Abbreviations and acronyms in English
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE
DRAHOMANOV NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY
THE INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN PHILOLOGY
THE GERMANIC AND COMPARATIVE LINGUSTICS DEPARTMENT
Abbreviations and acronyms in English
Scientific supervisor :
Kovalchuk I. M.
Kyiv - 2012
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. 1. THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF ABBREVIATIONS STUDYING
1.1. The notion of abbreviation
1.2. Style conventions in English
1.3. Measurement shorthand – symbol or abbreviation
1.4. Syllabic abbreviation
Conclusion to the chapter I
CHAPTER II. PRACTICAL ANALYSIS OF ACRONYMS AS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR KIND OF ABBREVIATION
2.2.Terminology
2.3.Examples of different types of acronyms
2.4.Acronyms in jargon
2.5.Acronyms as legendary etymology
Conclusion to the chapter II
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
For English language is characteristic great quantitative
growth of vocabulary and a noticeable qualitative change in the ways,
means and methods of formation of lexical innovations. In our opinion, it
is important to explore ways and mechanisms of formation of new lexemes,
including abbreviations.
There are a lot of scientific papers about phenomenon of abbreviation. For example, Hongfang Liu has a work about abbreviations in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS); Peter D Stetson, Carol Friedman also have abbreviation studies. But a permanent increase of the number of reduced lexemes and diversification of mechanisms of their formation requires more detailed study. «Study of the reduce of the multiple phrases and its lexicalization, establishing of the role of abbreviations is the urgent problem of modern of English.» [21, p. 25]
The significance of the paper. Abbreviations, being the most productive lexical units and communicatively important in all spheres of human activity, are different on the one hand by resistance and on the other hand by mobility and variability. Development of abbreviations is quite dynamic aspect of lexicalization. And it is needed to study it deeply.
The aim of the work is to explore different types of acronyms and abbreviations; to identify peculiarities of their translation and usage in different fields. There are a following tasks in this research:
- To analyze the history of the study of abbreviations;
- To determine the meaning of abbreviations and acronyms
in the vocabulary of modern English; - To analyse the main types of acronyms and abbreviations;
- To consider different methods of formation of acronyms and abbreviations;
- To analyze the usage of acronyms, especially in slang;
The objects of the paper are abbreviations and acronyms in English language.
The subject of the paper is the usage of abbreviations and acronyms in different fields.
THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF ABBREVIATIONS STUDYING
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev.
«In strict analysis, abbreviations should not be confused with contractions or acronyms (including initialisms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance.» [11, p. 167]. An abbreviation is a shortening by any method; a contraction is a reduction of size by the drawing together of the parts. A contraction of a word is made by omitting certain letters or syllables and bringing together the first and last letters or elements; an abbreviation may be made either by omitting certain portions from the interior or by cutting off a part. A contraction is an abbreviation, but an abbreviation is not necessarily a contraction. However, normally acronyms are regarded as a subgroup of abbreviations (e.g. by the Council of Science Editors).
Style conventions in English
In modern English there are several conventions for abbreviations, and the choice may be confusing. The only rule universally accepted is that one should be consistent, and to make this easier, publishers express their preferences in a style guide. Questions which arise include those in the following subsections.
Lowercase letters
If the original word was capitalised, then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. for Leviticus. When abbreviating words that are originally spelled with lower case letters, there is no need for capitalisation.
Periods (full stops) and spaces
A period (full stop) is sometimes written after an abbreviated word, but there are exceptions and a general lack of consensus about when this should happen.
«In British English, according to Hart's Rules, the general rule is that abbreviations (in the narrow sense that includes only words with the ending, and not the middle, dropped) terminate with a full stop (period), whereas contractions (in the sense of words missing a middle part) do not.» [11, p 167].
Example |
Category |
Short form |
Source |
Doctor |
Contraction |
Dr. |
D-r |
Professor |
Abbreviation |
Prof. |
Prof… |
The Reverend |
Contraction or Abbreviation |
Revd (Rev.) |
Rev-d |
The right Honourable |
Contraction and Abbreviation |
Rt Hon. |
R-t Hon… |
In American English, the period is usually included. In some cases periods are optional, as in either:
US or U.S. - United States;
EU or E.U. - European Union;
UN or U.N. - United Nations.
A third standard removes the full stops from all abbreviations. The U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices advises that periods should not be used with abbreviations on road signs, except for cardinal directions as part of a destination name.
For example:
Northwest Blvd - Northwest Boulevard
W. Jefferson - West Jefferson
PED XING - pedestrian crossing.
Spaces are generally not used between single letter abbreviations of words in the same phrase, so one almost never encounters "U. S."
When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used: The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.
«Abbreviations are similar in nature to blends, because both blends and abbreviations are amalgamations of parts of different words. Abbreviation has in common with truncation and blending that it involves loss of material (not addition of material, as with affixation), but differs from truncation and blending in that prosodic categories do not play a prominent role. Rather, orthography is of central importance. » [7, p. 160]
We will consider some following examples of formation of abbreviation.
«Abbreviations are most commonly formed by taking initial letters of multiword sequences to make up a new word:
Apart from words composed of initial letters, one can also find abbreviations that
incorporate non-initial letters:
Formally, some abbreviations may come to resemble blends by combining larger sets of initial and non-initial letters (e.g. kHz). However, such forms still differ crucially from proper blends in that they do neither obey the three pertinent prosodic constraints, nor do they necessarily conform to the semantic property of blends described above.
The spelling and pronunciation of abbreviations may seem trivial, but nevertheless offers interesting perspectives on the formal properties of these words.
Consider the following abbreviations with regard to their spelling and pronunciation differences:
The orthographic and phonetic properties of the abbreviations are indicated in the following table. For some abbreviations there is more than one possibility:
Disregarding the cases where the abbreviation can trigger the regular pronunciation of the abbreviated words (a.s.a.p., e.g., etc.) and ignoring the use or non-use of dots, abbreviations can be grouped according to two orthographic and phonological properties. They can be either spelled in capital or in lower case letters, and they can be either pronounced by naming each individual letter.» [7, p 163]
Plural forms
To form the plural of an abbreviation, a number, or a capital letter used as a noun, simply add a lowercase s to the end.
- A group of MPs
- The roaring 20s
- Mind your Ps and Qs
To indicate the plural of the abbreviation of a unit of measure, the same form is used as in the singular.
- 1 lb or 20 lb.
- 1 ft or 16 ft.
- 1 min or 45 min.
When an abbreviation contains more than one full point, Hart's Rules recommends to put the s after the final one.
- Ph.D.s
- M.Phil.s
- the d.t.s
However, subject to any house style or consistency requirement, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as:
- PhDs
- MPhils
- the DTs. (This is the recommended form in the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.)
According to Hart's Rules, an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects.
- The x's of the equation
- Dot the i's and cross the t's
However, the apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or quotes:
- The xs of the equation
- Dot the 'i's and cross the 't's
In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well.
Singular abbr. |
Singular Word |
Plural abbr. |
Plural Word |
Discipline |
d. |
didot |
dd. |
didots |
Typography |
f. |
following line of page |
ff. |
following lines of pages |
notes |
F. |
folio |
Ff. |
folios |
literature |
h. |
hand |
hh. |
hands |
horse height |
l. |
line |
ll. |
lines |
notes |
MS |
manuscript |
MSS |
manuscripts |
notes |
op. |
opus |
opp. |
opera |
notes |
p. |
page |
pp. |
pages |
notes |
P. |
pope |
PP |
popes |
|
Q. |
quarto |
Qq. |
quartos |
literature |
s. (or §) |
section |
ss. (or §§) |
sections |
notes |
v. |
volume |
w. |
volumes |
notes |
Conventions followed by publications and newspapers
Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation:
- For the sake of convenience, many British publications, including the BBC and The Guardian, have completely done away with the use of full stops or periods in all abbreviations. These include:
- Social titles, like Ms or Mr ;
- Two-letter abbreviations for countries ("US", not "U.S.");
- Words seldom abbreviated with lower case letters ("PR", instead of "p.r.", or "pr")
- Names ("FW de Klerk", "GB Whiteley", "Park JS"). A notable exception is The Economist which writes "Mr F. W. de Klerk".
- Scientific units (see Measurement below).
- Acronyms are often referred to with only the first
letter of the abbreviation capitalised. For instance, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation can be abbreviated as "Nato" or "NATO", and Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome as "Sars" or "SARS" (
compare with "laser" which has made the full transition to an English word and is rarely capitalised at all). - Initialisms are always written in capitals; for example the "British Broadcasting Corporation" is abbreviated to "BBC", never "Bbc". An initialism is similar to acronym but is not pronounced as a word.
- When abbreviating scientific units, no space is added between the number and unit (100mph, 100m, 10cm, 10°C). (This is contrary to the SI standard; see below.)
Miscellaneous and general rules
- A doubled letter appears in abbreviations of some Welsh names, as in Welsh the double "l" is a separate sound: "Ll. George" for (British prime minister) David Lloyd George.
- Some titles, such as "Reverend" and "Honourable", are spelt out when preceded by "the", rather than as "Rev." or "Hon." respectively. This is true for most British publications, and some in the United States.
- A repeatedly used abbreviation should be spelt out for identification on its first occurrence in a written or spoken passage. Abbreviations likely to be unfamiliar to many readers should be avoided.
Measurement shorthand – symbol or abbreviation
Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for "inch" or can be a symbol such as "km" for "kilometre".
The shorthand "in" applies to English only – in Afrikaans for example, the shorthand "dm" is used for the equivalent Afrikaans word "duim" [2] Since both "in" and "dm" are contractions of the same word, but in different languages, they are abbreviations. A symbol on the other hand, defined as "Mark or character taken as the conventional sign of some object or idea or process"[12] applies the appropriate shorthand by substitution rather than by contraction. Since the shorthand for kilometre (Quilômetro in Portuguese or Χιλιόμετρο in Greek) is "km" in both languages and the letter "k" does not appear in the expansion of either translation, "km" is a symbol as it is a substitution rather than a contraction.
In the International System of Units (SI) manual [8 ] the word "symbol" is used consistently to define the shorthand used to represent the various SI units of measure. The manual also defines the way in which units should be written, the principal rules being:
- The conventions for upper and lower case letters must be observed – for example 1 MW (megawatts) is equal to 1,000,000,000 mW (milliwatts).
- No periods should be inserted between letters – for example "m.s" (which is an approximation of "m·s", which correctly uses middle dot) is the symbol for "metres multiplied by seconds", but "ms" is the symbol for milliseconds.
- No periods should follow the symbol unless the syntax of the sentence demands otherwise (for example a full stop at the end of a sentence).
- The singular and plural versions of the symbol are identical – not all languages use the letter "s" to denote a plural.
Syllabic abbreviation
A syllabic abbreviation is an abbreviation formed from (usually) initial syllables of several
words, such as Interpol = International +
Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using lower case, sometimes starting with a capital letter, and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter.
Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from portmanteaus, which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each.
Usage in different languages
Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English or French. The United States Navy, however, often uses syllabic abbreviations, as described below.
On the other hand, they prevailed in Germany under the Nazis and in the Soviet Union for naming the plethora of new bureaucratic
organisations. For example, Gestapo stands
for GeheimeStaats-Polizei, or "secret state police". Similarly, Comintern stands
for the Communist International. This has caused syllabic abbreviations to have negative connotations
(as in Orwell's Newspeak), notwithstanding that such abbreviations were used in Germany even
before the Nazis came to power, e.g., Schupo for Schutzpolizei
Syllabic abbreviations were also typical for the German language used in the German Democratic Republic, e.g. Stasi for Staatssicherhei
Conclusion to the Chapter I
In the Chapter I we studied different conventions for abbreviations in English, considered different variants of convention, miscellaneous and general rules. We learned the notion of syllabic abbreviation. We find out, that Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using lower case, sometimes starting with a capital letter, and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter.
PRACTICAL ANALYSIS OF ACRONYMS AS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR KIND OF ABBREVIATION
Acronyms and initialisms are a
Terminology
The term acronym is the name for a word from the first letters of each word in a series
of words (such as sonar,
created from sound navigation and ranging). Attestations for "Akronym" in German are known from 1921,
and for "acronym" in English from 1940.While the word abbreviation refers to any shortened form of a word or a phrase, some have used initialism or alphabetism
Although the term acronym is widely used to describe any abbreviation formed from initial letters, [10] most dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, [3, 12, 17] while some include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. [4,10] According to the first definition found in most dictionaries, examples of acronyms are NATO (/ˈneɪtoʊ/), scuba (/ˈskuːbə/), and radar (/ˈreɪdɑr/), while examples of initialisms are FBI (/ˌɛfˌbiːˈaɪ/) and HTML (/ˌeɪtʃˌtiːˌɛmˈɛl/).
There is no agreement on what to call abbreviations whose pronunciation involves the combination of letter names and words, such as JPEG (/ˈdʒeɪpɛɡ/) and MS-DOS (/ˌɛmɛsˈdɒs/).
There is also some disagreement as to what to call abbreviations that
some speakers pronounce as letters and others pronounce as a word. For
example, the terms URL and IRA can be pronounced as individual letters: /ˌjuːˌɑrˈɛl/ and /ˌaɪ
The spelled-out form of an acronym or initialism (that is, what it stands for) is called its expansion.
Examples of different types of acronyms
- Pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters
- AIDS: acquired immune deficiency syndrome
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- Laser: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
- Pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters
- Amphetamine: alpha-methyl-phenethylamine
- Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
- Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization
- Nabisco: National Biscuit Company
- Pronounced as a word, containing a mixture of initial and non-initial letters
- Necco: New England Confectionery Company
- Radar: radio detection and ranging
- Pronounced as a word or names of letters, depending on speaker or context
- FAQ: ([fæk] or ef-a-cue) frequently asked questions
- IRA: When used for Individual Retirement Account, can be pronounced as letters (i-ar-a) or as a word [ˈaɪrə].
- SAT: ([sæt] or ess-a-tee) (previously) Scholastic Achievement (or Aptitude) Test(s)(US) or Standard Assessment Test(s) (UK), now claimed not to stand for anything.
- SQL: ([siːkwəl] or ess-cue-el) Structured Query Language.
- Pronounced as a combination of names of letters and a word
- CD-ROM: (cee-dee-[rɒm]) Compact Disc read-only memory
- IUPAC: (i-u-[pæk]) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
- JPEG: (jay-[pɛɡ]) Joint Photographic Experts Group
- SFMOMA: (ess-ef-[moʊmə]) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Pronounced only as the names of letters
- BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
- OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
- USA: The United States of America
- IRA: When used for the Irish Republican Army or organisations claiming descent from this group
- Pronounced as the names of letters but with a shortcut
- AAA:
- (triple A) American Automobile Association; abdominal aortic aneurysm; anti-aircraft artillery; Asistencia Asesoría y Administración
- (three As) Amateur Athletic Association
- IEEE: (I triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- NAACP: (N double A C P) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- NCAA: (N C double A or N C two A or N C A A) National Collegiate Athletic Association
- Shortcut incorporated into name
- 3M: (three M) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
- E3: (E three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition
- W3C: (W three C) World Wide Web Consortium
- C4ISTAR: (C four I star) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance
- Multi-layered acronyms
- NAC Breda: (Dutch football club) NOAD ADVENDO Combinatie ("NOAD ADVENDO Combination"), formed by the 1912 merger of two clubs, NOAD (Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorgaan "Never give up, always persevere") and ADVENDO (Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning "Pleasant for its entertainment and useful for its relaxation") from Breda
- GAIM: GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger
- GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation P
rogram - VHDL: VHSIC hardware description language, where VHSIC stands for very-high-speed integrated circuit.
- Recursive acronyms, in which the abbreviation refers to itself
- GNU: GNU's not Unix!
- WINE: WINE Is Not an Emulator (originally, WINdows Emulator)
- PHP: PHP hypertext pre-processor (formerly person
al home page) - These may go through multiple layers before the self-reference is found:
- HURD: HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, where "HIRD" stands for "HURD of interfaces representing depth"
- Pseudo-acronyms, which consist of a sequence of characters that, when pronounced as intended, invoke other, longer words with less typing (see also Internet slang)
- CQ: cee-cue for "seek you", a code used by radio operators (also is an editorial term meaning "Copy Qualified" in print media)
- IOU: i-o-u for "I owe you" (a true acronym would be IOY)
- K9: kay-nine for "canine", used to designate police units utilizing dogs
- Q8: cue-eight for "Kuwait"
- Initialisms whose last abbreviated word is often redundantly included anyway
- ATM machine: Automated Teller Machine machine
- DSW Shoe Warehouse: Designer Shoe Warehouse Shoe Warehouse
- HIV virus: Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus
- VIN number: Vehicle Identification Number number
- PIN number: Personal Identification Number number
- LCD display: Liquid Crystal Display display
Jargon
Acronyms and initialisms often occur in jargon. An initialism may have different meanings in different areas of industry, writing, and scholarship. The general reason for this is convenience and succinctness for specialists, although it has led some to obfuscate the meaning either intentionally, to deter those without such domain-specific knowledge, or unintentionally, by creating an initialism that already existed.
The most common acronyms and expressions:
- BTW - By The Way
- FYI - For Your Information
- IMHO - In My Humble/Honest Opinion
- RTFM - Read The Manual ("Manual" here refers to any documentation)
- LOL - Laughed Out Loud
- RSN - Real Soon Now
- ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing
These are less common, but show up occasionally:
- YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary (taken from a disclaimer that legally must be given any time automotive fuel efficiency ratings are used in U.S. advertisements)
- TIA - Thanks In Advance
Jargon that is sometimes used:
- spam - Unsolicited email sent to many people simultaneously, usually commercial, but occasionally political.
- bounce - A message that was returned to the sender, either because the email address was incorrect or because there was a configuration problem on the receiver's end. Can also be a verb: "I tried sending email to my Aunt Mabel, but it bounced. I guess she doesn't work there any more."
- distribution list - A single email address that resends to many others, allowing a discussion to continue easily among a quasi-stable group of participants. Also called emailing lists or listservs (from LIST SERVers).
- bot - A piece of software that acts on behalf of and in place of a remote human (from roBOT).
- mailbot - A piece of software that automatically replies to email.
- listbot - A piece of software that manages distribution lists. Also called a listserver or majordomo (after the name of a common list server).
- post - Send to a distribution list or Usenet newsgroup, i.e. to a quasi-stable group of people.
- flame - An electronic message that is particularly hostile. Can also be a verb: "Whooeee! I posted a rude cat joke to my company's cat-lovers mailing list, and wow, did I get flamed!"
- lurk - To read messages anonymously (in either a mailing list or Usenet newsgroup) without posting.
- ping - Test to see if the other person is there/awake/available. (This comes from a Unix test to see if a machine (or its net connection) was active or not.) "Lunch tomorrow? I may be busy with a client. Ping me at eleven thirty or so."
Acronyms as legendary etymology
It is not uncommon for acronyms to be cited in a kind of false etymology, called a folk etymology, for a word. Such etymologies persist in popular culture but have no factual basis in historical linguistics, and are examples of language-related urban legends. For example, cop is commonly cited as being derived, it is presumed, from "constable on patrol," posh from "port out, starboard home", and golf from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". Taboo words in particular commonly have such false etymologies: shit from "ship/store high in transit"[5, 19] or "special high-intensity training" and fuck from "for unlawful carnal knowledge", or "fornication under consent of the king" [5]
Conclusion to the Chapter II
In the Chapter II we studied the notion of acronym. We learned that the term acronym is the name for a word from the first letters of each word in a series of words. We examined different types of acronyms and considered the usage of acronyms in slang.
Conclusion
In this reserch we have looked at a number of word-formation processes. We have seen that English has a rich inventory of such word-formation processes, including conversion, truncation, blending and abbreviation. We have considered the notion of abbreviation and acronyms, studied different conventions for abbreviations, considered different methods of formation of acronyms and abbreviations. We considered acronyms and abbreviations in different field, but especially we considered the usage of acronyms in slang and find out, that they are widely used, especially in jargons. We can make the conclusion that this theme is very actually, because abbreviations and acronyms are the most productive lexical units and communicatively important in all spheres of human activity.
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- ABC - метод учета затрат и калькулирования
- ABC метод учета затрат и калькулирования
- Abelard on Universals
- ABS мотоцикла Honda CBR 1000RR
- Accentual structure of English
- Access
- Accounting
- 9-ти этажный жилой дом в городе Муром
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- 9-этажный жилой дом со встроенными помещениями
- 9-этажный жилой дом со встроенными помещениями
- 9-этажный жилой дом со встроенными помещениями