- •New words
- •Lecture 1 exercise 1
- •Lecture 1 lexicology
- •Lecture 2 new words
- •Lecture 2 exercise 2
- •Lecture 2 formal and informal speech
- •Informal Style
- •Colloquial words
- •Dialect words
- •Lecture 3 new words
- •Lecture 3 exercise 3
- •Lecture 3 the origin of english words native words
- •Borrowings
- •Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they were borrowed. Romanic borrowings. Latin borrowings
- •French borrowings the influence of french on the english spelling
- •Italian borrowings
- •Germanic borrowings
- •Scandinavian borrowings
- •German borrowings
- •Dutch borrowings
- •Slavonic borrowings
- •Etymological doublets
- •International words
- •Lecture 4 new words
- •Lecture 4 exercise 4
- •Lecture 4 abbreviations
- •Graphical abbreviations
- •Initial abbreviations
- •Abbreviation of words
- •Lecture 5 new words
- •Lecture 5 exercise 5
- •Prefixation
- •Topics for discussion
- •Lecture 6 new words
- •Lecture 6 exercise 6
- •Lecture 6 semasiology
- •Word-meaning
- •Lexical meaning – notion
- •Polysemy
- •Types of semantic components
- •Topics for discussion
- •Lecture 7 new words
- •Lecture 7 exercise 7
- •Lecture 7 homonyms
- •Classification of homonyms
- •Synonyms
- •Antonyms
- •Topics for discussion
- •Lecture 8 new words
- •Lecture 8 exercise 8
- •Lecture 8 british and american english
- •Differences in spelling
- •Differences in pronunciation
- •Topics for discussion
- •Lecture 9 new words
- •Lecture 9 exercise 9
- •Lecture 9 classification of language units according to the period of time they live in the language
- •Archaisms and historisms
- •Neologisms
- •Semantic groups of neologisms
- •Ways of forming neologisms
- •Changes in pronunciation
- •Topics for discussion
- •Lecture 10 new words
- •Lecture 10
- •Lecture 10 phraseology
- •Ways of forming phraseological units
- •Semantic classification of phraseological units
- •Structural classification of phraseological units
- •Exercise 2
- •Borrowed words exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Abbreviations exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Affixation. Prefixation and suffixation exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Exercise 3
- •Exercise 4
- •Polisemy exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Exercise 3
- •Homonyms. Synonyms. Antonyms exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Exercise 3
- •Exercise 4
- •Exercise 5
- •Exercise 6 Fill in the blanks with the right words and explain your choice:
- •1.There were a lot of skaters on the … ice of the bank. 2. The lightning … and
- •Exercise 8
- •Neologisms exercise 1
- •Phraseology exercise 1
- •Exercise 2
- •Exercise 3
- •Exercise 4
- •Sources
- •Dictionaries
- •Contents
- •Borrowed words
- •Spanish words
Abbreviation of words
Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is different from 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 doesn’t change part-of-speech meaning, as 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 etc. As a rule, pronouns, numerals, interjections, conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fifteen), (apocope), teenager, in one’s teens (apheresis from numerals from 13 to 19).
Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we can mention the 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) – невеликий естрадний ансамбль, Afro (African) – зачіска під африканця 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), etc. Sometimes the middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine), maths mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we have a combination of apocope with apheresis, when the beginning and the end of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.
Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. “c” can be substituted by “k” before “e” to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike (microphone), coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the following cases: teck (technical college), trank tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are substituted by letters characteristic of native English words.
Topics for discussion
1. Lexical and graphical abbreviations.
2. Types of graphical abbreviations.
3. Types of initialisms, peculiarities of their pronunciation.
Answer the following questions.
1. Which initialisms are called acronyms?
2. Which type of abbreviations is called apocope?
3. Which abbreviations are called syncope?