Meaning of zero article in headlines: "Man has serious injuries after being rescued"

Question

Man has serious injuries after being rescued from a "deep hole".

This is a headline in a newspaper and I am wondering why there is no article before "Man".

Why it is not "A man" as the sentence speaks about one and a specific man (although he is unknown to us yet) and not about "man" in general.

The sentence seems to me that it speaks about man in general or mankind because there is no article.

Thank you

That is actually quite long for a headline, I would have expected "Man Suffers Injuries From Deep Hole" or "Man Rescued From Deep Hole" or "Injuries For Man In Deep Hole". — Peter, Feb 09 '16 at 08:56

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 09 '16 at 06:03

6

This is a special style of newspaper headlines. Articles, auxiliary verbs and "be" are often left out to save space.

Actor dies. (An actor has died.)

There's no generalization at all.

edited Feb 09 '16 at 06:03

CowperKettle

answered Feb 09 '16 at 05:59

V.V.

In your example it is not just omitting, the verb has different form also. – Anixx Feb 09 '16 at 09:35
The question was about articles. – V.V. Feb 09 '16 at 09:38

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 09 '16 at 09:08

Headlines are a special form of writing where word count, and therefore page space, is very important. Often minor words are omitted.

and this one talks about how ambiguous headlines can be here

Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms
Sir Vivian Fuchs at palace

You sense of using Man to mean mankind is correct for normal writing, but headline writing is a different beast

2 Answers2