한·중 뉴스 제목에 나타난 수사 전략과 담화 기능 비교 연구 = A Comparative Study on Rhetorical Strategies and Discourse Functions in Korean and Chinese News Headlines

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A Comparative Study on Rhetorical Strategies and Discourse Functions in Korean and Chinese News Headlines SHAN YINGCHUN Advisor: Prof. Kang Hui-suk, Ph.D. Department of Korean Language ＆ Literature Graduate School of Chosun University This study aims to compare and analyze the rhetorical strategies and discourse functions manifested in Korean and Chinese news headlines. As the first discourse unit encountered by readers before the main body of an article, a news headline presents the core content of the article in a condensed form and plays an important role in readers’ selection of news and their initial understanding of events. With the expansion of digital media environments, news headlines have come to function not only as a means of conveying information but also as linguistic devices that attract readers’ attention and guide their interpretation of events. In this respect, the rhetorical strategies used in news headlines are closely related to how events are named, emphasized, and arranged within a limited textual space. The data analyzed in this study consist of news headlines collected from BigKinds and Chinese Core Newspapers Database （CCND） from May 5, 2023, to December 31, 2025. The final corpus comprises 4,000 headlines in total: 2,000 Korean news headlines and 2,000 Chinese news headlines. May 5, 2023, was selected as the starting point because it was the date on which the World Health Organization announced the end of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern （PHEIC） for COVID-19. This period can be understood as a time when crisis discourse centered on the pandemic gradually weakened and a wider range of social issues began to re-emerge. Rather than limiting the data to specific topics or media outlets, this study examines news headlines published during the selected period in order to identify the overall tendencies of rhetorical strategies and discourse functions in Korean and Chinese news headlines. This study adopts both corpus-based analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. First, the rhetorical strategies found in the collected headlines are classified by type, and their frequencies and distributions are examined. Then, through representative examples, the study analyzes how these rhetorical strategies construct meaning and perform discourse functions in actual news headlines. The rhetorical strategies are divided into three major categories: figurative rhetorical strategies, emphatic rhetorical strategies, and structural rhetorical strategies. Figurative rhetorical strategies include simile, metaphor, metonymy, personification, onomatopoeia, and mimetic expression. Emphatic rhetorical strategies include hyperbole, contrast, repetition, pun, and irony. Structural rhetorical strategies include ellipsis, parallelism, parallel arrangement, enumeration, interrogative expression, rhetorical question, question-and-answer structure, self-question-and-answer structure, and quotation. The discourse functions of news headlines are classified into three types: summary and information delivery, interpretation guidance, and attention and selection guidance. When more than one rhetorical strategy or discourse function appears in a single headline, the representative strategy and dominant function are determined according to the element that plays the most central role in the overall meaning construction of the headline. The major findings of this study are as follows. First, metaphor appears as the most prominent rhetorical strategy in both Korean and Chinese news headlines. Metaphor is used to present events in politics, the economy, society, science and technology, and international relations in a concrete and impressive manner. This shows that news headlines actively employ metaphorical expressions to convey abstract or complex social phenomena effectively within a concise form. However, differences are found in the functions and usage patterns of metaphor in Korean and Chinese headlines. In Korean news headlines, metaphor is often used to present events in a condensed way while also attracting readers’ attention. In Chinese news headlines, metaphor tends to be used to construct the meaning of policies, industries, and social changes within a particular value-oriented direction. Second, among the figurative rhetorical strategies, onomatopoeia and mimetic expression are found only in Korean news headlines. In Korean headlines, sensory and colloquial expressions are used to vividly represent the atmosphere or situation of an event and to draw readers’ attention. In contrast, Chinese news headlines tend to rely more on metaphor, pun, parallelism, and parallel arrangement to present social values or policy directions. This suggests that differences in linguistic resources and headline-writing conventions influence the selection and use of rhetorical strategies in the two languages. Third, clear differences between Korean and Chinese news headlines are observed in the use of emphatic rhetorical strategies. In Korean news headlines, contrast, hyperbole, repetition, and irony are often used to highlight conflict, tension, or controversy surrounding an event. In particular, contrast functions to make the core issue more salient by placing opposing subjects or situations side by side. In Chinese news headlines, pun is especially prominent. Puns, in connection with the phonological and written characteristics of Chinese, are used to enhance the implicitness and expressive effect of headlines. In Chinese headlines, pun is not limited to wordplay but contributes to the condensed presentation of policy meanings, industrial changes, and social values. Fourth, differences are also found in structural rhetorical strategies. Korean news headlines make relatively active use of interrogative expressions, question-and-answer structures, self-question-and-answer structures, and quotations. These strategies raise readers’ curiosity and encourage them to read the article by posing questions or foregrounding particular utterances. Interrogative and quotation-based headlines are especially effective in strengthening interaction with readers and highlighting the main issues of an event. By contrast, Chinese news headlines show a relatively strong tendency to use parallelism and parallel arrangement. These strategies present policy directions, social values, and developmental achievements in an orderly form through structural balance and rhythm. Fifth, in terms of discourse function, both Korean and Chinese news headlines perform the functions of summary and information delivery, interpretation guidance, and attention and selection guidance, but the ways in which these functions are realized differ. The function of summary and information delivery refers to cases in which a headline presents the core content of the article and conveys basic information about the event. In this study, this function is further divided into explicit information delivery and implicit information delivery. The analysis shows that even in headlines containing rhetorical strategies, key information such as the subject, action, result, number, place, and time of an event is generally maintained. Rhetorical expressions contribute to presenting such information in a more condensed or impressive way. Sixth, interpretation guidance is identified as an important discourse function in both Korean and Chinese news headlines. This study divides interpretation guidance into problem- or conflict-centered interpretation guidance and development- or value-centered interpretation guidance. In Korean news headlines, events in politics, society, and the economy are often presented within semantic frames of conflict, controversy, crisis, or burden. These headlines use contrast, hyperbole, quotation, and interrogative expressions to highlight the problematic or tense aspects of events. In Chinese news headlines, events and policies are more often constructed around meanings such as development, recovery, leap, vitality, cooperation, and future value. Metaphor, pun, parallelism, and parallel arrangement are frequently used to construct social changes or policy directions in a value-oriented manner. Seventh, the function of attention and selection guidance refers to the role of headlines in attracting readers’ interest and encouraging them to read the article. In this study, this function is divided into attention guidance through indirect information presentation and selection guidance through minimal information presentation. In Korean news headlines, interrogative expressions, question-and-answer structures, self-question-and-answer structures, quotations, and ellipsis are closely related to this function. Rather than revealing the entire content of an event, such headlines often present only partial information or use questions and quotations to arouse readers’ curiosity. In Chinese news headlines, attention and selection guidance is also present, but it is realized less through direct stimulation of curiosity and more through implicit expressions or value-oriented ways of constructing meaning. Taken together, the findings show that rhetorical strategies and discourse functions in news headlines do not form a one-to-one correspondence. The same rhetorical strategy can perform different discourse functions depending on the content and context of the headline, and the same discourse function can be realized through different rhetorical strategies. For example, metaphor appears across the functions of summary and information delivery, interpretation guidance, and attention and selection guidance. Interrogative expressions and quotations may also perform both attention-guiding and interpretation-guiding functions depending on how they are used. Therefore, rhetorical strategies in news headlines can be understood not only as devices that enhance expressive effect but also as discourse devices that condense article content, foreground particular aspects of events, and organize readers’ attention and interpretation. The significance of this study can be summarized as follows. First, by analyzing both rhetorical strategies and discourse functions in Korean and Chinese news headlines, this study expands previous research that has mainly focused on individual rhetorical devices or specific linguistic phenomena. Second, this study approaches news headlines as independent genre-based and discourse-based units rather than as subordinate labels attached to article bodies, and it clarifies how rhetorical strategies are connected to information delivery, attention guidance, and interpretation guidance. Third, by comparing Korean and Chinese news headlines from the same period and with the same sample size, this study systematically presents the similarities and differences between the two language spheres. Korean news headlines show a stronger tendency toward reader interaction and attention guidance through interrogative expressions, quotations, question-and-answer structures, and onomatopoeic and mimetic expressions. Chinese news headlines, on the other hand, show a relatively stronger tendency to construct interpretive directions and value orientations through metaphor, pun, parallelism, and parallel arrangement. This study also has some limitations. Since the analysis is limited to news headlines, the relationship between headlines and article bodies could not be fully examined. In addition, because the data are limited to the period from May 5, 2023, to December 31, 2025, caution is required in generalizing the findings to Korean and Chinese news headlines from all periods. Future research should examine headlines together with leads and article bodies and should further classify the data by period, topic, media type, and news organization in order to analyze the rhetorical strategies and discourse functions of Korean and Chinese news headlines in a more comprehensive Key words: news headline, rhetorical strategy, discourse function, Korean-Chinese comparison, BigKinds, CCND, metaphor, interpretation guidance

목차 (Table of Contents)

• ABSTRACT
• 1. 서론 1
• 1.1. 연구목적 및 필요성 1
• 1.2. 선행연구 검토 5
• 1.2.1. 뉴스 제목의 수사 전략 및 언어 표현에 관한 연구 6
• 1.2.2. 뉴스 제목의 담화 기능과 의미 구성에 관한 연구 10
• 1.2.3. 한·중 뉴스 제목 비교에 관한 연구 14
• 1.3. 논의의 구성 19
• 2. 이론적 배경 21
• 2.1. 뉴스 제목의 장르적 특성 및 기능 21
• 2.2. 수사 전략의 유형 및 특징 25
• 3. 연구 대상 및 방법 35
• 3.1. 연구 대상 및 자료 구축 35
• 3.2. 분석 방법 및 절차 38
• 4. 한·중 뉴스 제목의 수사 전략과 사용 양상 43
• 4.1. 비유형 수사 전략의 사용 양상 46
• 4.1.1. 직유법 46
• 4.1.2. 은유법 50
• 4.1.3. 환유법 61
• 4.1.4. 의인법 65
• 4.1.5. 의성법 69
• 4.1.6. 의태법 71
• 4.2. 강조형 수사 전략의 사용 양상 74
• 4.2.1. 과장법 75
• 4.2.2. 대조법 78
• 4.2.3. 반복법 83
• 4.2.4. 쌍관（雙關） 86
• 4.2.5. 반어법 91
• 4.3. 구조형 수사 전략의 사용 양상 94
• 4.3.1. 생략법 95
• 4.3.2. 대구법 98
• 4.3.3. 배비（排比） 102
• 4.3.4. 열거법 107
• 4.3.5. 의문법 110
• 4.3.6. 설의법 114
• 4.3.7. 문답법 116
• 4.3.8. 자문자답법 119
• 4.3.9. 인용법 122
• 5. 한·중 뉴스 제목의 담화 기능 127
• 5.1. 담화 기능 분석의 기준과 분포 128
• 5.2. 요약·정보전달 기능 136
• 5.2.1. 정보의 명시적 전달 137
• 5.2.2. 정보의 함축적 전달 142
• 5.3. 해석 유도 기능 146
• 5.3.1. 문제·갈등 중심의 해석 유도 148
• 5.3.2. 발전·가치 중심의 해석 유도 152
• 5.4. 주목과 선택 유도 기능 157
• 5.4.1. 간접 정보 제시를 통한 주목 유도 159
• 5.4.2. 최소 정보 제시를 통한 선택 유도 163
• 6. 결론 및 제언 168
• 참고문헌 176
• 부록1 184
• 부록2 239