Abbreviation for the word abbreviations

An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short^[1]) is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv., or abbrev.; NPO, for nil (or nothing) per (by) os (mouth) is an abbreviated medical instruction. It may also consist of initials only, a mixture of initials and words, or words or letters representing words in another language (for example, e.g., i.e. or RSVP). Some types of abbreviations are acronyms (some pronounceable, some initialisms) or grammatical contractions or crasis.

An abbreviation is a shortening by any of these or other methods.

Types[edit]

Acronyms, initialisms, contractions and crasis share some semantic and phonetic functions, and all four are connected by the term «abbreviation» in loose parlance.^[2]: p167

An initialism is an abbreviation pronounced by spelling out each letter, i.e. FBI (/ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/), USA (/ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/), IBM (/ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/), BBC (/ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/)

A contraction is a reduction in the length of a word or phrase made by omitting certain of its letters or syllables. Consequently, contractions are a subset of abbreviations. Often, but not always, the contraction includes the first and last letters or elements. Examples of contractions are «li’l» (for «little»), «I’m» (for «I am»), and «he’d’ve» (for «he would have»).

History[edit]

Abbreviations have a long history. They were created to avoid spelling out whole words. This might be done to save time and space (given that many inscriptions were carved in stone) and also to provide secrecy. In both Greece and Rome the reduction of words to single letters was common.^[3] In Roman inscriptions, «Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation». However, «some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example, ⟨A⟩ can be an abbreviation for many words, such as ager, amicus, annus, as, Aulus, Aurelius, aurum and avus.)»^[4] Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS for consul and COSS for its nominative etc. plural consules.

Abbreviations were frequently used in English from its earliest days. Manuscripts of copies of the Old English poem Beowulf used many abbreviations, for example the Tironian et (⁊) or & for and, and y for since, so that «not much space is wasted».^[5] The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations.^[6] At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like ‹er› were replaced with ‹ɔ›, as in ‹mastɔ› for master and ‹exacɔbate› for exacerbate. While this may seem trivial, it was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time.

Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ.

In the Early Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, the thorn Þ was used for th, as in Þ^e (‘the’). In modern times, ⟨Þ⟩ was often used (in the form ⟨y⟩) for promotional reasons, as in Y^e Olde Tea Shoppe.^[7]

During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier in Boston, a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with the globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of its influence.^[8][9]

Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below.

Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The original SMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM 03.38 character set), for instance.^[a] This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes called Textese, with which 10% or more of the words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated.^[10] More recently Twitter, a popular social networking service, began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits.

In HTML, abbreviations can be annotated using <abbr title="Meaning of the abbreviation.">abbreviation</abbr> to reveal its meaning by hovering the cursor.

Style conventions in English[edit]

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. Some questions which arise are shown below.

Lowercase letters[edit]

If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. for Leviticus. When a word is abbreviated to more than a single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD for year-to-date, PCB for printed circuit board and FYI for for your information. However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters.

Periods (full stops) and spaces[edit]

A period (full stop) is often used to signify an abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this should happen.

According to Hart’s Rules, the traditional 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, whereas contractions (in the sense of words missing a middle part) do not, but there are exceptions.^{[2]: p167–170} Fowler’s Modern English Usage says full stops are used to mark both abbreviations and contractions, but recommends against this practice: advising them only for abbreviations and lower-case initialisms and not for upper-case initialisms and contractions.^[11]

Example	Category	Short form	Source
Doctor	Contraction	Dr	D——r
Professor	Abbreviation	Prof.	Prof…
The Reverend	Abbreviation	Rev.	Rev…
The Reverend	Contraction	Revd	Rev——d
The Right Honourable	Contraction and Abbreviation	Rt Hon.	R——t Hon…

In American English, the period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g. Dr. or Mrs.. In some cases, periods are optional, as in either US or U.S. for United States, EU or E.U. for European Union, and UN or U.N. for United Nations. There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example:

• 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», «W. Jefferson», and «PED XING» all follow this recommendation.)
• AMA style, used in many medical journals, uses no periods in abbreviations or acronyms, with almost no exceptions. Thus eg, ie, vs, et al, Dr, Mr, MRI, ICU, and hundreds of others contain no periods. The only exceptions are No. (an abbreviation of Numero, Number), to avoid confusion with the word «No»; initials within persons’ names (such as «George R. Smith»); and «St.» within persons’ names when the person prefers it (such as «Emily R. St. Clair») (but not in city names such as St Louis or St Paul).

Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered the vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples are sonar, radar, lidar, laser, snafu, and scuba.

Today, 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.

Plural forms[edit]

There is a question about how to pluralize abbreviations, particularly acronyms. Some writers tend to pluralize abbreviations by adding ‘s (apostrophe s), as in «two PC’s have broken screens», although this notation typically indicates possessive case. However, this style is not preferred by many style guides. For instance, Kate Turabian, writing about style in academic writings,^[12] allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms «only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters». Turabian would therefore prefer «DVDs» and «URLs» and «Ph.D.’s», while the Modern Language Association^[13] explicitly says, «do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation». Also, the American Psychological Association specifically says,^[14][15] «without an apostrophe».

However, the 1999 style guide for The New York Times states that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring «PC’s, TV’s and VCR’s».^[16]

Following those who would generally omit the apostrophe, to form the plural of run batted in, simply add an s to the end of RBI.^[17]

• RBIs

For all other rules, see below:

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. Apostrophes following decades and single letters are also common.

• A group of MPs
• The roaring 20s
• Mind your Ps and Qs

To indicate the plural of the abbreviation or symbol 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 putting 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 abbreviation	Word/phrase	Plural abbreviation	Discipline
d.	didot	dd.	typography
f.	following line or page	ff.	notes
F.	folio	Ff.	literature
h.	hand	hh.	horse height
J.	Justice	JJ.	law (job title)
l.	line	ll.	notes
MS	manuscript	MSS	notes
op.	opus (plural: opera)	opp.	notes
p.	page	pp.	notes
Q.	quarto	Qq.	literature
s. (or §)	section	ss. (or §§)	notes
v.	volume	vv.	notes

Conventions followed by publications and newspapers[edit]

United States[edit]

Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow the style guides of The Chicago Manual of Style and the Associated Press.^{[citation needed]} The U.S. Government follows a style guide published by the U.S. Government Printing Office. The National Institute of Standards and Technology sets the style for abbreviations of units.

United Kingdom[edit]

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, e.g. Ms or Mr (though these would usually have not had full stops—see above) Capt, Prof, etc.;
  • Two-letter abbreviations for countries («US», not «U.S.»);
  • Abbreviations beyond three letters (full caps for all except initialisms^{[clarification needed]});
  • 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 capitalized. For instance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 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 also an 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[edit]

• 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.^[18] Abbreviations likely to be unfamiliar to many readers should be avoided.

Measurements: abbreviations or symbols[edit]

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» (or kilometer).

In the International System of Units (SI) manual^[19] 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 watts and 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[edit]

A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such as Interpol = International + police. It is a variant of the acronym. 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.

By language[edit]

Albanian[edit]

In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing a person’s name, such as Migjeni – an abbreviation from his original name (Millosh Gjergj Nikolla) a famous Albanian poet and writer – or ASDRENI (Aleksander Stavre Drenova), another famous Albanian poet.

Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed from Gegeria + Tosks (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë, based on the country’s two main regions Gegëria and Toskëria, and Arbanon — which is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands.

English[edit]

Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such as Ofcom (Office of Communications) and the former Oftel (Office of Telecommunications) use this style.

New York City has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such as Tribeca (Triangle below Canal Street) and SoHo (South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, giving SoMa, San Francisco (South of Market) and LoDo, Denver (Lower Downtown), amongst others.

Chicago-based electric service provider ComEd is a syllabic abbreviation of (Commonwealth) and (Thomas) Edison.

Sections of California are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, California, the Syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of the Hollywood neighborhood.

Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by the US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. Hence DESRON 6 is used (in the full capital form) to mean «Destroyer Squadron 6», while COMNAVAIRLANT would be «Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic.»

Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature of Newspeak, the fictional language of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The political contractions of Newspeak—Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty)—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German (q.v.) and Russian contractions (q.v.) in the 20th century. Like Nazi (Nationalsozialismus) and Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), politburo (Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), Comintern (Communist International), kolkhoz (collective farm), and Komsomol (Young Communists’ League), the contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker.^{[20]: 310–8}

A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the disease COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease 2019) caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus (itself frequently abbreviated to SARS-CoV-2, partly an initialism).

German[edit]

Syllabic abbreviations were and are common in German; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before 1933, if not the end of the Great War. Kriminalpolizei, literally criminal police but idiomatically the Criminal Investigation Department of any German police force, begat KriPo (variously capitalised), and likewise Schutzpolizei, the protection police or uniform department, begat SchuPo. Along the same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways’ Transit Police—the Transportpolizei—are abbreviated as the TraPo.

With the National Socialist German Workers’ Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from the Schutzpolizeien of the various states became the Ordnungspolizei or «order police»; the state KriPos together formed the Sicherheitspolizei or «security police»; and there was also the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) or «secret state police». The new order of the German Democratic Republic in the east brought about a conscious denazification, but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such as Stasi for Staatssicherheit («state security», the secret police) and VoPo for Volkspolizei. The phrase politisches Büro, which may be rendered literally as office of politics or idiomatically as political party steering committee, became Politbüro.

Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for a few examples, there is Aldi, from Theo Albrecht, the name of its founder, followed by discount; Haribo, from Hans Riegel, the name of its founder, followed by Bonn, the town of its head office; and Adidas, from Adolf «Adi» Dassler, the nickname of its founder followed by his surname.

Russian[edit]

Syllabic abbreviations are very common in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. They are often used as names of organizations. Historically, popularization of abbreviations was a way to simplify mass-education in 1920s (see Likbez).

Leninist organisations such as the Comintern (Communist International) and Komsomol (Kommunisticheskii Soyuz Molodyozhi, or «Communist youth union») used Russian language syllabic abbreviations. In the modern Russian language, words like Rosselkhozbank (from Rossiysky selskokhozyaystvenny bank — Russian Agricultural Bank, RusAg) and Minobrnauki (from Ministerstvo obrazovaniya i nauki — Ministry of Education and Science) are still commonly used. In nearby Belarus, there are Beltelecom (Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).

Spanish[edit]

Syllabic abbreviations are common in Spanish; examples abound in organization names such as Pemex for Petróleos Mexicanos («Mexican Petroleums») or Fonafifo for Fondo Nacional de Financimiento Forestal (National Forestry Financing Fund).

Malay and Indonesian[edit]

In Southeast Asian languages, especially in Malay languages, syllabic abbreviations are also common; examples include Petronas (for Petroliam Nasional, «National Petroleum»), its Indonesian equivalent Pertamina (from its original name Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara, «State Oil and Natural Gas Mining Company»), and Kemenhub (from Kementerian Perhubungan, «Ministry of Transportation»)

Chinese and Japanese kanji[edit]

East Asian languages whose writing systems use Chinese characters form abbreviations similarly by using key Chinese characters from a term or phrase. For example, in Japanese the term for the United Nations, kokusai rengō (国際連合) is often abbreviated to kokuren (国連). (Such abbreviations are called ryakugo (略語) in Japanese; see also Japanese abbreviated and contracted words). The syllabic abbreviation of kanji words is frequently used for universities: for instance, Tōdai (東大) for Tōkyō daigaku (東京大学, University of Tokyo) and is used similarly in Chinese: Běidà (北大) for Běijīng Dàxué (北京大学, Peking University). The English phrase «Gung ho» originated as a Chinese abbreviation.

See also[edit]

• Abbreviation (music) – abbreviation in musical notation
• Clipping (morphology) – Reduction of a word to one of its parts
• Gramogram – Group of letters pronounced as if a word
• List of abbreviations used in medical prescriptions
• List of abbreviations in photography
• Acronym – Word or name made from the initial components of the words of a sequence
  • List of acronyms
• List of business and finance abbreviations
• List of classical abbreviations
• List of medieval abbreviations
• Portmanteau – Word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others
  • List of portmanteaus
• Neologism – Newly coined term not accepted into mainstream language
• Numeronym – Number-based word
• RAS syndrome – Acronym redundantly coupled with its word(s)
• SMS language – Abbreviated slang used in text messaging
• Three-letter acronym – Abbreviation consisting of three letters
• The abbreviations used in the 1913 edition of Webster’s dictionary
• Unicode alias names and abbreviations – Names and aliases of Unicode characters

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Abbreviation at Wikimedia Commons
• Acronyms at Curlie

We use abbreviations quite a lot in our daily routine. Getting along with some most common abbreviations in English will help you understand and initiate English conversations with your friends, family, colleagues, and people in general.

Abbreviations are the shortened form of commonly used words. Almost everyone loves abbreviations as they are easy to say and write. In this guide, we will go over a list of abbreviations that we are pretty sure you will find useful in your communications. But, before we get there, let’s define abbreviations and why they are so popular among English speakers.

What are abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. They may contain only a few letters from the original word, or they may contain the first letters of each word in a phrase (in which case they are known as “acronyms”).

In the English language, abbreviations are extremely common. They are particularly popular in business English because they are short and easy to remember, making business documents and other workplace communication much more efficient.

Today, much business communication is done on the go via emails, texting, or messaging, often on small devices where typing is difficult. You type less, save many keystrokes, and make fewer typos (an abbreviation for “typing errors”) when you use abbreviations. You can use different English learning apps to design business documents using different abbreviations and at the same time give it a professional format.

Now let’s move towards some common abbreviations in English that everyone must know and use in their conversations.

Written abbreviations

The abbreviations listed below are only used in written communications. They are not normally used in spoken communication.

1.    dept

This is the short form for the department.

Example: Ensure every dept gets involved in the meeting.

2.    Attn:

This means attention or for the attention of.

Here’s the format that’s usually used in letters, emails, and memos: Attn: + [name or title of person]

Attn: Adam Smith

3.    pls

It is the short form for please.  You can use it in informal communication with colleagues or friends.

Example: Pls pick me up from school.

4.    approx.

This abbreviation can be used as a shortened form of the word approximate or approximately.

Example: We are expecting approx. 10 meetings regarding this project.

Spoken and written abbreviations

The below-mentioned abbreviations can be used in both spoken and written communications:

5.    doc

This one is short for the document.

Example: Can you email me the doc before 4 PM?

6.    TBA

This abbreviation for To Be Announced is frequently used in business event planning to indicate that something is scheduled to happen but that some details must still be confirmed and announced later.

Example: The new Managing Director will be joining us next month. The actual date is TBA.

7.    FYI

This is an abbreviation for the phrase For Your Information. It is often used to draw attention to certain information such as data, reports or file attachments.

Example: FYI, the details for the monthly bonus is attached to this email.

8.    HQ

This is the abbreviation for Headquarters.

Example: Meetings with the stakeholders are usually held at HQ.

9.    R&D

This is the abbreviation commonly used to refer to Research & Development, a department responsible for researching and developing new products.

Example: If you have a new product in mind, why not discuss it with the R&D Department to get it on board?

10. ASAP

This is the most common one and you might have come across this very popular abbreviation for As Soon As Possible.

Example: Kindly submit your presentation ASAP.

11. ETA

This denotes the Estimated Time of Arrival or the time someone is expected to arrive at their destination.

Example: Let me know your plane’s ETA so I can send the car to the airport to pick you up.

12. B2B

This is the abbreviation for Business-to-Business, a business relationship where a company’s customers are other businesses.

Example:  K. manufacturers is a popular B2B company that provides office supplies to other businesses.

13. B2C

It is the abbreviation for Business-to-Consumer, a business relationship where a company’s customers are individual consumers like you and me. An example of a B2C website you have probably heard of is Amazon. Most online shopping businesses are B2C.

14. RFP

It is a normal practice for companies to release a Request for Proposals from suppliers who are interested in bidding to complete a project for the company.

Example: The concerned department is still waiting for one more RFP from a company in America before we decide.

15. HR

This is short for Human Resources, which is the department that regulates the employees of a company.

Example: The HR of the company will let you know about the pay scale.

16. SEO

This abbreviation is used in the field of Information Technology (IT) to refer to Search Engine Optimization, a technique for attracting visitors from search engines such as Google to your website.

Example: We must improve the SEO of our web store to attract more buyers online.

17. P&L

This stands for Profit & Loss, which is a statement of accounts showing a company’s financial position.

Example: The stakeholders won’t be satisfied with the P&L this year.

18. IPO

An Initial Public Offering is the first time a company offers to sell its stock to the public.

Example: we have not exactly decided what the pricing of the IPO will be.

19. ISP

It is used in IT to refer to Internet Service Provider, a company such as AT&T that specializes in providing internet access to subscribers.

Example: Our ISP has been informed about the distortion of the internet during prime work hours.

20. PO

This is an abbreviation for Purchase Order, which is an official document issued by a company to a specific seller for items that the company intends to purchase.

Example: Denny has sent out a PO to the contractor who sold us those work tables.

21. CEO

It refers to the Chief Executive Officer or head of a business organization. It is one of the most common abbreviations used in daily routine English conversations.

Example: We will soon find out who our new CEO is.

22. CFO

This is the acronym for Chief Financial Officer or the head of finance in an organization.

Example: With our CFO on a foreign visit, who is in charge of finance these days?

23. PR

This is a common abbreviation used to refer to Public Relations, or the department or activities that create a good public image for the company.

Example: Improving our customer dealing can benefit our PR.

24. QC

This stands for Quality Control, an activity that ensures products are of an acceptable standard.

Example: All the company’s manufactured products go through detailed QC.

25. cc

This stands for carbon copy. It is a pre-email term that now refers to sending a copy of a letter or email to an additional person.

Example: Remember to cc the presentation to the manager.

These are the 25 most commonly used abbreviations in English. If you are an English learner, these abbreviations can help you understand different English writings and conversations. Apart from this, if you want to learn English online and looking for an authentic and professional English learning platform, try italki. Under the supervision of the best English tutor online (mostly English native speakers) you will become a fluent speaker within no time.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What does PCR stand for in business?

A. The put-call ratio (PCR) is a popular indicator for determining the mood of the options market.

Q. What is the BRN abbreviation?

A. The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) is a state governmental agency established by law to protect the public by regulating the practice of registered nurses.

Q. What does RN mean in business?

A. RN stands for Registered Identification Number.

Conclusion

It is crucial for every English learner to understand these common abbreviations as they are widely used. In fact, learning them is as important as learning English pronouns as they all collectively make learners fluent English speakers.

Look for professional guidance if you find it difficult to deal with these short forms. Do visit italki to look for a suitable tutor who will help you learn basic English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and sentence formation.

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 abbreviating 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.

There are two main types of
shortenings : graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations

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 Russian this type of
abbreviation is not typical. In these abbreviations in the spelling
Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English
equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g. for example (Latin
exampli gratia), 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. We have several semantic groups of them
:

a) days of the week, e.g. Mon
— Monday, Tue — Tuesday etc

b) names of months, e.g. Apr —
April, Aug — August etc.

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

d) names of states in USA,
e.g. Ala — Alabama, Alas — Alaska etc.

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

f) military ranks, e.g. capt.
-captain, col. — colonel, sgt — sergeant etc.

g) scientific degrees, e.g.
B.A. — Bachelor of Arts, D.M. — Doctor of Medicine . ( Sometimes in
scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin origin, e.g., M.B.
— Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length,
weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. — second, in. -inch, mg. —
milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical
abbreviations depends on the context, e.g. «m» can be read as:
male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute, «l.p.» can
be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initial abbreviations

Initialisms 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 is as a rule pronounced in the
shortened form.

In some
cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible without
using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different
ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in
the language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand,
United States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ,
now a translation variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об
ограничении стратегических вооружений).
This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable,
e.g. UFO — НЛО, CП — JV etc.

There are three types of
initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with
alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b) initialisms which are read
as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO, NATO etc.

c)
initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,
such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based
Laboratory for Automated School System).

Some scientists unite groups
b) and c) into one group which they call acronyms.

Some initialisms can form new
words in which they act as root morphemes by different ways of
wordbuilding:

a) affixation, e.g. AWALism,
ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia etc.

b) conversion, e.g. to raff,
to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),

c) composition, e.g. STOLport,
USAFman etc.

d) there
are also compound-shortened words where the first component is an
initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one
is a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some
cases the first component is a complete word and the second component
is an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g.
Three -Ds (Three dimensions) — стереофильм.

Abbreviations of
words

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 form 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.

Abbreviation does not change
the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it in the case of conversion
or affixation, it produces words belonging to the same part 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. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by
means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc.
Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school
slang and are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy
etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are
not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in
one’s teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19).

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 abbreviation is called
apocope. Here we can mention a group of words ending in «o», such
as disco (dicotheque), expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and
many others. On the analogy with these words there developed in
Modern English a number of words where «o» is added as a kind of a
suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g. combo (combination) —
небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro
(African) -прическа под африканца etc. In other
cases the beginning of the word is clipped. In such cases we have
apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity (university), copter
(helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the middle of the word
is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine) maths
(mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we
have a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and
the end of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van
(avanguard) etc.

Sometimes shortening
influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can be substituted by
«k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike (microphone),
Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the following
cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank
(tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are
substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.

SECONDARY WAYS OF
WORDBUILDING

SOUND
INTERCHANGE

Sound interchange is the way
of word-building when some sounds are changed to form a new word. It
is non-productive in Modern English, it was productive in Old English
and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

The causes of sound
interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient Ablaut
which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of
the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike —
stroke, to sing — song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient
Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root
vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the
root ( regressive assimilation), e.g. hot — to heat (hotian), blood —
to bleed (blodian) etc.

In many cases we have vowel
and consonant interchange. In nouns we have voiceless consonants and
in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old
English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and in
verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath — to bathe, life — to
live, breath — to breathe etc.

STRESS
INTERCHANGE

Stress interchange can be
mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin : nouns have the
stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g.
`accent — to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following
way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were
borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than the
corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in
English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the
second from the end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs
borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and
after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in
nouns it was on the first syllable. As a result of it we have such
pairs in English as : to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict- `conflict, to
ex`port -`export, to ex`tract — `extract etc. As a result of stress
interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because
vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed
positions.

SOUND
IMITATION

It is the way of word-building
when a word is formed by imitating different sounds. There are some
semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) sounds produced by human
beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to sneeze, to
whistle etc.

b) sounds produced by animals,
birds, insects, such as : to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to moo, to
twitter etc.

c) sounds produced by nature
and objects, such as : to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to bubble,
to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.

The corresponding nouns are
formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell), chatter (of
children) etc.

BLENDS

Blends are words formed from a
word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways of word-building are
combined : abbreviation and composition. To form a blend we clip the
end of the first component (apocope) and the beginning of the second
component (apheresis) . As a result we have a compound- shortened
word. One of the first blends in English was the word «smog» from
two synonyms : smoke and fog which means smoke mixed with fog. From
the first component the beginning is taken, from the second one the
end, «o» is common for both of them.

Blends formed from two
synonyms are: slanguange, to hustle, gasohol etc. Mostly blends are
formed from a word-group, such as : acromania (acronym mania),
cinemadict (cinema adict), chunnel (channel, canal), dramedy (drama
comedy), detectifiction (detective fiction), faction (fact fiction)
(fiction based on real facts), informecial (information commercial) ,
Medicare ( medical care) , magalog ( magazine catalogue) slimnastics
(slimming gymnastics), sociolite (social elite), slanguist ( slang
linguist) etc.

BACK
FORMATION

It is the way of word-building
when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new
word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back
formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as a result of
misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word . Prof. Yartseva
explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the
language on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form
nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a
verb stem (speak- speaker). So when the French word «beggar» was
borrowed into English the final syllable «ar» was pronounced in the
same way as the English -er and Englishmen formed the verb «to beg»
by dropping the end of the noun. Other examples of back formation are
: to accreditate (from accreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to
collocate (from collocation), to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to
compute (from computer), to emote (from emotion) to reminisce ( from
reminiscence) , to televise (from television) etc.

As we can notice in cases of
back formation the part-of-speech meaning of the primary word is
changed, verbs are formed from nouns.

SEMANTIC
CHANGES

The meaning of a word can
change in the course of time. Changes of lexical meanings can be
proved by comparing contexts of different times. Transfer of the
meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such cases the
outer aspect of a word does not change.

The causes of semantic changes
can be extra-linguistic and linguistic, e.g. the change of the
lexical meaning of the noun «pen» was due to extra-linguistic
causes. Primarily « pen» comes back to the Latin word «penna» (a
feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was
transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still
later any instrument for writing was called « a pen».

On the other hand causes can
be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms when a perfect synonym
of a native word is borrowed from some other language one of them may
specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun «tide» in Old English was
polisemantic and denoted «time», «season», «hour». When the
French words «time», «season», «hour» were borrowed into
English they ousted the word «tide» in these meanings. It was
specialized and now means «regular rise and fall of the sea caused
by attraction of the moon». The meaning of a word can also change
due to ellipsis, e.g. the word-group «a train of carriages» had the
meaning of «a row of carriages», later on «of carriages» was
dropped and the noun «train» changed its meaning, it is used now in
the function and with the meaning of the whole word-group.

Semantic changes have been
classified by different scientists. The most complete classification
was suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul in his work
«Prinzipien des Sprachgeschichte». It is based on the logical
principle. He distiguishes two main ways where the semantic change is
gradual ( specialization and generalization), two momentary conscious
semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary ways:
gradual (elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and
litote).

SPECIALIZATION

It is a gradual process when a
word passes from a general sphere to some special sphere of
communication, e.g. «case» has a general meaning «circumstances in
which a person or a thing is». It is specialized in its meaning when
used in law (a law suit), in grammar (a form in the paradigm of a
noun), in medicine (a patient, an illness). The difference between
these meanings is revealed in the context.

The meaning of a word can
specialize when it remains in the general usage. It happens in the
case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms when one of them
must specialize in its meaning to remain in the language, e.g. the
native word «meat» had the meaning «food», this meaning is
preserved in the compound «sweetmeats». The meaning «edible flesh»
was formed when the word «food», its absolute synonym, won in the
conflict of absolute synonyms (both words are native). The English
verb «starve» was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian
verb «die» was borrowed into English. «Die» became the general
verb with this meaning because in English there were the noun «death»
and the adjective «dead». «Starve» got the meaning «to die of
hunger» .

The third way of
specialization is the formation of Proper names from common nouns, it
is often used in toponimics, e.g. the City — the business part of
London, Oxford — university town in England, the Tower -originally a
fortress and palace, later -a prison, now — a museum.

The fourth way of
specialization is ellipsis. In such cases primaraly we have a
word-group of the type «attribute + noun», which is used constantly
in a definite situation. Due to it the attribute can be dropped and
the noun can get the meaning of the whole word-group, e.g. «room»
originally meant «space», this meaning is retained in the adjective
«roomy» and word combinations: «no room for», «to take room»,
«to take no room». The meaning of the word «room « was
specialized because it was often used in the combinations: «dining
room», «sleeping room» which meant «space for dining» , «space
for sleeping».

GENERALIZATION

It is a process contrary to
specializaton, in such cases the meaning of a word becomes more
general in the course of time.

The transfer from a concrete
meaning to an abstract one is most frequent, e.g. «ready» (a
derivative from the verb «ridan» — «ride») meant «prepared for a
ride», now its meaning is «prepared for anything». «Journey» was
borrowed from French with the meaning «one day trip», now it means
«a trip of any duration».

All auxiliary verbs are cases
of generalization of their lexical meaning because they developed a
grammatical meaning : «have», «be», «do», «shall» , «will»
when used as auxiliary verbs are devoid of their lexical meaning
which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs, e.g. cf.
«I have several books by this writer» and «I have read some books
by this author». In the first sentence the verb «have» has the
meaning «possess», in the second sentence it has no lexical
meaning, its grammatical meaning is to form Present Perfect.

METAPHOR

It is a transfer of the
meaning on the basis of comparison. Herman Paul points out that
metaphor can be based on different types of similarity:

a) similarity of shape, e.g.
head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a saw, a comb);

b) similarity of position,
e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of a procession);

c) similarity of function,
behaviour e.g. a whip (an official in the British Parliament whose
duty is to see that members were present at the voting);

d) similarity of colour, e.g.
orange, hazel, chestnut etc.

In some cases we have a
complex similarity, e.g. the leg of a table has a similarity to a
human leg in its shape, position and function.

Many metaphors are based on
parts of a human body, e.g. an eye of a needle, arms and mouth of a
river, head of an army.

A special type of metaphor is
when Proper names become common nouns, e.g. philistine — a mercenary
person, vandals — destructive people, a Don Juan — a lover of many
women etc.

METONYMY

It is a transfer of the
meaning on the basis of contiguity. There are different types of
metonymy:

a) the material of which an
object is made may become the name of the object , e.g. a glass,
boards, iron etc;

b) the name of the place may
become the name of the people or of an object placed there, e.g. the
House — members of Parliament, Fleet Street — bourgeois press, the
White House — the Administration of the USA etc;

c) names of musical
instruments may become names of musicians, e.g. the violin, the
saxophone;

d) the name of some person may
becom a common noun, e.g. «boycott» was originally the name of an
Irish family who were so much disliked by their neighbours that they
did not mix with them, «sandwich» was named after Lord Sandwich who
was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game and had his food
brought to him while he was playing cards between two slices of bread
not to soil his fingers.

e) names of inventors very
often become terms to denote things they invented, e.g. «watt» ,
«om», «rentgen» etc

f) some geographical names can
also become common nouns through metonymy, e.g. holland (linen
fabrics), Brussels (a special kind of carpets) , china (porcelain) ,
astrachan ( a sheep fur) etc.

ELEVATION

It is a transfer of the
meaning when it becomes better in the course of time, e.g. «knight»
originally meant «a boy», then «a young servant», then «a
military servant», then «a noble man». Now it is a title of
nobility given to outstanding people; «marshal» originally meant «a
horse man» now it is the highest military rank etc.

DEGRADATION

It is a transfer of the
meaning when it becomes worse in the course of time. It is usually
connected with nouns denoting common people, e.g. «villain»
originally meant «working on a villa» now it means «a scoundrel».

HYPERBOLE

It is a transfer of the
meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration,

e.g. «to hate»(doing
something), (not to see somebody) «for ages».

Hyperbole is often used to
form phraseological units, e.g. «to make a mountain out of a
molehill», «to split hairs» etc.

LITOTE

It is a transfer of the
meaning when the speaker expresses affirmative with the negative or
vica versa, e.g. not bad, no coward etc.

PHRASEOLOGY

The vocabulary of a language
is enriched not only by words but also by phraseological units.
Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the
process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made units.
They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words
phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a
sentence as one part of it. American and British lexicographers call
such units «idioms». We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith
«Words and Idioms», V.Collins «A Book of English Idioms» etc. In
these dictionaries we can find words, peculiar in their semantics
(idiomatic), side by side with word-groups and sentences. In these
dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule, into different semantic
groups.

Phraseological units can be
classified according to the ways they are formed, according to the
degree of the motivation of their meaning, according to their
structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.

WAYS OF FORMING
PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

A.V. Koonin classified
phraseological units according to the way they are formed. He pointed
out primary and secondary ways of forming phraseological units.

Primary ways of forming
phraseological units are those when a unit is formed on the basis of
a free word-group :

a) Most
productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological units
by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups,
e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases:
«launching pad» in its terminological meaning is «стартовая
площадка» , in its transferred meaning — «отправной
пункт», «to link up» — «cтыковаться, стыковать
космические корабли» in its tranformed meaning it
means -«знакомиться»;

b) a large group of
phraseological units was formed from free word groups by transforming
their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» — «пансионат для
престарелых», «Troyan horse» — «компьюторная
программа, преднамеренно составленная
для повреждения компьютера»;

c) phraseological units can be
formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a sad sack» — «несчастный
случай», «culture vulture» — «человек,
интересующийся искусством», «fudge and
nudge» — «уклончивость».

d) they can
be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is characteristic
for forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !» etc

e) they can be formed by means
of distorting a word group, e.g. «odds and ends» was formed from
«odd ends»,

f) they can be formed by using
archaisms, e.g. «in brown study» means «in gloomy meditation»
where both components preserve their archaic meanings,

g) they can
be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life, e.g.
«that cock won’t fight» can be used as a free word-group when it
is used in sports (cock fighting ), it becomes a phraseological unit
when it is used in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,

h) they can be formed when we
use some unreal image, e.g. «to have butterflies in the stomach» —
«испытывать волнение», «to have green fingers»
— »преуспевать как садовод-любитель»
etc.

i) they can be formed by using
expressions of writers or polititions in everyday life, e.g.
«corridors of power» (Snow), «American dream» (Alby) «locust
years» (Churchil) , «the winds of change» (Mc Millan).

Secondary
ways of forming phraseological units are those when a phraseological
unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit; they are:

a) conversion, e.g. «to vote
with one’s feet» was converted into «vote with one’s f eet»;

b) changing the grammar form,
e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines» is transferred into a verbal
phrase — «to make hay while the sun shines»;

c) analogy, e.g. «Curiosity
killed the cat» was transferred into «Care killed the cat»;

d) contrast, e.g. «cold
surgery» — «a planned before operation» was formed by contrasting
it with «acute surgery», «thin cat» — «a poor person» was
formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;

e)
shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t
make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the
middle of it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was
formed with the meaning «ошибаться».

f)
borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as
translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the
bull by the horns» ( Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings
«meche blanche» (French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto
voce» (Italian) etc.

Phonetic borrowings among
phraseological units refer to the bookish style and are not used very
often.

SEMANTIC
CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Phraseological units can be
classified according to the degree of motivation of their meaning.
This classification was suggested by acad. V.V. Vinogradov for
Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three types of
phraseological units:

a) fusions where the degree of
motivation is very low, we cannot guess the meaning of the whole from
the meanings of its components, they are highly idiomatic and cannot
be translated word for word into other languages, e.g. on Shank’s
mare — (on foot), at sixes and sevens — (in a mess) etc;

b) unities where the meaning
of the whole can be guessed from the meanings of its components, but
it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical), e.g. to play the
first fiddle ( to be a leader in something), old salt (experienced
sailor) etc;

c) collocations where words
are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are
different in different languages, e.g. cash and carry — (self-service
shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.

STRUCTURAL
CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked
out structural classification of phraseological units, comparing them
with words. He points out one-top units which he compares with
derived words because derived words have only one root morpheme. He
points out two-top units which he compares with compound words
because in compound words we usually have two root morphemes.

Among one-top units he points
out three structural types;

a) units of the type «to give
up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to art up, to back up, to drop
out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich in etc.;

b) units of the type «to be
tired» . Some of these units remind the Passive Voice in their
structure but they have different prepositons with them, while in the
Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or «with», e.g.
to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc. There
are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type
«to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The
difference between them is that the adjective «young» can be used
as an attribute and as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal
component in such units can act only as a predicative. In these units
the verb is the grammar centre and the second component is the
semantic centre;

c) prepositional- nominal
phraseological units. These units are equivalents of unchangeable
words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs , that is why they have no
grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part, e.g. on
the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in the course of,
on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the course of time
such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.

Among two-top units A.I.
Smirnitsky points out the following structural types:

a) attributive-nominal such
as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a millstone round one’s neck
and many others. Units of this type are noun equivalents and can be
partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic units (phrasisms)
sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high road, in other
cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night. In many
cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley, bed
of nail, shot in the arm and many others.

b) verb-nominal phraseological
units, e.g. to read between the lines , to speak BBC, to sweep under
the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units is the verb, the
semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component, e.g. to fall
in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the semantic
centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly
idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats,to vote with one’s
feet, to take to the cleaners’ etc.

Very close to such units are
word-groups of the type to have a glance, to have a smoke. These
units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a special
syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.

c) phraseological repetitions,
such as : now or never, part and parcel , country and western etc.
Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and downs , back and
forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g cakes and
ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by means
of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives
and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly
idiomatic, e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter
(perfectly).

Phraseological units the same
as compound words can have more than two tops (stems in compound
words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a thing on, lock,
stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at one’s own
sweet will.

SYNTACTICAL
CLASSIFICATION

OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS

Phraseological units can be
clasified as parts of speech. This classification was suggested by
I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following groups:

a) noun phraseologisms
denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g. bullet train,
latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,

b) verb phraseologisms
denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to break the log-jam, to
get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to nose out , to
make headlines,

c) adjective phraseologisms
denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose, dull as lead ,

d) adverb phraseological
units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like a dream , like a dog
with two tails,

e) preposition phraseological
units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke of ,

f) interjection phraseological
units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!» etc.

In I.V.Arnold’s
classification there are also sentence equivalents, proverbs, sayings
and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes him
tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too
many cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule
non-metaphorical, e.g. «Where there is a will there is a way».

BORROWINGS

Borrowing words from other
languages is characteristic of English throughout its history More
than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they
are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish).
Borrowed words are different from native ones by their phonetic
structure, by their morphological structure and also by their
grammatical forms. It is also characterisitic of borrowings to be
non-motivated semantically.

English history is very rich
in different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it
is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion, the adoption of
Cristianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the British Isles,
the development of British colonialism and trade and cultural
relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The
majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in
their pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly
distinguished from native words.

English continues to take in
foreign words , but now the quantity of borrowings is not so abundunt
as it was before. All the more so, English now has become a «giving»
language, it has become Lingva franca of the twentieth century.

Borrowings can be classified
according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect
which is borrowed,

b) according to the degree of
assimilation,

c) according to the language
from which the word was borrowed.

(In this classification only
the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are
described, such as Latin, French, Italian. Spanish, German and
Russian.)

CLASSIFICATION OF
BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE BORROWED ASPECT

There are the following
groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings,
morphemic borrowings.

Phonetic borrowings are most
characteristic in all languages, they are called loan words proper.
Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning.
Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in the borrowed word is
substituted by the corresponding sound of the borrowing language. In
some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of the word can
also be changed. The position of the stress is very often influenced
by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm of the
word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also
changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are
phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik
are phonetic borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are
phonetic borrowings from Italian etc.

Translation loans are
word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme ) translations of some
foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed
from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units,
«to take the bull by the horns» (Latin), «fair sex» ( French),
«living space» (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in
English from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday
(solis dies). There are translation loans from the languages of
Indians, such as: «pipe of peace», «pale-faced», from German
«masterpiece», «homesickness», «superman».

Semantic
borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit existing in
the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two relative
languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g. there
are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the
meaning «to live» for the word «to dwell’ which in Old English
had the meaning «to wander». Or else the meaning «дар» ,
«подарок» for the word «gift» which in Old English had the
meaning «выкуп за жену».

Semantic borrowing can appear
when an English word was borrowed into some other language, developed
there a new meaning and this new meaning was borrowed back into
English, e.g. «brigade» was borrowed into Russian and formed the
meaning «a working collective«,»бригада». This meaning was
borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true
of the English word «pioneer».

Morphemic
borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when
many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into
another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes
familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can
find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system,
that is why there are a lot of words — hybrids in English where
different morphemes have different origin, e.g. «goddess»,
«beautiful» etc.

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