37 What is an abbreviation? What is the characteristic feature of Initial addreviation?

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern English many new abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends are formed because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give more and more information in the shortest possible time.

There are also linguistic causes of shortening words and word-groups, such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy, e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy with native words: man, pan, tan etc. Shortening of words consists in substituting a part for a whole.

An abbreviation came from Latin word “brevis”, meaning “short” it is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually the word “abbreviation” can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr. or abbrev. Abbreviation has been used as long as phonetic script existed, in some senses actually being more common in early literacy, where spelling out a whole word was often avoided, initial letters commonly being used to represent words in specific application. By classical Greece and Rome, the reduction of words to single letters was still normal, but no longer the default. The standardization of English in the 15th through 17^th centuries included such a growth in the use of abbreviation.

Generally the three subgroups of abbreviation are regarded: Graphical, Initial and Lexical.

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In these abbreviations Latin words are shortened in the spelling, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, for example, Latin – a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero), p.a. – a year (per annum), d – penny (dinarius), lb – pound (libra), i. e. – that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced “in the afternoon” (post meridiem) and “after death” (post mortem).

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents in the full form. The graphical abbreviations are words which are shortened into two, three or four letters. We have several semantic groups of them:

a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue – Tuesday, Sat – Saturday;

b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug – August;

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks – Berkshire;

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, CO – Colorado, Alas – Alaska;

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.;

f) military ranks, e.g. capt. – captain, col. – colonel, etc.

Abbreviation is also achieved by omission of letters from one or more parts of the whole, for example, cdr for commander, doz or dz for dozen, ltd for limited. Scientific degrees: B.A. – Bachelor of Arts, D.M. – Doctor of Medicine.

There is never a period (full stop) between letters of the same word. For example, “kilometer” is abbreviated as km and not as (k.m). However, “miles per hour” can be shortened by the acronym m.p.h. or, increasingly common, mph.

Initial abbreviations are the bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used, e.g. J.V. (Joint Venture). When they are used for some duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC (British Broadcast Corporation) is as a rule pronounced in the shortened form.

Initializes are the way of making the new words from the initial letters of the word-group, e.g. www (world wide web).

Initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computer-based Laboratory for Automated School System), CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory).

• Acronymy is the formation of a word from initial letters of a word combination.

There are two basic types of acronyms in English:

• acronyms with the alphabetical reading, such as CID ['si: 'ai 'di:] – Criminal

Investigation Department; FDA [ֽef di: 'ei] – The Food and Drug Administration; NHS [́'en 'eitј 'es] –The National Health Service, etc.

• acronyms are read as ordinary English words, e.g. UNESCO [ju:'neskәυ ] –

the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; NATO ['neitәυ] – North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different from the full form of the word. In such cases as fantasy and fancy, fence and defence we have different lexical meanings. In such cases as laboratory and lab, we have different styles.

Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of final abbreviation is called apocope. Here we can mention a group of words, such as disco (discotheque), expo (exposition), exam (examination) com (computer) and many others.

In the case of initial shortenings when the beginning of the word is clipped we have aphaeresis, e.g. chute (parachute), phone (telephone), copter (helicopter), net (internet) etc.

In the case of medial shortenings when the middle of the word is clipped, such abbreviation is called syncope e.g. mart (market), maths (mathematics).

Sometimes we have both initial and final shortenings: tec – detective, quiz – inquisitive, fridge – refrigerator.

Abbreviation does not change the parts-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same parts of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof. is a noun and professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev. from to revolve, to tab. from to tabulate etc.