and to finally react by buying the newspapers in order to read the entire article so as
to get the intended meaning. Fogginess of meaning is also achieved through deliberate shortening of names
especially those of football clubs. Some clubs are named after animals, so the writer just uses the name of the
animal such as Tigers or Lions instead of the full name such as “Oshakati Lions” to make it confusing yet attractive
to pull people’s attention. In addition to the findings, aesthetic value is achieved through the uses of uncommon
words or through unpopular ways of arranging words in a sentence which also results in ambiguity. The study
has also revealed that some headlines have little or nothing to do with the articles they head. Furthermore,
the study has also revealed that the Namibian news writers follow the global trends such as that of writing short
headlines, omission of some words especially the articles which do not contribution significantly to the meaning
of the headline. Some writers are so ingenious that they write well-crafted and luring headlines.

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