Shortenings (abbreviations, acronyms, clippings, blends)

Shortening (abbreviation) is the formation of a new word by cutting off a part of the word: clipping, acronym.

Clipping – is a type of shortening, which derived from single words, though they sometimes may be derived from phrases. One component of a phrase is omitted. Clipping means taking away any part of the word. The remaining part of the word which may be neither a morpheme nor even a syllable acquires all the properties of a regular word (Eg: He spoke to the vet’s wife). Structural types of clippings:

1) Apheresis - the omission of a letter or syllable at the beginning of a word (e.g. history → story; telephone → phone)

2) Syncope – the omission of one or more sounds or letters from the middle of a word (e.g. madam → ma’am)

3) Apocope – omission of the final sound or sounds of a word (e.g. professor → prof; editor → ed; vampire → vamp)

Can occur: apheresis + syncope: e.g. influenza → flu; detective → tec

Clipping is a source of new morphemes in English and clipping may serve as word-building basis (e.g. taxi – to taxi, taxidriver, taxidancer, airtaxi, taxitest). Clipping can be combined with derivation and composition (e.g. chinee, comfy, labassistant).

Semantic Peculiarities of Clipping.Polysemantic words are usually clipped in one meaning only (e.g. docand doctorhave the meaning “one who practices medicine,”but doctor is also“the highest degree given bya university to a scholar or scientist”). Among abbreviations there are homonyms, so that one and the same sound and graphical complex may represent different words (e.g. Vac, prep, vet)

Acronyms are pronounceable names made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words:

1) Alphabetically – some abbreviations are read as individual letters: BBC, UN, DVD

2) Some abbreviations are read as words according to the rules of reading: NATO, AIDS, ASH

Some abbreviations are only written forms but they are pronounced as full words (e.g. Mr, Mrs, Dr.). Some abbreviations are from Latin . They are used as part of the language (e.g. etc – et cetera; e.g. (for example) – exampli gratia; that is – id est)

Blending is a particular type of shortening combining the features of both clipping and composition. Blending means merging two parts of the word into one stem (e.g. smoke + fog = smog; breakfast + lunch = brunch; smoke + haze = smaze)

Structural types of Blendings:

-Initial part + final part (e.g. electricity + execute = electrocute)

- Initial part + initial part (e.g. liberal + labour = lib-lab)

- Initial part + full word (e.g. parachute + troops = paratroops)

- Full word + final part (e.g. slim + gymnastics = slimnastics)

Additive – blends are transformable into coordinative phrases with the conjunction and. Breakfast + lunch = brunch

Restrictive – blends are transformable into subordinative attributive or adverbial phrases (e.g. Positron – positive electron; Medicare – medical care)

Backformation – coining new words by means of subtracting a real or supposed suffix as a result of misinterpretation of the structure of the word (e.g. beggar → to beg).

1. Shortening. Four types of contraction.
Shortening - is the process and the result of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, morphemes)
Contraction (clipping) (скорочення):
- Final clipping (apocope) – omission of the final part of the word gym (gymnasium), doc (doctor), lab (laboratory). Proper names are also apocopated: Nick (Nicholas), Ed (Edward)
- Initial clipping (apheresis [ə'ferɪsɪs ]) - the omission of the fore part of the word. In many cases the shortened word differs from its source only stylistically: telephone – phone, omnibus – bus, math - mathematics. Sometimes, however, the shortened word is somewhat modified in meaning or even altered: acute (sharp) – cute (pretty, clever), espy (see at a distance) – spy (to try to get secret information). Many first names were shortened the aphaeresis way: Bess (Elisabeth), Becky (Rebecca) etc.
- Medial clipping (syncope ['sinkəpi]) - omission of the middle part of the word: fantasy – fancy, courtesy – curtsy. There are some graphical abbreviations of this type: Mr, Mrs.
- Mixed clipping where the fore and the final parts of the word are clipped: tec – detective, flu –influenza ([influ'enzə] грип), fridge – refrigerator, Liz – Elisabeth.

13.Abbreviations. Five groups of abbreviations.

An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev. Dr. for Doctor, U.S. for United States, lb. for pound.
1) Acronyms. Read in accordance with the rules of orthoepy [ˈɔːθəʊɛpi] as though they were ordinary words: UNO - United Nations Organization, UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, NATO ['neitəʊ] - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
2) Alphabetic abbreviations in which letters get their full alphabetic pronunciation and full stress: USA - United States of America, BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation, FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation. Alphabetic abbreviation are sometimes used for famous persons’ names: F.D.R - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, G.B.S. – George Bernard Shaw
3) Compound abbreviations in which the first is a letter or letters and the second is a complete word: A-bomb – atomic bomb, V-day – victory day, hi-fi – high fidelity (високоякісний), sci-fic (scientific fiction)
4) Graphic abbreviations which are used in texts for economy of space. They are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words: Mr – Mister, ft – foot/feet, ltd – limited, Co – company, X-mas – Christmas
5) Latin abbreviations:
A.D. – Anno Domini - нашої ери, від різдва Христова
p.m – post meridiem - after noon, used after times of day between noon and midnight not expressed using the 24-hour clock
e.g – exempli gratia - for example
L. (lb) – libra - pound(s) (in weight)
op. cit – opere citato - цитований твір; у цитованому творі
P.S – post scriptum - «после написанного», «послесловие»
viz – videlicit — «а именно, то есть»
ad lib – ad libitum - без підготовки, імпровізуючи, експромтом, необмежено, по бажанню
q.v. – quod vide - used to direct a reader to another part of a book or article for further information
cf – conferatur - «сравни», «следует сравнить»
id – idem - "the same” It is used to avoid repeating the name of a male author (in citations, footnotes, bibliographies, etc.) When quoting a female author, use the corresponding feminine form, ead. (eadem), "the same (woman)" (eadem is pronounced with stress on the first e-).
loc.cit – loco citato - in the passage already cited
ob – obiit - he or she died
ibid – ibidem - in the same place
v. – versus - "against"

14. Semi-productive Ways of word-formation. Back formation. Blending. Lexicalization of the plural of nouns. Sound –imitation.

2. Others are semi-productive (back-formation, blending, reduplication, lexicalization of the plural of nouns, sound imitation)

Semi-productive ways of word-formation Back-Formation is a derivation of new words (mostly verbs) by means of subtracting a suffix or other element resembling it. An example of back-formation in English is the verb to beg derived from the noun beggar, to baby sit from the noun baby-sitter, to sculpt from sculptor,etc. Blending is the formation of new lexical units by means of margin fragments of words into one new word, or combining the elements of one word with a notional word, e.g. smog (smoke+fog), drunch (drinks+lunch). Reduplication compounds are made by doubling a stem. It falls into 3 main groups: reduplicative compounds proper (immediate constituents are identical in their form without any phonetic changes), e.g. bye-bye, flash-flash, goody-goody; ablaut (gradational) compounds (variation of a root vowel), e.g. riff-raff, dilly-dally, ping-pong; rhyme compounds (immediate constituents are joined to rhyme), e.g. willy-nilly, namby-pamby. Lexicalization of the plural of nouns. There are cases when the grammatical form of the plural of nouns becomes isolated from the paradigm and acquires a new lexical meaning, e.g. look (погляд) :: looks (зовнішність). Sound imitation (onomatopoeia) is the process in which words are made by imitating sounds produced by living beings and inanimate objects. It is of some interest that sounds produced by the same kind of animal are represented by quite different sound groups in different languages. For instance, English dogs bark or howl, English cock cries cock-a-doodle-doo, ducks quack and frogs croak.

15. Reduplication and conversion. 37