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The present tense and the past passive participle have long (for more than a century) been used in headlines to refer to events in the immediate past:

  • Governor Smith vetoes bill
  • Three killed in collision

But lately I've been noticing the present active participle a lot: On NBC evening news probably more than a dozen times each night, not just the anchor Lester Holt or Kate Snow but all of the reporters say things like The Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus, Two more candidates dropping out of the race today, etc. I haven't seen this in writing, but every broadcast news report on TV uses this form. I've seen it on CNN too.

Could this have been around for centuries without my noticing it? It seems that only in recent weeks I've starting noticing it constantly.

Laurel
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Michael Hardy
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    AFAIK, this is not a new phenomenon at all. – JK2 Mar 11 '20 at 23:36
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    This is simply the present continuous tense, with the word "are" elided, for headline purposes. Headline writers have long taken licence to achieve brevity and impact. – WS2 Mar 11 '20 at 23:41
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    @WS2 I don't think it's necessarily "simply the present continuous tense, with the word "are" elided," or "for headline purposes" or both. In the two example sentences, announcing and dropping could have been used instead of announced and dropped, and they could have been in the middle of news reports. – listeneva Mar 11 '20 at 23:48
  • @listeneva Neither sentence contains a finite verb, and hence both are ungrammatical, if part of the text of a news report - even one that is spoken. "Announced" and "dropped" imply past action - "announcing" and "dropping" current action. But the former pair would make the sentences grammatical. – WS2 Mar 12 '20 at 00:04
  • @WS2 I don't know what's your criteria for determining 'ungrammatical', but using -ing as a main verb of an independent sentence is very productive in news reporting, which should not simply be branded as 'ungrammatical'. – listeneva Mar 12 '20 at 02:29
  • @WS2 : These are not printed headlines, but oral statements in TV broadcasts, and are not uttered in the manner of headlines, and often appear in the middle of reports, not at the beginning. – Michael Hardy Mar 12 '20 at 18:58
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    I think we need more context. They sound to me like part of a list of bulleted items. – WS2 Mar 12 '20 at 19:15
  • @WS2 : They're not. They're right in the middle of stories being reported. – Michael Hardy Mar 12 '20 at 19:25
  • No, it is not the is or are that are elided. What is left out is the simple past or present prefect. So instead of: The president told his cabinet, A, B or C. You get: The president telling his cabinet. And yes, it is in the middle of reporting, not at the beginning. Michael is right here. – Lambie Apr 08 '22 at 15:51
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    Might they not be delayed and unusually offset absolute constructions? << 'There are further developments in the race to become President of Freedonia./.... Two more candidates dropping out of the race today.' >> Could one tell in speech whether there's a comma or a full stop etc there? – Edwin Ashworth Apr 08 '22 at 15:56
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    I have just been trying to read about this and two professors discuss the present progressive tense and warn against using a fake present tense (they mean historical present). However, they don't discuss these floating present participles or whatever you chose to call it. I just can't be bothered, to research this further. These professors themselves don't know the damn grammar. – Lambie Apr 08 '22 at 17:14

1 Answers1

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As discussed in the comments, in the context of a headline, this would simply be a case of dropping forms of the verb to be (a common feature of headlinese): “The Centers for Disease control is/are announcing new precautions against the corona virus” and “Two more candidates are dropping out of the race today”.

When I first wrote this answer, I missed the fact that you in fact were asking specifically about spoken usage. I find it hard to interpret "The Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus" and "Two more candidates dropping out of the race today" out of context: do you hear people saying these as entire sentences? What are the preceding and following sentences? Depending on the context, "Two more candidates dropping out of the race today" could stand for "(There were) two more candidates dropping out of the race today" with conversational deletion of the first two words.

If the speaker is introducing a video or another speaker, The Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus" could stand for "(This is) the Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus".

If used as part of a longer sentence, the -ing words might be gerunds: "We'll be talking about the Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus". I assume this isn't the usage that you're talking about, but I'm just trying to imagine situations where people would say this, since it isn't something I've noticed.

Without knowing the context, I don't know what phenomenon explains the examples given in the question.

herisson
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  • But this is not correct. When an new broadcasters says "President Biden vetoing the bill", it's about something that already happened, not something that is happening. If they say "President Biden is vetoing the bill" then it's about something that's happening. – Michael Hardy Apr 09 '22 at 01:24
  • @MichaelHardy: I see. Given that you started the question with references to headlines, I actually missed that you were specifically asking about a spoken usage. I'm not sure I recognize what you're talking about; what is the context for someone saying "The Centers for Disease control announcing new precautions against the corona virus" or "Two more candidates dropping out of the race today"? Specific links to examples would help. – herisson Apr 09 '22 at 01:44