Stylistic Devices and Creativity in Popular Science Headlines 32525 English novel metaphors – 25 novel metaphors in Polish
1 English novel metaphor – 1 conventional metaphor in Polish
3 English novel metaphors – 0 metaphors in Polish
0 English novel metaphors – 3 novel metaphors in Polish
3 English conventional metaphors – 3 conventional metaphors in Polish
1 English conventional metaphor – 1 saying in Polish
2 English conventional metaphors – 2 novel metaphors in Polish
2 English conventional metaphors – 0 conventional metaphors in Polish
0 English conventional metaphors – 1 conventional metaphor in Polish
1 English word play – 0 word play in Polish
4 English sayings – 4 sayings in Polish
9 English alliterations – 0 alliteration in Polish
4 English alliterations – 4 alliterations in Polish
0 English alliteration – 3 alliterations in Polish
1 English imperative construction – 1 imperative construction in Polish
1 English intensifier – 1 intensifier in Polish
1 English stimulating question – 0 stimulation questions in Polish
5 English compounds – 5 metaphors in PolishTable 10. Translation of stylistic devices used in the headlines from
the body of the text.
The analysis and the instances above make it evident that the most
frequent rhetorical figure employed by headline writers in English is a
novel or a creative metaphor (28 instances have been identified in the table
of contents and 29 in the headlines that open articles in the body of the
magazine). According to Shie (2012), novel or non-lexicalized metaphors
generate publicity for a news story by highlighting a stylistically appealing
element of the story and hence draw the readers into the body of the story.
Moreover, they are usually substituted by Polish novel metaphors and this
is especially true for the headlines that appear in the body of the magazine
(25 such instances have been found). It is noteworthy that these metaphors
are usually or in most cases related in meaning with the original ones. A
possible explanation for this is provided by the notion of ‘shining
through’, whereby source language features ‘shine through’ or reverberate
in the target text (Piccioni 2013).^6
It should also be said that although the use of alliteration is quite
frequent in English, there are only 4 instances in which it has been
preserved or taken into account in the translation process into Polish and
(^6) It is noteworthy that different types of National Geographic heads in both
language versions English and Polish are explored in more detail in Boátuü (2016).