Shahin Ibrahimkhalilov

Shortenings
In the process of communication words and
word-groups can be shortened. In Modern
English a lot of new acronyms, abbreviations,
blends, initials are formed because the pace of
life is increasing and it becomes necessary to
give more and more information for the
shortest period of time
 There are two
different ways of
shortening:

Abbreviation
Contraction
(initial
(clipping)
shortening).
CONTRACTION (CLIPPING)

 Clipping is shortening or reducing long words.

This is a common phenomon in English which
can be proved by the following examples:
 Information --info,
 Advertisement -- advert,
 telephone -- phone.
 Contraction (clipping)

Final clipping Initial clipping

(apocope): (apheresis):
e. g. doc (doctor), mag e. g. plane (airplane),
(magazine) phone (telephone)

Medial clipping
Mixed clipping:
(syncope):
e. g. flu (influenza), tec
e. g. fancy (fantasy),
(detective)
specs (spectacles)
THE SECOND WAY OF MAKING NEW WORDS IS
ABRIVATIONS. THEY ARE DIVIDED INTO FIVE GROUPS

 Acronyms
 Alphabetic abbreviations
 Compound abbreviations
 Graphic abbreviations
 Latin abbreviations
 Acronyms
Acronyms are read in accordance within the
reading rules as though they were ordinary
words:
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization),
UNO (United Nations Organization).
ALPHABETIC ABBREVIATIONS

 Alphabetic abbreviations get their full

alphabetic pronunciation and a full stress:
USA, BBC, MP. Alphabetic abbreviations
sometimes concern names of famous
people: G.B.S. (George Bernard Shaw),
B.B. (Brigitte Bardot).
COMPOUND ABBREVIATIONS

 Compound abbreviations in which the first

constituent is a letter and the second part is a
complete word:
A-bomb (atomic-bomb), L-driver (learner – driver).
In compound abbreviation also may be clipped one
or both constituents: Interpol (international police).
 GRAPHIC ABBREVIATIONS

 Graphic abbreviations can be found in texts for economy of space.

They are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words:
Mr., Mrs., m (mile), ltd (limited).
There are several semantic groups of graphic abbreviations:
 a) Days of the week, e. g. Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday, etc.
 b) Names of months, e. g. Apr – April, Aug – August, etc.
 c) Names of counties in UK, e. g. Yorks – Yorkshire, Berks –
Berkshire, etc. d) names of states in USA, e. g. Ala – Alabama, Alas
– Alaska, etc.
LATIN ABBREVIATIONS

 Latin abbreviations can be read as separate

letters or be substituted by the English
equivalents: e. g. (for example), cf.
(compare), i. e. (that is).
Thanks For Attention