Anyone know how that convention came about?

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

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Anyone know how that convention came about?

....and, given their 'present tense-ness', why they don't also say "...behiiind yooouuuuuu!!!"?

King Mob wrote:

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Some light reading that may be of interest

As far as I can see, that article merely notes that newspaper headlines tend to be in the present tense. It doesn't explain the reason or the history.

"These characteristics tend to place the event in a dehistoricised, static present. It is thus possible to read these headlines both as a comment on a current situation and as a description of perennial attitudes. Particular events or reactions are included in a series or class of events, creating unfounded generalisations. Comments about the behaviour or attitudes at a particular time are thus transformed into statements about unchanging characteristics - in this case, about national characteristics..."

King Mob wrote:

QUOTE:
"These characteristics tend to place the event in a dehistoricised, static present. It is thus possible to read these headlines both as a comment on a current situation and as a description of perennial attitudes. Particular events or reactions are included in a series or class of events, creating unfounded generalisations. Comments about the behaviour or attitudes at a particular time are thus transformed into statements about unchanging characteristics - in this case, about national characteristics..."

That starts off as a description of the effect the present tense-ness has on the reader (as opposed to the rationale behind using it), then degenerates into a load of meaningless wafflewank.

I mean, thanks and everything, but that's not what I was looking for.

I don't know about the origin of the convention, but I gratefully use it to make use of shorter words in a headline.

I suspect the answer to your query is what you probably suspect anyway: that headline in the present tense headline sounds more immediate than it would in the past tense. Which was probably a useful device in times when some news were really old ("from our correspondent, by Air Mail"); the convention allowed such news to appear fresh.

Good work!

Isn't it just that the present simple tense is the main narrative tense? "A man walks into a pub..." That must have something to do with it. Mind you, headines are a linguistic law unto themselves, with no articles or auxilliary verbs and a peculiar use for some otherwise ordinary words (blast, probe, shock, storm etc.).

At least we don't go in for incorrect comma usage like the Yan...our American friends.