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English:
Abbreviations
Aydiila S.
Grammatical
Morphology
Extra-grammatical Morphology
Clipping
Clipping is word formation process in which a
word (or sometimes is phrase) is cut up,
reduced or truncated in order to produce
new shorter version of the word without a
change in meaning or grammatical function,
as in amp (amplifier), caps (capitals), curio
(curiosity), mac (macaroni or Macintosh),
soph (sophomore), Cal (University of
California), glutes (gluteus maximus), mob
(mobile vulgus), perm (permanent wave),
siggy (significant other)
Classification of Clippings
Back-clippings, like ad (advertisement), app
(application), cam (camera), emo (emotional),
fave (favourite), ex (ex-boyfriend, girlfriend,
husband, wife), fries (fried potatoes).
Fore-clippings, such as bot (robot), coon (racoon),
fro (Afro), nana (banana), phone (telephone),
varsity (university), venture (adventure), deed
(indeed).
Middle clippings, like fridge (refrigerator, with an
intrusive -d-), flu (influenza), jams or jammies
(pyjamas), script (prescription), tec (detective), van
(advantage).
A discontinuous base, as in vegan from vegetarian
is the rarest type.
Classification of Acronyms
Non-elliptic acronyms, in which all the words contained in the
source phrase are graphically represented by a letter such as
AWOL (absent without official leave), CICS (Customer
Information Control System), COIL (Chemical Oxygen Iodine
Laser).
Elliptic acronyms' are those formations in which not all the words
contained in the base form are orthographically represented by
letters as in ARCA (Automobile Racing Car of America), where of
does not appear in the acronym, ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Interchange).
This class of acronyms is less prototypical than the previous two,
and comprises those acronyms composed of more than one
initial letter from each word of the base phrase. Examples of this
kind are: radar (radio detention and ranging); colidar (coherent
light detecting and ranging).
Classification of Initialisms
Non-elliptic initialisms are formed of the initial letters of every
constituent of the base phrase, without any omission such as
CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade), CCP (Casualty Collection Point),
FCS (Football Championship Subdivision).
Elliptic initialism are formations which frequently tend to omit
function words, such as prepositions (BA for Bachelor of Arts),
conjunctions (BBSRC for Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council), or their combinations (CCCP for Central
Committee of the Communist Party).
Kreidler (1979 : 29) in Maria Letizia points out that abbreviation devices are
basically characterized by unpredictability in their mechanisms of formation,
particularly as regards the precise shape of the shortening and where the cut
will be made. In the case of clippings, for example, what is unpredictable is (a)
how many syllables from the base can be retained in the clipped form, e.g. bra for
brasserie, bro for brother, mag for magazine all have one syllable retained,
whereas binocs for binoculars, limo for limousine, memo for memorandum, undies
for underwear have two syllables; (b) whether the final syllable will be open or
close, abs for abdominals, Birks for Birkenstock, Minn for Minnesota, trig for
trigonometry have close syllables at the end, whereas Cali for California, emo for
emotional, Presbo for Presbyterian, schizo for schizophrenic have open syllables at
the end. Furthermore, (c) the clipped form may be taken from the beginning, the
end or the middle of the base word (e.g. Ave for Avenue, croc for crocodile, narc
for narcotic inspector are taken from the beginning of the source word; cause for
because, droid for android, zine for magazine are taken from the end of the base;
flu for influenza, tec for detective from the middle; vegan for vegetarian retains te
beginning + the end) (Bauer, 1983 : 233; Ronneberger-Sibold, 2008 : 203).
Conclusion
In conclusion, although some regularity and
recurring patterns can be identified in the
formation of English abbreviations, our claim
in this study is that their morphological
operations are basically of extra-grammatical
nature.
REFERENCES
Malatesti, Maria Letizia. (2011). Extragrammatical Morphology in English. Master
Thesis at University of Pisa: Published in
http://etd.adm.unipi.it/t/etd-09132011-104331/
Mattiello, Eisa. (2013) Extra-grammatical
Morphology in English: Abbreviations, Blends,
Reduplicatives, and Related Phenomena (ed.),
Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]: De Gruyter
Mouton.