Word that means does not change

I would use ‘retain’ as suggested above, eg:
We will be retaining some parts of the system, replacing older elements with new equipment.

Or,
We will be updating older elements of our system with new equipment.

To explain that you are keeping only the newer parts you can say:

We will be retaining some newer parts of the system, replacing older elements with new equipment.

You can also use ‘augment’ meaning ‘to add to’:

We will be augmenting our existing system with some newer parts, replacing older elements with new equipment.

You can also say ‘extend the life of’
We will be extending the life of our existing system by replacing some of the old parts with new.

Or ‘renew’
We are renewing our existing system by replacing some old parts with new.

Or ‘optimise’
We are optimising our existing system, renewing some older parts and adding some completely new elements.

Definition

Word Formation Process (also called Morphological Process) is a means by which new words are produced either by modification of existing words or by complete innovation, which in turn become a part of the language.

Types of Word Formation Processes

Different types of word formation processes are employed to create new words. However, all word formation processes basically bring either inflectional or derivational changes. Therefore, inflection (also called inflexion) and derivation are the two core processes of word formation. Inflection differs from derivation to the following extent:

Inflection	Derivation
Produces grammatical variants of the same word.	Produces a new word on the basis of an existing word.
Modifies a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case.	Changes the word class (also called parts of speech; form class; lexical class; syntactic category).
Does not change the meaning of a word. For example: determine→ determines, determining, determined.	Modifies the meaning of the root. For example: modern → modernize (to make modern).

The major word formation processes include but are not limited to the following:

Affixation

It is a word formation process wherein an affix is attached to a root (also called stem; base) to form a new word. A root is a free morpheme (also called unbound morpheme) that can appear alone. On the other hand, an Affix is a bound morpheme which never occurs by itself, but is always attached to some free morpheme and can be either inflectional or derivational. An Inflectional affix modifies the form/grammatical category of a word, i.e., tense, person, number, gender, case, etc. For example: rat → rats. Contrariwise, a derivational affix modifies the parts of speech of the root, while leaving the grammatical category unchanged. In this way, there is a change of meaning of the root. For example: write → writer.

In English there are two types of affixations:

1. Prefixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the front of a root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to as prefix. For example: un + tidy → untidy
2. Suffixation: In this morphological process words are formed by adding an affix to the end of a root. The type of affix used in this process is referred to as suffix. For example: fear + less → fearless

Conversion

This refers to the change of function or parts of speech of a word without adding an affix. Conversion is also called zero derivation or null derivation since the functional change is brought about by supplementing an invisible affix. Sometimes it is also called functional shift. Typically conversion is made from “noun to verb” and from “verb to noun”. Less frequently, conversion is also done from “adjective to verb” and “adjective to noun”. For instance:

 Noun to Verb:  

• access
• email
• film
• name
• shape

Verb to Noun:

• attack
• alert
• hope
• increase
• visit
• cover

Adjective to Verb:

• brown
• black
• slow

Adjective to Noun:

• crazy
• nasty

Back-formation

Back-formation is a morphological process in which new word is created by extracting affixes from another word. In this way, it is the reverse of affixation, in which affixes are added. Back-formation is also different from clipping since it brings a change in the parts of speech or the word’s meaning. For example: the noun insertion has been back-formed into verb insert by removing the suffix ion.

Clipping

As the name suggests, clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced to a shorter form. With a sharp contrast to back-formation, clipping keeps the original word meaning intact. These words are very common in everyday speech. For instance: lab is the clipped form of laboratory. . There are four types of clippings:

1. Back clipping: (also called final clipping; apocope) it involves the truncation of end of a word as in ad from advertisement.
2. Fore-clipping: (also called initial clipping; apheresis) it is the removal of the beginning of a word as in phone from telephone.
3. Middle clipping: (also medial clipping; syncope) it is the extraction of the beginning and end of a word as in flu from influenza.
4. Complex clipping: is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in cablegram from cabletelegram.

Compounding

Also called composition, by this process two or more than two words are combined together to create a single word, having a single idea and function. In English, there are compound nouns, compound adjectives, and compound verbs. Customarily compound words are spelt as a single word, or as two or more hyphenated words, and even as two or more separate words. For example:

• life + style → lifestyle
• mother + in + law → mother-in-law
• shopping + mall → shopping mall

There are no specific rules for hyphenated compounds. Generally, some new and original compound nouns are hyphenated, but the hyphen is ignored when they become more familiar. However, there are some compound adjectives that are always hyphenated. For instance: state-of-the-art. The hyphen is often retained when two vowels come together, such as: Co-operation. Hyphens are often used to tell the ages of people and things, for example: 10-year-old. The general rule is that words are combined with hyphens to avoid confusion.

Borrowing

This refers to the words adopted from other languages. There are two types of borrowings:

1. Loan-word: By this process, a word is borrowed from another language without translating it into the target language. For example: the phrase tour-de-force is borrowed directly from French, which means a masterly or brilliant feat.
2. Loan-translation: Also known as calque, a morphological process wherein a word or phrase from another language is borrowed by literally translating it into the target language. For example: the phrase point of view has been translated into English from the French phrase point de vue.

Coinage

Also called invention, is a morphological process by which new words are invented. Sometimes popular trademark names of various products are adopted by people so extensively that they ultimately become the everyday words of language. For example:

• Heroin
• Aspirin
• Escalator
• Xerox
• Kerosene
• Nylon
• Band-Aid
• Vaseline
• Margarine
• Videotape

Again, some words are being invented due to rapid cultural changes and the spread of information technology, mass media, internet, etc. For example:

• Google
• Blog
• Hotspot
• Netbook
• Tablet
• Tweet
• Emoticon
• Smartphone

Blending

Blending (also called portmanteau) is a morphological process in which the parts of two or more words are combined together to form a new word. Usually, the parts consist of the beginning of one word and the end of the other word(s). Typically, the meaning of the blended word reverberates with the meanings of the original words. For example:

• breakfast + lunch → brunch
• motor+hotel → motel

However, blending should not be confused with compounding, which combines two words without truncation of parts of the roots of the blended words.

Acronyms

These words are formed with the initial letters or each of the major parts of a word or a longer phrase. With a few exceptions, acronyms are usually capitalized. Some linguists confuse acronyms with initialisms, which are also abbreviations formed in the similar manner as the former. In essence, there is a sharp difference between the two. In language, an acronym is pronounced as a single word rather than just a sequence of individual letters, which is characteristic of initialisms. For example:
Acronyms:

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization → UNESCO
• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation → Laser
• International Criminal Police Organization → Interpol

Initialisms:

• Personal Computer → PC
• Asian Development Bank → ADB
• Liquid Crystal Display → LCD

Reduplication

Reduplication (also called cloning; doubling; duplication; repetition; tautonym) is a word formation process in which a new word is created by repeating all or part of a root or a stem, often with a change of vowel or initial consonant. Reduplication is not a major means of creating lexemes in English, but it is perhaps the most unusual one. Based on their usage, the techniques of reduplication could be classified in the following manner:

1. Repetition without Change: bye-bye, tick-tick
2. Rhyming Reduplication: ding-dong, super-duper, bow-wow
3. Repetition with Change of Vowel: tiptop, chitchat, flip-flop, ping-pong, dilly-dally, wishy-washy
4. Repetition with Change of Initial Consonant: teeny-weeny

 

 

 

References

“English Word Formation Processes.” Really Learn English. 2016. Really-Learn-English.com.

14 July 2016 <http://www.really-learn-english.com/word-formation-processes.html>.

 “Inflection.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection>.

“Morphological Derivation.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_derivation>.

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

“Word Formation.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 14 July 2016

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_formation>.

Morphology is the study of words, word formation, and the relationship between words. In Morphology, we look at morphemes — the smallest lexical items of meaning. Studying morphemes helps us to understand the meaning, structure, and etymology (history) of words.

Inflectional affixes only modify the meaning of words instead of changing them. This means they modify the words by making them plural, comparative or superlative, or by changing the verb tense.

Word class	Modification reason	Suffixes
To modify nouns	Plural & possessive forms	-s (or -es), -‘s (or s’)
To modify adjectives	Comparative & superlative forms	-er, -est
To modify verbs	3rd person singular, past tense, present & past participles	-s, -ed, -ing, -en

In English, regular verbs use the past tense morpheme -ed; this shows us that the verb happened in the past. The pronunciation of this morpheme changes its sound according to the last consonant of the verb but always keeps its past tense function. This is an example of an allomorph.

Plan.

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………3

1.    
Theoretical
aspects of shortened words…………………………………………5

1.1  
Shortening
of spoken words……………………………………………………..6

1.2  
Graphical
abbreviations and acronyms………………………………………….8

1.3  
Abbreviations
as the major type of shortenings………………………………..14

1.4  
Minor
types of lexical oppositions……………………………………………..16

2.    
Practical
aspects of using shortened words…………………………………….22

2.1.
Usage of abbreviations in Mass Media………………………………………..23

2.2.
Usage of abbreviations in informational and technical
sphere………………..25

2.3. Usage
of abbreviations in Medicine…………………………………………..29

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………33

References…………………………………………………………………………34

Appendices…………………………………………………………………………36

Introduction.

Shortening of words is one of the
developing branches of lexicology nowadays. Being a developing branch of
linguistics it requires a special attention of teachers to be adequate to their
specialization in English and it reflects the general trend of simplification
of a language.

         The
shortening of the words is one of the main trends in development of Modern
English, especially in its colloquial layer, which, in its turn at high degree
is supported by development of modern informational technologies and
simplification of alive speech.

         Shortening
in communication (especially written) the process or result of representing a
word or group of words by a shorter form of the word or phrase. The problems of
shortened lexical units as specific language phenomena in modern languages
attracted attention of many researchers. These problems are considered to
numerous articles and separate researches of Kazakh, Russian and foreign
authors.

         The spoken and the written forms of the English language
have each their own patterns of shortening, but as there is a constant exchange
between both spheres, it is sometimes difficult to tell where a given
shortening really originated. 

         The
main reason for choosing this topic is that there are many words and word
groups which have their shortened version. Very often those shortened words
occur in various texts, such as technical writing, statistical material, tables
and notes. I decided to look up what abbreviations are commonly used in mass
media, medicine, informational and technical sphere, especially in newspaper
articles and textbooks. The other reason is to figure out when and how
abbreviations are used in written language.

         The
object of the research: is lexical level of English language.

         The
subject of the research: is types and functions of shortenings in English
language.

         The
aim of the research: is
giving general characteristics to shortened lexical units and defining the main
ways, types, causes and functions. 

         The
objectives:

—        
Collect
theoretical material about abbreviations, their functions and meanings.

—        
Study
and analyze the scientific and educational literature.

—        
Analyze the existing categorizations of shortenings.

—        
Define the functions of shortened lexical units.

—        
Perform
practical analysis about the usage of abbreviations in mass media, medicine,
informational and technical sphere.

The hypothesis: if we develop students’ knowledge of shortened words, we can widen
their vocabulary and develop speech in English language.

Methods of research:

·       
Methods of analysis of the information sources and references;

·       
critical study of scientific literature;

·       
description;

·       
comparison;

·       
observation.

Scientific basis
of the research:
In this course paper was involved 37 works of scientists on types and functions
of abbreviations.

Structure of the research: This course paper consists of introduction, two parts, conclusion,
references and appendices.

In the first part theoretical
aspects of types and classifications of shortenings are considered.

In
the second part there are practical aspects of using shortenings in mass
media, medicine,
informational and technical sphere.

The
practical value:
This material can be recommended for widening vocabulary and
development of speech and knowledge of English language.

1.    
Theoretical
aspects of shortened words

Word-building
processes involve not only qualitative but also quantitative changes. Thus,
derivation and compounding represent addition, as affixes and free stems,
respectively, are added to the underlying form.

Shortening, on the other hand, may be
represented as significant subtraction, in which part of the original word is
taken away.

The spoken and the written forms of the
English language have each their own patterns of shortening, but as there is a
constant exchange between both spheres, it is sometimes difficult to tell where
a given shortening really originated. [1]

 Most shortened forms of words are not
acceptable in a formal writing. There are two main types of shortened words:
contractions and abbreviations.

            There
are two types of contractions: grammatical contractions and single word
contractions.

1.
Grammatical contractions join together two words to make a single word.

Examples: it’s
(it is, it has); don’t (do not); can’t (cannot); you’ll (you will); should’ve
(should have); would’ve (would have); we’re (we are); aren’t (are not);
isn’t (is not), shan’t (shall not); let’s (let us); who’s (who is, who
has); they’re; (they are); doesn’t (does not)

2.
Single word contractions are the shortened form of words that begin and
end with the same letters as the original word, and do NOT have a full-stop.
Generally speaking, you should avoid using these in your writing unless they
are commonly used in a particular field of study (discipline) or used in a
reference list or in-text citation.

Examples: govt (government);
dept (department), Cwth (Commonwealth), Qld (Queensland) [2]

Contractions are regarded as informal
language and should not be used in assignment or essay writing—these words
should be written in full in writing. [1] (Appendix 2)

An
abbreviation is a shortened form of a word that does not end in the same
letter as the original word. Generally, full-stops are used. Unless the word is
used in reference list or is an accepted form for in-text references, it is
important to follow the rules for formal writing and write the term in full.

1. Days and months: They
should be written in full in text, but used in the correct standard
abbreviation for longer months when it is used in reference list

Examples: Jan.,
Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.

2. Compass points: They
should be written in full in text and hyphenated compound forms—do not
capitalise unless you use the abbreviated form in diagrams or illustrations.

Examples: north,
south, east, west, south-western, south-easterly winds

3. Geographical
features: Always write the full name of geographical features in your
written text—do not use abbreviations as you would do on a map or diagram.

Examples:
Sydney Harbour, North Island, Snowy Mountains, Brisbane
River, Cape York. [2]

The
shortening of words also stands apart from the above two-fold division of
word-formation. It cannot be regarded as part of either word-derivation or
word-composition for the simple reason that neither derivational base nor the
derivational affix can be singled out from the shortened word. [3]

Shortening
consists in substituting a part for a whole. Shortening comprises essentially
different ways of word creation. It involves:

1.     Transformation
of a word-group into a word;

2.     A
change of the word-structure resulting in a new-lexical item, i.e. clipping.
[4]

Shortening may be represented as
significant subtraction, in which part of the original word or word group is
taken away. Shortening consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts,
as a result of which the new form receives some linguistic value of its own.
[5]

Transformations of word-groups into words
involve different types of lexical shortening : ellipsis or substantivization,
initial letter or syllable abbreviations, blendings, etc. [4]

1.1.         
Shortening
of spoken word.

As a type of word-building shortening of
spoken words, also called clipping or curtailment, is recorded in the English
language as far back the 15th century. It has grown more and more productive
ever since. This growth becomes especially marked in many European languages in
the 20th century, and it is a matter of common knowledge that this development
is particularly intense in English.

Newly shortened words appear continuously;
this is testified by numerous neologisms, such as dub v, a cinema term meaning
‘to make another recording of sound-track in a film in a different language’
(from double); frig or fridge n from refrigerator; mike n from microphone;
tellie, telly or T. V. n from television set; vacun from vacuum cleaner, etc.
[6]

It is interesting in this connection to
compare the morphemes tele – in television and telecast. They are
homonymous but not identical. Tele – in television is derived from Greek tele
“far”, it is a combining from used to coin many special terms denoting
instruments and process which produce or record results at a distance, such as
telecommunication, telemechanics, telepathy, telephone, telescope. Tele – in
telecast does not mean “far”, it is a new development – the shortened variant
of television rendering a special new notion. [1]

Many authors are inclined to overemphasize the role of «the
strain of modern life» as the mainspring of this development. This is,
obviously, only one of the reasons, and the purely linguistic factors should
not be overlooked. Among the major forces are the demands of rhythm, which are
more readily satisfied when the words are monosyllabic.[6]

When dealing with words of long duration,
one will also note that a high percentage of English shortenings are involved
into the process of loan word assimilation. Monosyllabic goes farther in
English than in any other European language, and that is why shortened words
sound more like native ones than their long prototypes. Curtailment may
therefore be regarded as caused, partly at least, by analogical extension, i.e.
modification of form on the basis of analogy with existing and widely used
patterns. Thus, the three homonyms resulting from abbreviation of three
different words, van ‘a large covered vehicle’, ‘a railway carriage’, the short
for caravan (by aphesis1); van ‘the front of an army’, the short of vanguard
which in its turn is a clipping of the French word avant-garde; and van — a
lawn tennis term, the short for advantage, all sound quite like English words.
Cf. ban n and v, can, fan, man, ran (Past Tense of run), tan, etc. [6]

Shortening of spoken words or curtailment consists in the
reduction of a word to one of its parts (whether or not this part has
previously been a morpheme), as a result of which the new form acquires some
linguistic value of its own.

The correlation of a curtailed word with
its prototype is of great interest. Two possible developments should be noted:

1)   
The
curtailed form may be regarded as a variant or a synonym differing from the
full from quantitatively, stylistically and sometimes emotionally, the
prototype being stylistically and emotionally neutral, e.g. doc – from doctor,
exam from examination. Also in proper names: Becky from Rebecca, Frisco from
San Francisco, Japs from Japanese.[7] The missing part cap at all times
be supplied by the listener, so that the connection between the prototype and
the short form is not lost. The relationship between the prototype and the
curtailment belongs in this case to the present-day vocabulary system and forms
a relevant feature for synchronic analysis. Much yet remains to be done in
studying the complex relations between the prototype and the clipping, as it is
not clear when one should consider them two separate synonymous words and when
they are variants of the same word.[9]

2)   
In
the opposite extreme case the connection can be established only
etymologically. Consequently a pair of etymological doublets comes into being ,
e.g. chap – Chapman, fan – fanatic, miss – mistress. Various classifications of
shortened words have been or may be offered. [7] A speaker who
calls himself a football fan would probably be offended at being called a
fanatic. A fanatic is understood to have unreasonable and exaggerated beliefs
and opinions that make him socially dangerous, whereas a fan is only a devotee
of a specified amusement. The relationship between curtailed forms and
prototypes in this second group is irrelevant to the present-day vocabulary
system, and is a matter of historic, i.e.  diachronic study.[9]

The change is not only quantitative: a curtailed word is not
merely a word that has lost its initial, middle or final part. Nor is it
possible to treat shortening as just using a part for the whole, because a
shortened word is always in some way different from its prototype in meaning
and usage. [8]

Shortening may be regarded as a type of root creation because the
resulting new morphemes are capable of being used as free forms and combine
with bound forms. They ran take functional suffixes: «Ref’s Warning
Works Magic» (the title of a newspaper article about a football match
where the referee called both teams together and lectured them on rough play).
Cf. sing. — bike, bod, pl. — bikes, bods, Inf. — to vac, Part.
I — vacking, Past Indefinite tense and Part. II — vacked. Most of
these by conversion produce verbs: to phone, to vac, to vet, etc., in
which the semantic relationship with the prototype remains quite clear. They
also serve as basis for further word-formation by derivation or composition: fancy
n (from fantasy), fancy v, fancier n, fanciful a, fancifully
adv, fancifulness n, fancy-ball n, fancy-dress n, fancy-work
n, etc.; or fantasmo ‘supremely fantastic’ from fantastic+-mo on
the analogy with supremo ‘a chief. [9]

In both types the clipped forms (doc, exam, chap, fan, etc.) exist
in the language alongside their respective prototypes. The difference, how-
ever, is that whereas words belonging to the first group can be replaced by
their prototypes and show in this way a certain degree of inter-changeability,
the doublets are never equivalent lexically as there are no contexts where the
prototype can replace the shortened word without a change of meaning.

The curtailed words belonging to this type are mostly monosemantic
as, for example, lab, exam, fan. Also they are often homonymous: compare
van and vac as treated above, also gym for gymnastics and
gym for gymnasium, or vet for veteran and veterinary.
[6]

The second extreme group, the etymological doublets, may develop
semantic structures of their own. Very complex semantic cases like fancy with
its many meanings and high valency are nevertheless rare.

It has been specified in the definition of the process that the
clipped part is not always a complete morpheme, so that the division is only
occasionally correlated with the division into immediate constituents. For
instance, in phone for telephone and photo for photograph
the remaining parts are complete morphemes occurring in other words. On the
other hand in ec or eco (from economics) or trannie
(transistor) the morphological structure of the prototype is disregarded.
All linguists agree that most often it is either the first or the stressed part
of the word that remains to represent the whole. An interesting and convincing
explanation for this is offered by M.M. Segal, who quotes the results of
several experimental investigations dealing with informativeness of parts of
words. These experiments carried out by psychologists have proved very
definitely that the initial components of words are imprinted in the mind and
memory more readily than the final parts. The signalling value of the first
stressed syllable, especially when it is at the same time the root syllable, is
naturally much higher than that of the unstressed final syllables with their
reduced vowel sounds. [9]

1.2.         
Graphical
abbreviations and acronyms

         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. [10]

    Because of the ever closer connection
between the oral and the written forms of the language it is sometimes
difficult to differentiate clippings formed in oral speech from graphical
abbreviations. The more so as the latter often pass into oral speech and become
widely used in conversation. [9]

         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. [10]

         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 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 [12], e.g. – for example (Latin
exampli gratia), a.m. – in the morning (ante meridiem), No – number (numero),
p.a. – a year (per annum), i.e. – that is (idest).[11] in some cases initial
letters are pronounced, e.g. a.m. [ei’em], p.m. [pi:’em] etc.  In
such cases they can be treated as lexical initial abbreviations. [12]

         The
term abbreviation may be also used for a shortened form of a written word or
phrase used in a text in place of the whole. Abbreviation is achieved by
omission of letters form one or more parts of the whole, as for instance abbr
for abbreviation, bldg for building, govt for government, cdr for commander,
doz or dz for dozen, ltd for limited, B. A. for Bachelor of Arts, N. Y. for New
York State. Sometimes the part or parts retained show some alteration, thus oz
denotes ounce and Xmas denotes Christmas. Doubling of initial letters shows
plural forms as for instance pp for pages, ll for lines or cc for chapters.
These are in fact not separate words but only graphic signs or symbols
representing them. consequently no orthoepic correlation exists in such cases
and the unabbreviated word is pronounced: ll [lainz], pp [‘peidgiz]. [6]

         There
are also graphical abbreviations of native origin where in the spelling we have
abbreviations of word or word-groups of the corresponding English equivalents
in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them:

1)    Days of the week,
e.g. Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday etc;

2)    Names of months,
e.g. Apr – April, Aug – August, Sep – September;

3)    Names of counties
in UK, Yorks – Yorkshire, Berks – Berkshire etc;

4)    Names of states in
USA, e.g. Ala – Alabama, Alas – Alaska, Calif – California etc;

5)    Names of address,
e.g. Mr, Mrs, Ms, DR etc;

6)    Military ranks,
e.g. capt – captain, col – colonel, sgt – sergeant etc;

7)    Scientific
degrees, e.g. BA Bachelor of Arts, DM – Doctor of Medicine.

    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. [10]

Abbreviations may be nearly as old as writing itself; they allow a writer to save time, space, and effort.The cost of materials like parchment, paper, and ink was another major impetus to shorten words andphrases. Even with the invention of the printing press, cost remained important, and printers looked forways to save space without diluting the message. Many abbreviations have become standard, includingabbreviations for days of the week ( Mon., Tues. ) and months of the year ( Jan., Feb. ); common Latinterms ( lb., e.g. ); units of time and measurement ( min., ft. ); titles of individuals ( Mrs., Rev. ); and titles ornames of organizations ( NCAA, UNESCO ), government bodies ( SCOTUS, EPA ), and states and cities ( Pa.,NYC ).[13]

 The usual practice in American English is to use a period to end any abbreviation that stands for a singleword: for example, assoc.  or assn.  for association ), whereas in British English the period is typically omittedif the abbreviation includes the last letter of the word. For example, in British writing the word association might be abbreviated as either assoc.  or assn  (without the period); likewise, Fr.  is an abbreviation forFrance,  while Fr  (no period) is the abbreviation for Father  (as the title for a priest). [13]

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. JV – 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 [bi:bi:si:]. [10]

There are three types of initialisms in
English:

1)   
Initialisms
with alphabetical reading, such as UK (United Kingdom), BUP (British United
Press), CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), PWA (a person with AIDS) etc;

2)   
Initialisms
which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization), OPEC (Organization Of PetroLeum
Exporting Countries), HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) etc;

3)   
Initialisms
which coincide with English words in their sound form. Such initialisms are
called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computer-based Laboratory for Automated School
System), NOW (National Organization of Women), AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome) etc. [10]

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

1)   
Affixation,
e.g. AWOLism (Absent WithOut Leave), ex-rafer (Royal Air Force), ex-POW
(Prisoner Of War), AIDSophobia etc;

2)   
Conversion,
e.g. to raf (Royal Air Force), to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) etc;

3)   
Composition,
e.g. STOLport (Short Take-Off and Landing), USAFman (United States Air Force)
etc;

4)   
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-D (three
dimensions) [10]

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.
[14]

 [15]

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 of the word. This type of abbreviation called apocope.
[10] Here we can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco
(discotheque), 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)

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. [14]

An acronym is
an abbreviation formed
from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be
individual letters (as in laser)
or parts of words (as in Benelux and Ameslan).
There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of various names for
such abbreviations nor on written usage. In English and most other languages,
such abbreviations historically had limited use, but they became much more common
in the 20th century. Acronyms are a type of word formation process,
and they are viewed as a subtype of blending.
[16]

There is a difference between acronyms and
abbreviations. An acronym is usually formed by taking the first initials of a
phrase or compounded-word and using those initials to form a word that stands
for something. Thus NATO, which we pronounce NATOH, is an acronym for North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, and LASER (which we pronounce «lazer»),
is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. FBI,
then, is not really an acronym for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is
an abbreviation. AIDS is an acronym; HIV is an abbreviation. URL is an
abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator (World Wide Web address), but many
people pronounce it as «Earl,» making it a true acronym, and others
insist on pronouncing it as three separate letters, «U * R * L,» thus
making it an abbreviation. The jury is still out. [17]

Whilst an abbreviation is the shortened form of
any initial, syllable or parts of a phrase or words, an initialism (or less commonly, alphabetism) refers to an
abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials.[18] Although the term acronym is widely used to refer
to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean «a
word» in its original sense, while some others include
additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that
of initialism. The distinction, when
made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a
string of letters. In such cases, examples found in dictionaries include NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/, scuba /ˈskuːbə/, and radar /ˈreɪdɑr/ for acronyms, and FBI /ˌɛfˌbiːˈaɪ/ and HTML /ˌeɪtʃˌtiːˌɛmˈɛl/ for initialisms. In the rest of this
article, this distinction is not made. [19]

During World War I and later the custom
became very popular not only in English-speaking countries, but in other parts
of the world as well, to call countries, governmental, social, military,
industrial and trade organizations and officials not by their full titles but
by initial abbreviations derived from writing: the USSR, the U. N., the U. N.
O. Such words formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the
successive parts or major parts of a compound term are called acronyms. [9] Two
possible types of orthoepic correlation between written and spoken forms should
be noted:

1. If the abbreviated written form can be
read as though it were an ordinary English word it will be read like one. Many
examples are furnished by political and technical vocabulary. U. N. E. S. C.
O., also Unesco [ju:’neskou] — United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization’, U. N. O., also Una [‘ju:nou] — United Nations
Organization; U. N. R. R. A., also Unrra [an’ra:] — United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration, etc. A few recent technical terms may also be
mentioned to illustrate this type such as jato, laser, maser and a more than
twenty years old radar. JATO or jato means’ jet-assisted take-off. Laser stands
for light amplification by stimulated emission radiation; maser for micro-wave
amplification and stimulated emission radiation; l radar for radio detection
and ranging denotes a system for ascertaining direction and ranging of
aircraft, ships, coasts and other objects by means of the electro-magnetic
waves which they reflect. One more military term might be added: sten fgun) as
the name for a light weight machine gun derived from the initials of the
inventors’ surnames, Shepherd and Turpin + -en for England. Words belonging to
this group are often isolated from the prototypes. [20]

2. The opposite subgroup consists of
initial abbreviations with the alphabetic reading retained. They also retain
correlation with prototypes. The examples are well-known: B. B. C.
[‘bi:’bi:’si:] — the British Broadcasting Corporation; G. I. [‘djii’aij — for
Government Issue, a widely spread metonymical name for American soldiers on the
items of whose uniforms these letters are stamped. The last abbreviation was
originally an Americanism but has been firmly established in British English as
well. M. P. [’em ‘pi:] is mostly used as an initial abbreviation for Member of
Parliament, also military police, whereas P. M. stands for Prime Minister.
These abbreviations are freely used in colloquial speech as seen from the
following extract, in which C. P. Snow describes the House of Commons gossip:
They were swapping promises to speak for one another: one was bragging how two
senior Ministers were «in the bag» to speak for him. Rigger was safe,
someone said, he’d give a hand. «What has the P. M. got in mind for Roger
when we come back?» The familiar colloquial quality of the context is very
definitely marked by the set expressions: in the bag, give a hand, get in mind,
etc. [20]

1.3.         
Abbreviations
as the major type of shortenings

         Abbreviations
are freely used in colloquial speech as seen from the following extract, in
which C.P Snow describes the House of Commons gossip: They were swapping
promises to speak for one another: one was bragging how two senior Ministers
were «in the bag» to speak for him. Roger was safe, someone said,
he’d give a hand. «What has the P.M. got in mind for Roger when we come
back?» The familiar colloquial quality of the context is very
definitely marked by the set expressions: in the bag, give a hand, get in
mind, etc.
[9]

         An
interesting feature of present-day English is the use of initial abbreviations
for famous persons’ names and surnames. Thus, George Bernard Shaw is often
alluded to as  G.B.S. [‘dзi:’bi:’es],
Herbert George Wells as H.G. The
usage is clear from the following example: “Oh, yes … where
was I?” “With H.G.’s Martians,” I told
him. [20]

         Journalistic
abbreviations are often occasioned by a desire to economise head-line space, as
seen from the following example “ CND
Calls Lobby to Stop MLF” («Daily
Worker»). This means that a mass lobby of Parliament against the NATO
multilateral nuclear force (MLF) is
being called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

These regular developments are in
some cases combined with occasional jocular or accidental distortions. The
National Economic Development Council is facetiously termed Neddy.
Elementary education is colloquially
referred to as the
three R’s —
reading, (w)riting and ‘rithmetic. Some kind of witty folk etymology is at play
when the abbreviation C.B. for construction
battalions in
the navy is re-spelt into sea
bees. The
two well-known Americanisms jeep and okay may
be mentioned in this connection. Jeep meaning
‘a small military motor vehicle’ comes from g.p. [‘dзi:’pi:]
(the initials of general
purpose). Okay, OK may
be an illiterate misinterpretation of the initials in all
correct. Various
other historic anecdotes have been also offered by way of explanation of the
latter. [20]

T. McArthur (1998) states that
abbreviation is a shortened version of written word or phrase used to replace
original and save space. There are three types of abbreviations: letter-based,
syllable-based and hybrid. All may have symbolical or lexical function:
symbolic abbreviations serve as formulas (c.c. – cubic centimeters; Fe – iron
from Latin ferrum); lexical abbreviations are generally word-like, some less so
because they are spoken as letter sequences, as with BBC, some more so because
they are spoken as words and often cannot be usefully distinguished from them,
as with NATO, radar. Syllabic abbreviations are not common. They use initial
syllables from multiple words. [21]

Symbolic abbreviations. T. McArthur
(1998) stated that abbreviations that serve as symbols are usually pronounced
as letter sequences or as their full originating words, as with c.c.
(pronounced as ‘cee-cee’ or ‘cubic centimeters’). In some instances, where
abbreviations start with vowel, the use of a and an indicates whether a writer
is thinking them as letters or words: a MP ‘a Member of Parliament’; an MP ‘an
em-pee’. [21]

Lexical abbreviations. Abbreviations
that serve as words fall into three types that shade into a fourth less
clear-cut type:

1.
Initialism. A letter group that cannot be pronounced as a word, and must
therefore be spoken as letters: BBC spoken as ‘bee-bee-cee’.

2.
Acronym. A letter group that can be, and is, pronounced as a word: NATO spoken
as ‘Naytoe’.

3.
Clipping. A part of a word standing for the whole: pro for professional, phone
for telephone.

4.
Blend. A word made from two or more other words, by fusion (brunch from
breakfast and lunch) or by putting together syllabic elements from other words.
[22]

Also T. McArthur states that there are at
least five variations and hybrids of these basic types:

1.
both initialisms and acronyms: VAT (Value Added Tax) is referred to as both
‘vat’ and ‘vee-ay-tee’.

2.
Forms that look like one type but behave like another: WHO (World Health
Organization) is ‘double-you-aitch-oh’, not ‘hoo’.

3.
Part-initialism: CD-ROM (compact disc readonly memory) is pronounced
‘cee-dee-rom’.

4.
Combinations of letter groups and clippings: ARPAnet (Advanced Research
Projects Agency computer network).

5.
Initialisms adapted as acronyms: GLCMs (ground-launched cruise missiles) are
called Glickems. [21]

         W.A.
Sabin gives additional advices. When using an abbreviation, do not follow it
with a word that is part of the abbreviation: a collection of CDs (not: CD
disks), forgot my PIN (not: PIN number). [23]

Some abbreviations are always acceptable,
even in the most formal contexts: those that precede or follow personal names
(Mr., Ms., dr., Ph.D.); those that are part of an organization’s legal name
(Co., Inc., Ltd.); those used in expressions of time (a.m., p.m., CST, A.D.,
B.C.). Organizations with long names are now commonly identified by their
initials in all but the most formal writing (NAACP, SEC). Days of week, names
of the moths, geographical names, and units of measure should be abbreviated
only on business forms, in expedient documents, and in tables, lists, and
narrow columns of text. When an abbreviation is only one or two keystrokes
shorter than the full word (Pt. for Part), do not bother to abbreviate except
to achieve consistency in a context where similar are being abbreviated. When
using abbreviation that may not be familiar to the reader, spell out the full
term along with the abbreviation when it is first used. [23]

According to W. A. Sabin, in business
writing, abbreviations are appropriate in expedient documents (business forms,
catalogs, routine e-mail messages, memos, and letters between business
officers), where the emphasis is on communicating data in the briefest form. In
other kinds of writing, where a more formal style is appropriate, use
abbreviations sparingly. Organizations with long names are commonly identified
by their initials in all but the most formal writing. Respect the preference of
individuals and of companies that use a person’s initials in their company name
(Harry S Truman, JCPenney, TJ.Maxx). When a company uses a geographical
abbreviation in its corporate name or in the name of a product, respect the
company’s style (U.S.A. but USA Today; U.S. but US WEST Communication). A few
common business abbreviations are frequently typed in lower-case (with periods)
when they occur within sentences but are typed in all-caps (without periods)
when they appear on business forms (cif. or CIF; c.o.d. or COD; e.o.m. or EOM
etc.). [23]

            Analysis includes a few
communication texts, one contract form and one job advertisement. All texts
were taken from J. Dugger and internet database. The analysis has shown that
abbreviations are not common phenomenon in formal texts. However, abbreviations
are more often used in informal correspondence letters. Considering analyzed
sample texts, the most common abbreviations were: ASAP – as soon as possible;
B2B – Business-to-business; CEO – Chief Executive Officer; CIF – Cost,
Insurance and Freight; Dr. – doctor, district; GDP – Gross Domestic Product;
Mr., Ltd. – limited; MBA – Master of Business administration; No. – number;
p.m. and a.m.; P.O. – Post Office; P&L – Profit and Loss; PLC –Public Limited
Company; TQM – Total Quality Manager; VA – Value added. Abbreviated names and
weekdays also occurred very often. [24]

1.4.         
Minor
types of lexical oppositions

         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. [10]

         Sound interchange is the
formation of a word due to an alteration in the phonemic composition of its
root. [25]

The interchange of sounds is a term
denoting change in the phonematic structure of the morpheme in the process of
word changing and word-building. The interchange of sounds takes place
according to definite strict standards for each phoneme in each given language.
[26]

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. [9]

By the historical interchange of
sounds we mean a case when the change is not determined by the position of the
sound in the word, but appeared as a result of the laws which acted in the
language at some definite periods of its development. It is closely connected
with historical assimilation. Historical interchange of sounds is also
explained by the phonetical structure of the language but has grammatical

significance.
[26]

            The process is not
active in the language at present, and oppositions survive in the vocabulary
only as remnants of previous stages. Synchronically sound interchange should
not be considered as a method of word-building at all, but rather as a basis
for contrasting words belonging to the same word-family and different parts of
speech or different lexico-grammatical groups. [20]

Cases of historical interchange of sounds
in English can be found among the three forms of irregular verbs, the degrees
of comparison of adjectives, different parts of speech originated from one
root, the archaic forms of the plural of nouns and other grammatical phenomena.
For example:

The three forms of the irregular verbs:

do [du:] – did [dId] – done [dAn] (vowel
gradation [u:] – [I] – [A] takes place);

fly [flaI] – flew [flu:] – flown [floun]
(vowel gradation [aI] – [u:] – [ou] takes place).

The degrees of comparison of adjectives:

little [litl] – less [les] – least [li:st]
([i] interchanges with [e], [i:]);

much [mAtS] – more [mo:] – most [moust]
([A] interchanges with [o:], [ou]).

The plural of nouns:

man [mxn] – men [men] (vowel gradation [x]
– [e] takes place);

goose [gu:s] – geese [gi:s] (vowel
gradation [u:] – [i:] takes place).

The interchange of sounds is also observed
when different parts of speech are originated from one root:

convert [kon’vE:t] – conversion
[kon’vE:Sn];

intend [In’tend] – intention [In’tenSn] –
intent [In’tent]. [26]

         The
causes of sound interchange are twofold and one
should learn to differentiate them from the historical point of view. Some of
them are due to ablaut or vowel gradation characteristic of Indo-European
languages and consisting in a change from one to another vowel accompanying a
change of stress. The phenomenon is best known as a series of relations between
vowels by which the stems of strong verbs are differentiated in grammar (drink
– drank – drunk and the like). However, it is also of great importance in
lexicology because ablaut furnishes distinctive features for differentiating
words. [20]

By the living interchange of sounds we
mean a case when the change is determined by the position of the sound in the
word. It is closely connected with living assimilation. The living interchange
of sounds is mainly explained by the phonetical structure of the given
language. [26]

The other group of
cases is due to an assimilation process conditioned by the phonemic
environment. One of these is vowel mutation, otherwise called umlaut, a feature
characteristic of German Languages, and consisting in a partial assimilation to
a succeeding sound, as for example the fronting or raising of a back vowel or a
low vowel caused by an [i] or [j] originally standing in the following syllable
but now either altered or lost. This accounts for such oppositions as full
(adj), fill (v); whole (adj), heal (v); knot (n), knit (v), tale (n), tell (v).
[10]

The consonant
interchange was also caused by phonetic surroundings. Thus, the oppositions
speak (v), speech (n), bake (v), batch (n) or wake (v), watch (n) are due to
the fact that the palatal OE [k] very early became [tS] but was retained in
verbs because of the position before the consonants [s] and [Ө]
in the second and third persons singular. [9]

Distinctive stress is the
formation of a word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word,
cf., ‘increase (n) – in’crease (v), ‘absent (adj) – ab’sent (v). [25]

Some otherwise homographic, mostly
disyllabic nouns and verbs of Romanic origin have a distinctive stress pattern.
Thus, ‘conduct n ‘behaviour’ is forestressed, whereas con’duct v
‘to lead or guide (in a formal way)’ has a stress on the second syllable. Other
examples are: accent, affix, asphalt, compact (impact),¹
compound, compress (impress), conflict, contest, contract (extract), contrast,
convict, digest, essay, export (import, transport), increase, insult, object
(subject, project), perfume, permit, present, produce, progress, protest,
rebel, record, survey, torment, transfer. Examples of words of more than
two syllables are very few: ‘attribute n : : a’ttribute v. [9]

Historically this is probably explained by
the fact that these words were borrowed from French where the original stress
was on the last syllable. Thus, ac’cent comes through French from Latin ac’centus.
Verbs retained this stress all the more easily as many native disyllabic
verbs were also stressed in this way: be come, be’lieve, for’bid, for’get,
for’give. The native nouns, however, were forestressed, and in the process
of assimilation many loan nouns came to be stressed on the first syllable.

A similar phenomenon is observed in some
homographic pairs of adjectives and verbs, e.g. ‘absent a : : ab’sent
v; ‘frequent a : : fre’quent v; ‘perfect a : : per’fect
v; ‘abstract a : : ab’stract v. Other patterns with
difference in stress are also possible, such as arithmetic [э’riθ-mэtik]
n : : arithmetical) [эпθ’metik(эl)].

This stress distinction is, however,
neither productive nor regular. There are many denominal verbs that are
forestressed and thus homonymous with the corresponding nouns. For example,
both the noun and the verb comment are forestressed, and so are the
following words: exile, figure, preface, quarrel, focus, process, program,
triumph, rivet and others. [20]

There is a large group of disyllabic loan
words that retain the stress on the second syllable both in verbs and nouns: accord,
account, advance, amount, approach, attack, attempt, concern, defeat, distress,
escape, exclaim, research, etc. [9]

A separate group is formed by compounds
where the corresponding combination of words has double stress and the compound
noun is forestressed so that the stress acquires a word-building force: ‘black
‘board : : ‘blackboard and ‘draw’back : : ‘drawback.

It is worth noting that stress alone,
unaccompanied by any other differentiating factor, does not seem to provide a
very effective means of distinguishing words. And this is, probably, the reason
why oppositions of this kind are neither regular nor productive. [20]

Sound imitation ( or onomatopoeia)
is the naming of an action or a thing by a more or less exact reproduction of
the sound associated with it, cf.: cock-a-doodle-do (English) – ку—ка—ре—ку (Russian).
Semantically, according ti the source sound, many onomatopoeic words
fall into a few very definite groups:

1)    Words
denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or
expressing their feelings, e.g. chatter, babble;

2)    Words denoting
sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, e.g. moo, croak, buzz;

3)    Words imitating the
sound of water, the noise of metallic things, a forceful motion, movements,
e.g. splash, clink, whip, swing. [25]

The great majority of motivated words in
present-day language are motivated by reference to other words in the language,
to the morphemes that go to compose them and to their arrangement. Therefore,
even if one hears the noun wage-earner for the first time, one
understands it, knowing the meaning of the words wage and earn and
the structural pattern noun stem + verbal stem+ —er as in bread-winner,
skyscraper, strike-breaker. [27]

Sound imitating or onomatopoeic words are
on the contrary motivated with reference to extra-linguistic reality, they are
echoes of natural sounds (e. g. lullaby, twang, whiz.) Sound imitation
(onomatopoeia or echoism) is consequently the naming of an action or thing by a
more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it. For instance
words naming sounds and movement of water: babble, blob, bubble, flush,
gurgle, gush, splash, etc. [20]

The term onomatopoeia is from Greek onoma
‘name, word’ and poiein ‘to make → ‘the making of words (in
imitation of sounds)’.

It would, however, be wrong to think that
onomatopoeic words reflect the real sounds directly, irrespective of the laws
of the language, because the same sounds are represented differently in
different languages. Onomatopoeic words adopt the phonetic features of English
and fall into the combinations peculiar to it. This becomes obvious when one
compares onomatopoeic words crow and twitter and the words flow
and glitter with which they are rhymed in the following poem:

The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing.

The small birds twitter,

The lake does glitter,

The green fields sleep in the sun

(Wordsworth). [20]

The majority of onomatopoeic words serve
to name sounds or movements. Most of them are verbs easily turned into nouns: bang,
boom, bump, hum, rustle, smack, thud, etc.

They are very expressive and sometimes it
is difficult to tell a noun from an interjection. Consider the following: Thum
— crash! “Six o’clock, Nurse,” — crash] as the door shut again.
Whoever it was had given me the shock of my life (M. Dickens).

Sound-imitative words form a considerable
part of interjections. Сf . bang! hush! pooh! [27]

Semantically, according to the source of
sound, onomatopoeic words fall into a few very definite groups. Many verbs
denote sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or in
expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle, grunt, grumble, murmur,
mutter, titter, whine, whisper and many more. Then there are sounds
produced by animals, birds and insects, e.g. buzz, cackle, croak, crow,
hiss, honk, howl, moo, mew, neigh, purr, roar and others. Some birds are
named after the sound they make, these are the crow, the cuckoo, the
whippoor-will and a few others. Besides the verbs imitating the sound of
water such as bubble or splash, there are others imitating the
noise of metallic things: clink, tinkle, or forceful motion: clash,
crash, whack, whip, whisk, etc. [20]

The combining possibilities of
onomatopoeic words are limited by usage. Thus, a contented cat purrs, while
a similarly sounding verb whirr is used about wings. A gun bangs and
a bow twangs. [27]

R. Southey’s poem “How Does the Water Come
Down at Lodore” is a classical example of the stylistic possibilities offered
by onomatopoeia: the words in it sound an echo of what the poet sees and
describes.

Here it comes sparkling,

And there it flies darkling …

Eddying and whisking,

Spouting and frisking, …

And whizzing and hissing, …

And rattling and battling, …

And guggling and struggling, …

And bubbling and troubling and
doubling,

And rushing and flushing and
brushing and gushing,

And flapping and rapping and
clapping and slapping …

And thumping and pumping and
bumping and jumping,

And dashing and flashing and
splashing and clashing …

And at once and all o’er, with a
mighty uproar,

And this way the water comes down
at Lodore.
[20]

Once being coined, onomatopoeic words lend
themselves easily to further word-building and to semantic development. They
readily develop figurative meanings. Croak, for instance, means ‘to make
a deep harsh sound’. In its direct meaning the verb is used about frogs or
ravens. Metaphorically it may be used about a hoarse human voice. A further
transfer makes the verb synonymous to such expressions as ‘to protest dismally’,
‘to grumble dourly’, ‘to predict evil’. [27]

Back-formation (also
called reversion) is a term borrowed from diachronic linguistics. It
denotes the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix
from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. [20]

Back-formation is the formation of a new
word by subtracring a real or supposed suffix from the existing word. The
process is based on analogy. [25]

Back-formation 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 language as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a
borrowed word. Prof. V. Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the
whole system of the language on separate words. [10]

The process is based on analogy. The words
beggar, butler, cobbler, or typewriter look very much like agent
nouns with the suffix -er/-or, such as actor or painter. Their
last syllable is therefore taken for a suffix and subtracted from the word
leaving what is understood as a verbal stem. In this way the verb butle ‘to
act or serve as a butler’ is derived by subtraction of -er from
a supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler. Butler (ME buteler,
boteler from OFr bouteillier ‘bottle bearer’) has widened its
meaning. Originally it meant ‘the man-servant having charge of the wine’. It
means at present ‘the chief servant of a rich household who is in charge of
other servants, receives guests and directs the serving of meals’. [27]

These examples are sufficient to show how
structural changes taking place in back-formation became possible because of
semantic changes that preceded them. In the above cases these changes were favoured
by contextual environment. The change of meaning resulted in demotivation, and
this paved the way for phonic changes, i.e. assimilation, loss of sound and the
like, which in their turn led to morphemic alternations that became meaningful.
Semantic changes often influence the morphological structure by modifying the
relations between stems and derivational affixes. Structural changes, in their
turn, depend on the combined effect of demotivation and analogy conditioned by
a higher frequency of occurrence of the pattern that serves as model. Provided
all other conditions are equal, words following less frequent structural
patterns are readily subjected to changes on the analogy of more frequent
patterns. [9]

The very high frequency of the pattern verb
stem+-er (or its equivalents) is a matter of common knowledge.
Nothing more natural therefore than the prominent part this pattern plays in
back-formation. Alongside the examples already cited above are burgle
v<burglar n; cobble v<cobbler n; sculpt v<sculptor n.
This phenomenon is conveniently explained on the basis of proportional lexical
oppositions. If

teacher
₌ painter ₌ butler teach paint x

                    x

then x = butle, and to butle must
mean ‘to act as butler’.

The
process of back-formation has only diachronic relevance. For synchronic
approach butler : : butle is equivalent to painter : : paint,
so that the present-day speaker may not feel any difference between these
relationships. The fact that butle is derived from butler through
misinterpretation is synchronically of no importance. Some modern examples of
back-formation are lase v — a verb used about the functioning of the
apparatus called laser (see p. 143), escalate from escalator on
the analogy of elevate — elevator. Cf. also the verbs aggress,
automate, enthuse, obsolesce and reminisce. [20]

Back-formation
may be also based on the analogy of inflectional forms as testified by the
singular nouns pea and cherry. Pea (the plural of which is peas
and also pease) is from ME pese<OE pise, peose<Lat pisa, pl.
of pesum. The ending -s being the most frequent mark of the
plural in English, English speakers thought that sweet peas(e) was a
plural and turned the combination peas(e) soup into pea soup. Cherry is
from OFr cerise, and the -se was dropped for exactly the same
reason.

The
most productive type of back-formation in present-day English is derivation of
verbs (see p. 126) from compounds that have either -er or -ing as
their last element. The type will be clear from the following examples: thought-read
v<thought-reader n<thought-reading n; air-condition v<air-conditioner
n < air-conditioning n; turbo-supercharge v < turbo-supercharger
n. Other examples of back-formations from compounds are the verbs baby-sit,
beachcomb, house-break, house-clean, house-keep, red-bait, tape-record and
many others. [20]

The semantic relationship between the prototype and the derivative
is regular. Baby-sit, for example, means to act or become employed as a
baby-sitter’, that is to take care of children for short periods of time while
the parents are away from home. Similarly, beachcomb is ‘to live or act
as a beachcomber’; the noun is a slightly ironical word de-noting a disreputable former sailor who searches along
the shore for flotsam and refuse or spends his time loafing in sea-ports.
Housekeep conies in a similar way from housekeeper and housekeeping.

There may be cases of homonymy in the group,
namely: house-break is a verb derived by back-formation from house-breaker
and house-break­ing meaning respectively ‘burglar’ and ‘burglary’. House-break
is also a back-formation from house-broken
and means ‘to accustom an animal or
a baby to indoor habits and civilized behaviour.

In concluding this paragraph it must be
emphasized that back-formation is another manifestation of the fact that a
language consti­tutes a more or less harmonious and balanced system the
components of which stand in reciprocal connection and tend to achieve an even
greater equilibrium of the whole. [27]

2.     Practical part of
the research

In order to
confirm theoretical positions of our research work we have made a practical
research of using abbreviations. We have chosen some examples from newspapers,
textbooks and have defined their types and full forms.

The type of
shortened words was defined according to classifications of I.V.Arnold. We use
“Oxford English Dictionary of Abbreviations” in order to find the full form of
the shortened words.

We have analyzed
65 different shortened words in newspapers, informational, technical and
medical textbooks.

2.1.         
Usage
of abbreviations in Mass Media.

         All
types of shortened words are widely used in Mass Media. We used popular
American and British press to find the examples of shortenings. The newspapers
that I used are: “The New York Times”, “Daily News”, “The Wall Street Journal”,
“USA Today”, “The Times”, “Financial Times”, “Daily Mail” and etc. We have analyzed
20 shortened words.

1.An extract from the article “House Approves Bill That Allows
Policy Renewals” published
in November, 15 2013 by “The New York Times”: “…Representative
Nick
J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia, who voted for the
legislation, said that the White House deserved an “F-minus” for
its botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act…”

The
type of the shortened word:

1.    
Nick J. Rahall II – an abbreviation of proper names.

2.    
F-minus — compound-shortened word.

 

2.Another
extract from the article called “Obama Proposal Worries Insurers and Regulators” of the same
newspaper: “…The entire underlying premise of the A.C.A. —
balancing costs of the young, old, sick and healthy — has been left adrift with
this announcement…”

The
type of the shortened word: A.C.A. – acronym.

Full
form of the shortened word: American Correctional Association.

 

3. The article “Spending Worries Weigh on Japan’s Rebound” of “The Wall Street Journal” published
the 13^th November, 2013: “…Ms. Nonoguchi is spending more on
gasoline to visit her mother in a nursing home and her family’s food costs have
increased…”

The type of the shortened word: graphical abbreviation of a name
of address.

Full form of the shortened word: Miss.

 

4.»…There’s a lot of talk about the potential
benefits of ‘Abenomics…”

The type of the shortened word: grammatical contraction

Full form of the shortened word: there
is

 

5. “…Thursday’s GDP figures show that a slowdown in
exports and personal consumption may have put the brakes on the economy’s fast
growth…”

The type of the shortened word: initial abbreviation

Full form of the shortened word: Gas
Detection Panel.

 

6. An extract from the article “Runners
get a shock as coyote joins them for race” of the British newspaper “Daily
Mail”: “Runners in a 5 km cross
country race in Arizona had a shock when a coyote joined them on part of the
route last weekend…” 

The type of the shortened word: an
abbreviation of units of length.

Full form of the shortened word:
kilometer

7.
The newspaper “The Times” published the 17^th of November, 2013, the
title of the article is “New homes cost £1m each”: “…About £1.3bn of taxpayers’ money has been paid to
local authorities through the scheme, according to the National Audit Office…”

The type of the shortened word: graphical
abbreviations

Full form of the
shortened word: m – million; bn — billion.

8. “… have not used the money to
build a single home and some have used the grants for other things, according
to a FOI request by the Labour party…”

The type of the shortened word: acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Freedom of
Information.

9.
The American newspaper “Daily News” 17^th of November published an
article “NYCHA spends $9 million a year on
private law firms doing same work as in-house attorneys”.

The type of the shortened word: initialism

Full form of the
shortened word: New York City
Housing Authority.

10. “…Japan hopes the 55-year-old
daughter of late President John F. Kennedy will work closely with Barack
Obama to tackle some urgent U.S.-Japan matters, analysts said…”from the
article “Caroline Kennedy arrives in Tokyo to take up State Department post” of
“Daily News” published the 15th November, 2013. U.S. – an acronym which mean United
States.

The type of
the shortened word:

John F. Kennedy — an abbreviation
of proper names;

U.S. – an acronym which mean United
States.

Full form of the
shortened word: U.S. – United
States.

11. The newspaper “USA Today”
published the 17th November, 2013, the article “Auburn defeats Georgia on
miracle play 43-38”: “…AUBURN, Ala. —
They never believed this was supposed to end in torment, even as the 20-point
lead vanished, even as hope to put together…”

The type of the shortened word: a graphical abbreviation of a name of a state in USA.

Full
form of the shortened word: Alabama.

12. “…It takes a thousand little
things falling exactly into place for No. 9 Auburn to pull off this kind
of season…”

The type of the shortened word: a graphical abbreviation.

Full form of the
shortened word: number.

13.
An extract from article “Van Damme’s Volvo video: the Art of Going Viral” from
“USA Today”: “…Volvo scored big with this ad,
but in reality, most marketers don’t come close to garnering this type of
digital attention…”

The type of the shortened word: an
abbreviation achieved by omission of letters.

Full form of the
shortened word: advertisement.

14. “…Everybody wants their ads to
go viral,» says Ted Marzilli, CEO of consumer perception research
firm BrandIndex…”

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Chief Executive Officer.

 

15. “…Mixing
regret and some I-told-you-so attitude, Ryan said he and GOP presidential
nominee Mitt Romney «didn’t quite deliver» during their
bid for the White House last year…” This is an extract from the article “Paul Ryan to Iowans: Next time ‘be
a little more skeptical” from “USA Today” published 17^th November,
2013.

The type of the shortened word:

GOP – an acronym.

didn’t — a grammatical contraction

Full
form of the shortened word:

GOP – US Republican political party — Grand Old Party;

didn’t — did not.

 

 

2.2.         
Usage of abbreviations in
informational and technical sphere.

XXI century is considered to be the
century of informational and technical sciences. As these sciences are in the
process of development, a lot of short and long terms are appearing every day.
Some of them are very popular nowadays and known for every person, others are
used only by people of these professional spheres. Here are 25 examples of
abbreviations used in informational and technical textbooks.

1.“…These disciplines now sometimes
go by other names in different cultures and university department names –
system sciences, organization studies, IT, management, IS and especially nowadays, simply informatics…” [29, p3]

The type of the shortened word: initial abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

IT – Informational Technologies;

IS – Information Services.

 

2. “…They also use CDs, data stored in computers or disks, software and procedure manuals…”
[29, p13]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym

Full
form of the shortened word: compact disc.

 

3. “…For instance, even though the
human voice can range up to 20kHz in frequency, telephone
transmissions retain only up to about 5kHz…”[30]

The type of the shortened word: graphical abbreviation of weight.

Full
form of the shortened word: kilohertz.

 

4.“…by Mark Twain, is in uncompressed form
at 391 Kbytes and compressed form at 172 Kbytes; the compressed
file is around 44% of the original…” [30]

The type of the shortened word: a compound-shortened word.

Full form of the
shortened word: kilobyte.

5. “…Claude E. Shannon published “A
Mathematical Theory of Communication”, in which he presented the concept of
entropy, which gives a quantitative measure of the compression that is
possible…” [30]

The type of the shortened word:  a shortening a
proper name.

6.
“… Physical information, such as your gender , age, photo, signature,
fingerprints, scars or DNA also help to uniquely identify you for the
information purposes of immigration, police, access to building and the like…”
[29]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Deoxyribonucleic Acid.

7.
“…Programming languages such as Pascal, COBOL, and Fortran were
developed for business and scientific applications…Today, the most commonly
used computers are desktop PCs, and data is generally stored on hard
drives or USB drives…” [31]

The type of the shortened word:

1)    COBOL – an acronym.

2)   
PCs
– an acronym.

3)    USB – an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word:

1)COBOL – Common
Business-Oriented Language.

2)PCs – Personal
Computer in plural form.

3)USB — Universal Serial Bus.

8.
“…Web sites are often built with HTML, XML, CSS, ASP.NET, Java and
JavaScript…” [31]

The type of the shortened word: acronyms.

Full form of the
shortened word:

1)   
HTML
– HypterText Markup Language.

2)   
XML
– extensible Markup Language.

3)   
CSS
– Cascading Style Sheets.

4)   
ASP.NET:
ASP – Active Server Pages; NET – abbreviated form of the word Internet.

9. “…There is a
different strategy, known as RAID, that has gained popularity because it
needs only one additional disk beyond the primary data disks, and it can
tolerate failure of any one disk…” [30]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word:

RAID — Redundant Array of Independent Disks or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.

     10. “Such an environmental
perspective was used, for example, in the second assessment report of the IPCC…”
[32]

The type of the shortened word: an initial abbreviation.

Full form of the
shortened word: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate changes.

     11. “… Most DVDs have a
storage capacity of around nine gigabytes, 9GB – is enough to hold a
complete movie or thousands of pages of written words…”

The type of the shortened word: initial
abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)    DVD — Digital
Versatile Disc in plural form.

2)   
GB – gigabyte.

12. “…The major kinds of
digital processors are: CISC, RISC, DSP, and hybrid…” [33]

The type of the shortened word:

1)    CISC – an acronym.

2)    RISC — an acronym.

3)    DSP — an initial abbreviation.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)CISC — Complex
Instruction Set Computer.

2)RISC — Reduced
Instruction Set Computer.

3)DSP — Digital
Signal Processing.

13. “… Why would a tape say 15 cm
when the length is actually 12 cm?” [29]

The type of the shortened word: a graphical abbreviation of
length.

Full
form of the shortened word: centimeter

14. “…ROM is typically used to
store things that will never change for the life of the computer, such as low
level portions of an operating system…” [34]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Read Only Memory.

15. “… The most famous example of a
command line interface is the UNIX shell…” [33]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Uniplexed Information
and Computing System.

16. “FORTRAN was so innovative not
only because it was the first high-level language, but also because of its
compiler, which is credited as giving rise to the branch of computer science
now known as compiler theory…” [34]

The type of the shortened word: a composition abbreviation.

Full form of the shortened
word:
FORmula TRANslation.

17. “…It grew out of an earlier language
called SIMPLE, written in 1958 by Richard K. Bennett…” [31]

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Simulation of Industrial Management Problems with
Lots of Equations.

18. “…BASIC was designed as a
teaching language in 1963 by John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz of
Dartmouth College…” [34] BASIC  — an acronym,

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

19. “…Eiffel is a computer language in the
public domain. Its evolution is controlled by NICE, but it is open to
any interested party…”

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full form of the
shortened word: Nonprofit International Consortium for Eiffel.

20. “…If a programming language is popular
enough, some international group or committee will create an official standard
version of a programming language. The largest of these groups are ANSI
and ISO...” [34]

The type of the shortened word: acronyms.

Full form of the
shortened word:

1)   
ANSI
— American
National Standards Institute

2)    ISO — International
Organization for Standardization

2.3.         
Usage
of abbreviations in Medicine.

We
have analyzed 20 examples of shortened words and defined their type and full
form.

         1. The extract
from the section about “Acute
Abdomen and Surgical Gastroenterology”:  “…Barium causes severe caking
and peritonitis and should never be given to a patient with suspected GI tract
perforation…”

The type of the shortened word: an initialism.

Full
form of the shortened word: GastroIntestinal.

2.
“Back pain with shock suggests ruptured AAA,
particularly if there is a tender, pulsatile mass. Shock and vaginal bleeding
in a pregnant woman suggest ruptured ectopic pregnancy.”

The type of the shortened word: an initial
abbreviation.

Full
form of the shortened word: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

 

 3. “However,
moderate doses of IV analgesics do not mask peritoneal
signs and, by diminishing anxiety and discomfort, often make examination
easier…” [35] 

The type of the shortened word: an acronym.

Full
form of the shortened word: intravenous.

 

4. From the section about the “Biology of Infectious Disease”: “FUO
is body temperature ≥ 38.0° C rectally
that does not result from transient and self-limited illness, rapidly fatal
illness, or disorders with clear-cut localizing symptoms or signs or with
abnormalities on common tests such as chest x-ray,
urinalysis, or blood cultures…” There are several types of abbreviations in
this extract:

The type of the shortened word:

1)    FUO
–an initial abbreviation.

2)    C – a
graphical abbreviation.

3)     X –
ray — compound-shortened
word.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1) FUO – Fever of Unknown Origin.

2) C – means Celsius.

3) X – ray — X – radiation.

 

5.
“…Common connective tissue disorders include SLE, RA,
giant cell arteritis, vasculitis, and juvenile RA of
adults…”

The type of the shortened word:
initial abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)    SLE —
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

2)    RA —
Rheumatoid Arthritis.

 

6.
“Past medical history should
include disorders known to cause fever, such as cancer, TB,
connective tissue disorders… Clinicians should note disorders or factors that
predispose to infection, such as immunocompromise (eg, due to disorders such as
HIV
infection, cancer…” [35]

The type of the shortened word:
initial abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)    TB —  tuberculosis.

2)    HIV —
Human Immunodeficiency
Virus.

 

7. The extract
from the section “Myelodysplastic
syndromes: who and when in the course of disease to transplant”:  “The benefits of HSCT
need to be balanced against risks of nonrelapse mortality, GVHD,
and immune dysfunction. Given the lack of prospective clinical trials in this
area, several issues relating to transplantation for MDS remain
unresolved, including: a risk stratification approach to patient selection…”

The type of the shortened word:
initial abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)   
HSCT — Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.

2)   
nonrelapse
mortality – NRM.

3)   
GVHD — Graft versus Host Disease.

4)   
MDS  — Myelo
Dysplastic Syndrome.

8. “…Exciting areas of
ongoing research that may lead to reductions in posttransplantation relapse
rate include posttransplantation therapies such as DNA methyltransferase
inhibitors, vaccine strategies, and donor lymphocyte infusions to enhance the GVL
effect.” [36]

The type of the shortened word:

1)    DNA – an acronym.

2)    GVL – an initial
abbreviation.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1) DNA — DeoxyriboNucleic
Acid.

2) GVL — gamma
valeroactone.

9. The extract from the section “Digital
signal processing of the ultrasound echoes”: “…The generic architecture of SDR
systems composed of GPP, DSP, FPGA and high frequency
front-end blocks was proposed by…” [37]

The type of the shortened word:
initial abbreviations.

Full
form of the shortened word:

1)   
SDR
– Software Defined Audio.

2)   
GPP
– General Purpose Processor.

3)   
DSP
– Digital Signal Processor.

4)   
FPGA
– Field Programmable Gate Array.

 

 

 

General results of analysis abbreviations in mass
media, medicine, informational and technical sphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usage of
shortened words.

 

                                                       Conclusion.

Abbreviation
is shortening of a word or words and its porpoise is to save space. Most common
types of abbreviations are initialisms and acronyms. Initialisms are pronounced
letter by letter and acronyms are pronounced as a word.

There
are a lot of abbreviations with various meanings. The meaning usually depends
on the context.

The
shortening of words also stands apart from the above two-fold division of
word-formation. It cannot be regarded as part of either word-derivation or
word-composition for the simple reason that neither derivational base nor the
derivational affix can be singled out from the shortened word.

Shortening
may be represented as significant subtraction, in which part of the original
word or word group is taken away. Shortening consists in the reduction of a
word to one of its parts, as a result of which the new form receives some
linguistic value of its own.

To reach our aim we have defined the functions of shortened
lexical units; analyzed the existing categorizations and types of the
abbreviations; the types of shortening in the newspapers and textbooks. The
practical part of the investigation which includes very interesting information
for students, self-studied can be recommended for widening vocabulary and
development of speech and knowledge of English language.

On the base of researched work, we come to conclusion that we need
to use the shortening to develop the grammar, its peculiarities, and to widen vocabulary.
The shortenings are very useful in the society. We meet them on
the newspapers, advertisements, all of them are the mass media, medicine,
informational and technical sphere and of course at everyday
communication.

The abbreviation is very wide theme to investigate; it has many
types and tendencies for today. We researched methodical literature, scientific
articles, recent works of methodology scientist; using such methods as
analyzing manuals, textbooks and books, educational magazines, training
appliances, newspapers and of course to find out the latest and the most modern
information we used internet.

In this paper all objectives of research are followed:

—        
Collect
theoretical material about abbreviations, their functions and meanings.

—        
Study
and analyze the scientific and educational literature.

—        
Analyze the existing categorizations of shortenings.

—        
Define the functions of shortened lexical units.

—        
Perform
practical analysis about the usage of abbreviations in mass media, medicine, informational
and technical sphere.

References.

1.     G.
Amandykova, L. Kabysheva “ Lexicology” p 60, 2008

2.     “
Academic Skills Office” research of University of New England, 2011

3.     R.S.
Ginzburg, S.S. Khidekel “A course in Modern English Lexicology” p110, 1979

4.     R.S.
Ginzburg “A course in Modern English Lexicology” p187, 1979

5.     Internet:
http://gendocs.ru/v7721/?cc=12

6.     I.V.
Arnold “ The English Word” p 110-111, 1966

7.     G.
Amandykova “Lexicology of English language”, 2008

8.     Hockett
Ch. A Course in Modern Linguistics. N.Y., p313, 1958.

9.    
Arnold I.V..  “The
English Word” p135, 1986

10.
 E.M. Dubenets
“Lexicology” p 60, 2010

11. Oxford English
Dictionary, 2009

12.
 E.M. Dubenets ‘Modern
English Lexicology: Theory and Practice”, 2002

13.
The American Heritage
“New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy”, Third Edition, 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company

14.
G.B. Antrushina, O.V.
Aphanasieva “English lexicology”, 2008

15. E.V. Babenko “A
Manual of English Lexicology” p39, 2009

16.
Fischer, Roswitha “Lexical
change in present-day English: A corpus-based study of the motivation,
institutionalization, and productivity of creative neologisms”, 1998

17. Jessica Clements, Elizabeth Angeli, Karen
Schiller “The Chicago Manual of Style” 16^th edition, 2013

18.
«Guide to the Third Edition of the
OED». Oxford
English Dictionary. Oxford
University Press. August 19, 2010.

19.
Barnes, Noble “Webster’s
New Universal Unabridged Dictionary”, 2003.

20.
Arnold I.V..  “The
English Word”,
1973.

21. McArthur, Tom.
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford
University Press 1998.

22. Dictionary of
Abbreviations (Oxford Paperback Reference) Oxford Paperbacks, 1998

23. Sabin, William A.
The Gregg reference manual. Tenth edition. McGraw-Hill Irvin, 2004.

24. Dugger, Jim.
Business letters for busy people. National Press
Publications, Inc. USA 2002.

25. I.V. Zykova “A
practical Course in English Lexicology” p71, 2006

26. Internet:
http://lib.chdu.edu.ua/pdf/pidruchnuku/18/147.pdf

27.
Arnold I.V..  “The
English Word”, p 149, 1959.

28.  The newspapers
“The New York Times”, “Daily News”, “The Wall Street Journal”, “USA Today”,
“The Times”, “Financial Times”, “Daily Mail”, 2013

29. John Gammack,
Valerie Hobbs, Diarmuid Pigott “The Book of Informatics”, 2007

30. Jayadev Misra
“Theory in Programming Practice”, 2012.

31. Jeri Freedman
“Computer Science and Programming”, 2009.

32.  Arnulf
Grübler
“Technology and Global Change, 2003.

33. Chris Woodford
“Digital Technologies”, 2007.

34. “Computer
Programming” 2007.

35.
 Merck
Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy,
Robert S. Porter, Justin
L. Kaplan, 2011.

36.
“Hematology”, American
Society of Hematology, 2012.

37.
 “Ultrasound Imaging”, Masayuki Tanabe, 2011.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Full form	Contracted	Notes
not	–n’t	Irregular forms: «ain’t», «don’t», «won’t», «shan’t». «n’t» can only be attached to an auxiliary verb which is itself not contracted.
let us	let’s
I am	I’m
are	–’re	we’re /wɪr/ is pronounced differently than were /wɜr/ in some dialects.
is	–’s
does	very informal, as in «What’s he do there every day?»
has
have	–’ve
had	–’d
did	very informal, as in «Where’d she go?»
would
will	–’ll
of	o’–	used mostly in o’clock, where it is mandatory in contemporary use
it	‘t–	Archaic, except in stock uses such as ‘Twas the night before Christmas
them	’em	Perceived as informal, yet old. Actually from hem, which is not the same word as them, a Norse loan.
is not	isn’t, or ain’t	ain’t is contracted from am not and more recently is not; it is generally considered a colloquial contraction.

 

MORPHEMES

1. Definition of Morpheme

The term morpheme is used to refer to the smallest, indivisible units of semantic content or grammatical function which word are made up. The word morpheme is derived from the root morph.

• The suffix in morphemes is –eme ; it is something related to minimal distinctive unit. That is the smallest unit that can be distinguished in some system of classification.

The root of the word comes from Greek word ‘morphe’ which means form or shape.

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language that can not be divided into a small unit. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is a freestanding unit of meaning. Every word comprises one or more morphemes.

1. Types of Morphemes

In generally, types of morphemes can be divided into two kinds of morphemes. The first one is free morpheme and other one is bound morpheme.

1. 1.      Free morphemes

Free morphemes can stand by themselves (i.e. they are what we conventionally call words) and either tell us something about the world (free lexical morphemes) or play a role in grammar (free grammatical morphemes). Man, pizza, run and happy are instances of free lexical morphemes, while and, but, the and to are examples for free grammatical morphemes. It is important to note the difference between morphemes and phonemes: morphemes are the minimal meaning-bearing elements that a word consists of and are principally independent from sound. For example, the word zebra (ˈziːbrə) consists of six phones and two syllables, but it contains only a single morpheme. Ze– and -bra are not independent meaning-bearing components of the word zebra, making it monomorphemic. (Bra as a free morpheme does in fact mean something in English, but this meaning is entirely unrelated to the -bra in zebra.).

1. 2.      Bound morphemes

Not all morphemes can be used independently, however. Some need to be bound to a free morpheme. In English the information “plural number” is attached to a word that refers to some person, creature, concept or other nameable entity (in other words, to a noun) when encoded in a morpheme and cannot stand alone. Similarly the morpheme -er, used to describe “someone who performs a certain activity” (e.g. a dancer, a teacher or a baker) cannot stand on its own, but needs to be attached to a free morpheme (a verb in this case). Bound morphemes come in two varieties, derivational and inflectional, the core difference between the two being that the addition of derivational morphemes creates new words while the addition of inflectional words merely changes word form.

1. a.      Derivational morphemes

The signature quality of derivational morphemes is that they derive new words. In the following examples, derivational morphemes are added to produce new words which are derived from the parent word.

happy – happiness – unhappiness

frost – defrost – defroster

examine – examination – reexamination

In all cases the derived word means something different than the parent and the word class may change with each derivation. As demonstrated in the examples above, sometimes derivation will not cause the world class to change, but in such a case the meaning will usually be significantly different from that of the parent word, often expressing opposition or reversal.

probable – improbable

visible – invisible

tie – untie

create – recreate

Independently of whether or not word class changes and how significantly meaning is affected, derivation always creates (derives) new words from existing ones, while inflection is limited to changing word form.

1. b.      Inflectional morphemes

Inflection (the process by which inflectional morphemes are attached to words) allows speakers to morphologically encode grammatical information. That may sound much more complicated than it really is – recall the example we started out with.

The word girls consists of two morphemes

• the free lexical morpheme girl that describes a young female human being and
• the bound inflectional morpheme -s that denotes plural number

Examples for the morphological encoding of other grammatical categories are tense (past tense -ed as in walked), aspect (progressive aspect as in walking),case (genitive case as in Mike‘s car) and person (third person -s as in Mike drives a Toyota).

You are likely to notice that

• overall, English grammar has fairly few inflections and
• some inflectional endings can signify different things and more than one piece of grammatical information at once

The first point can easily be demonstrated by comparing English with German, which makes more use of inflection. Compare the following two pairs of sentences.

Der Mann sah den Hund

Den Hund sah der Mann

vs.

The man saw the dog

The dog saw the man

If you focus on the meaning of the two German sentences you’ll see that it does not change, even though we’ve changed the word order. The man is still the one who sees the dog, not the other way around. By contrast, the English expression changes its meaning from the first to the second sentence.

Why is this the case? In the German example the definite article is inflected for accusative case (den Hund), telling us who exactly did what to whom. This allows us to play around with the word order without changing the meaning of the sentence. English gives us no way of doing the same. We are forced to stick to a fixed word order due to a lack of case inflection (except for personal pronouns). Languages such as Latin that indicate a high degree of grammatical information via inflection (so-called synthetic languages) generally have a free word order than analytic languages like English which have only reasonably very few inflections and rely on word order to signal syntactic relations (another popular example for a strongly analytic language is Chinese).

Affixes

Linguists use the term affix to describe where exactly a bound morpheme is attached to a word. Prefixes are attached at the onset of a free morpheme, while suffixes are attached to the end. Infixes – affixes that occur in the middle of a word – are very rare in English, a well-known exception being expletive infixation. While in English suffixes can be either derivational or inflectional (teacher, slowly vs. apples, kicked), prefixes are always derivational (untie,recover, defrost).

Fifteen Common Prefixes

The following tables and tip are adopted from Grammar and Composition by Mary Beth Bauer, et al.

Prefix	Meaning
ad-	to, toward
circum-	around, about
com-	with, together
de-	away from, off
dis-	away, apart
ex-	from, out
in-	Not
in-	in, into
inter-	Between
mis-	Wrong
post-	After
re-	back, again
sub-	beneath, under
trans-	Across
un-	Not

Ten Common Suffixes

Suffix	Meaning
-able (-ible)	capable of being
-ance (-ence)	the act of
-ate	making or applying
-ful	full of
-ity	the state of being
-less	Without
-ly	in a certain way
-ment	the result of being
-ness	the state of being
-tion (-ion, -sion)	the act of or the state of being

Tip

Suffixes can also be used to tell the part of speech of a word.  The following examples show the parts of speech indicated by the suffixes in the chart.

Nouns:  -ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -tion

Verb:  -ate

Adjectives:  -able, -ful, -less, -ly

Adverb:  -ly

Morphs, morphemes, allomorphs

When you look at certain inflectional endings that occur in English, you’ll notice that they are often but not always predictable. Here are a few examples for the plural morpheme.

one car – two cars; one rose – two roses…

but

one mouse – two mice

one man – two men

one ox – two oxen

one sheep – two sheep

A vowel change (also called an umlaut plural) instead of a suffix marks the plural in mice and men, in oxen the suffix we encounter is rather exotic (meaning this word is virtually the only one that takes the -en ending) and in the last example there is no visible plural marking at all.

The fact that plural number in English can be marked with several different inflectional suffixes (-s, -en), by vowel change or by no (visible) change at all points to a distinction you already know from phonology:

Morphs

a concrete part of a word that cannot be divided into smaller parts

morphemes
the meaning-distinguishing, abstract dimension of morphs, e.g. something like the plural morpheme

allomorphs
different realizations of the the same morpheme, e.g. -s, -en and nothing for the plural morpheme in dogs, oxen and fish_

When linguists talk about the allomorphs of the plural morpheme they are referring to variants of the same functional element which do not impact meaning in any way. A plural is still a plural, whether encoded by -s or something else.

Base, stem and root

Finally, in order to make the segmentation of words into smaller parts a little clearer, we differentiate between the base, the stem and the root of a word in morphological terms.

base: reactions

stem: reaction (s)

root: (re) act (ion) (s)

The stem is the base with all inflectional suffixes removed, whereas the root is what remains after all affixes have been taken off. When doing computational text analysis stemming (i.e. removing all inflectional endings) is frequently undertaken in order to avoid counting different word forms (e.g. house andhouses) as separate words.

It is inevitable that words change their meanings over time but it is still interesting to know the English words the meanings of which became very different from what they mean originally.

You might be surprised to know that the words you’ll find here are mostly words that you use regularly. It is a regular occurrence and the change of meaning could be narrowed or broadened. An example of this is the word ”hound.” Previously, a canine is traditionally called hound, while dog is used to indicate a canine that is fierce and big. The term ”dog” became the common term, which is broadening its meaning. The meaning of ”hound” became narrow as it now only refers to hunting dogs. Dogs of smaller breeds, especially, including Chihuahuas and toy dogs should never be called hounds.

Some of the narrowing and broadening of the meaning of words happened randomly. The question whether someone drinks refers to imbibing alcoholic drinks rather than all liquids. Previously, enjoying music means enjoying classical music, nothing else. When you say you enjoy reading today, it more or less means that the person is reading fiction instead of books on various subjects including history, science, nature and the like.

Intuitive and transformative shift

The changing of the meaning of words follows a mild transformative and intuitive direction. In the old days ”meat” referred to all items related to food, which is why ”candy” is called sweetmeat. Now meat solely pertain to flesh, which, while narrowed stayed within the sphere of food.

Some of the shift was lateral. Bird for example used to refer to a baby animal before it became the overall term for flying animals, which used to be called ”fugol.” The latter narrowed and changed to ”fowl” and now refers to birds raised in farms such as hens, geese, ducks and turkeys.

Distant shifts

The meanings of many English words today are very far from the original because of implications.

Audition

One of them is the word ”audition” that seems to have the root word that refers to ”audio.” Today, when you hear the term, what easily comes to mind is a person trying out for a film or play.

However, when ”audition” first came to be used, the word was used by doctors to mean that a patient’s hearing would be better once the ears are cleared of whatever is blocking the sound.

In 19th century England, the term for tryouts became ”hearings” because at that time trying out for plays means listening to a person reciting something, which writers turned into something fancier by using the word ”audition.”

The word stuck and used primarily to mean trying out for a performance while hearing became the term that refers to sound perception.

Commodity

Commodity now refers to staple products the quantity of which remains constant regardless of producers. The term is commonly used when referring to futures contracts that ensure uniformity in price even when the market fluctuates.

When the word was first used, it referred to comfort, for example, in accommodation, meaning indulging in personal comforts, such as enjoying the pleasure of staying in bed or spreading your body on a cozy sofa.

The current meaning is very distant for the original intent – from feeling comfortable to being products in the futures market, which is about financial contracts.

Fine

The word ”fine” came from the French word, ”fin” or end. Today, it has evolved to mean something that is ”the best,” ”the ultimate” or ”the top of the line.” Thus, initially fine, means either something of high quality or the end. The high quality meaning is what made it into the English language, which became associated with something delicate. It implies top quality as the item was produced with high precision.

However, there are other used for the word fine. When someone is asked how they are doing, the standard reply is he/she is fine. In this context, the word fine implies that the person is not hurt, is feeling great or in good health. The meaning extends to other things, such as the payment for a minor violation.

When you watch a French film, you are still likely see the word ”fin” at the end before the credits. But outside France, fine means something else.

Minority

The original meaning of the word ”minority” was a ”small portion” of something, which means that it was a technical term. However, today the word is generally used as a demographic term. When you say minority, the implication is that you refer to people of color. In the minds of many Americans, minority refers to Latino and Black people. So even if the Whites were outnumbered by Latinos or Blacks, they would never be referred to as minority because they do not have dark complexions.

Merry

Merry is a word the original meaning of which is very different from how it is used today. In the past, ”merry” meant ”short.” It is because something short or brief is pleasant. Now merry means joy, gaiety, full of merriment, fun, lively and so on. The English language already had a word ”short” in the early days, however, it meant ”sliced off.”

Merry had a long past as well. It started from the steppes in Ukraine where most of the languages in Europe originated. Merry came from the word ”mregh” that became ”brakhion” in Greece. It was a term used for the upper arm, as physically, the lower arm is longer than the upper arm. Brakhion entered the Latin language as ‘brakh” but ended as a pastry term, as in brachitella or bread that resembles folded arms. Old German adopted the term as brezitella that morphed into brezel in Middle High German, which is now known as pretzel.

In the French language, brach referred to shoulder straps that extended to mean the chemise worn by children. Brach evolved into brassiere which was shortened to ”bra.”

In a sense, pretzel and bra are the same as merry, although the evolution that happened gradually means that it would be impossible today to use the three words in a sentence that would make sense.

Awful and awesome

Both words came from ”awe,” which is an Old English word that originally meant dread, terror or fear. When used to refer to God, it meant respectful or reverential fear. Awesome and awful used to be synonyms, but in the 19th century however, awful became a term that is synonymous to the emotion’s negative aspect thus it usually refers to something very bad or something frightful. Awesome on the other hand became the term used to mean mind-boggling, stunning or marvelous, which were cited initially in a 1980 publication called Official Preppy Handbook.

Opposite meaning

The meaning of words will continue to change as long as there are speakers of the language. Some of the meanings shift to become the opposite of the original while some become complimentary or otherwise.

Nice

From the Anglo-Norman language to classical Latin to English, the word ”nice” used to refer to someone ”ignorant” from the Latin word ”nescius.” Starting from the 1300s up to the 1600s the meaning was the same – ignorant, foolish or silly. But during the same period, nice took on different meanings, from being dissolute, wanton, cowardly, effeminate, lazy, intricate, sluggish, refined to elegant.

In the 16th century the meanings changed to sharp, attentive, meticulous. When the 18th century arrived, the meanings lost much of its prestige; it gained the meaning we use today, such as pleasant or agreeable.

Dinner

Dinner started from the French word ”disner” that originated from the Latin term, ”disjejunare” or breaking the fast. Thus it originally referred to the first meal you have for the day. Through the evolution of the word, it was used to refer to the day’s main meal, which is still used in some circles. For the fashionable and professional classes today, as mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary, dinner now refers to the largest meal taken in the evening. The last meal served during the day is called supper, which is seldom used today. The current meaning is a light meal in the early evening if you had dinner in the middle of the day. You could also have supper before you go to bed.

Naughty

Naughty people in the 1300s were those who had naught or nothing. It meant they were either needy or poor. A millennium later, the meaning shifted to someone morally wicked or bad or someone who was worth nothing. So the meaning changed from having nothing to someone sexually provocative, promiscuous or licentious. But in the late 17th century other meanings were added to naughty. These are gentler terms, often used to refer to children who display misbehavior, disobedience or mischievousness.

Several more English words have changed meanings. Silly for example used to mean blessed or worthy before the meanings became vulnerable or weak. Today, it is mainly used to refer to someone foolish. Some are more difficult to comprehend, such as clue coming from the word ”clew” meaning a ball of yarn to being important pieces of evidence. Fathom used to mean, ”to encircle with your arm” whereas today it means understanding something after spending time to think about it.

It does not matter if the meanings of many English words continue to change. The human translators of Day Translations, Inc. will always use the most applicable words to accurately translate your documents. They are all native speakers and located around the world to serve your translation requirements quickly and efficiently. We serve clients 24/7, 365 days a year. So contact us for translation services anytime by calling us at 1-800-969-6853 or sending us an email at Contact us.

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