The Study of Application of Simple Clitics in Sports Media Headlines

This study examines three functional morphemes which can be realized as clitics, in the sports newspapers headlines. Clitics are bound morphemes which are divided into simple and special clitics each of which has several characteristics. The aim of this study is to examine simple Persian clitics and their frequency in the sports newspapers headlines. To do so, the headlines of seven sports newspapers (namely, Abrar-e Varzeshi, Piruzi, Esteghlal-e Javan, Khabar-e Varzeshi, Goal newspaper, Navad 90, and Iran-e Varzeshi) were collected over a two-month period (May and June 2014) and their simple clitics were analyzed based on Shaghaghi’s (1995) classification. The results showed, in spite of our expectation, that simple clitics were rarely used in the prose of sports newspapers headlines and the frequency of their full form, that is, functional morphemes of ’’ra, va, and ham’’, were significantly higher than the frequency of their corresponding clitic forms. This was probably due to the higher fluency and ease of comprehension of the headlines by the readers of the sports newspapers.