4. Shortening. Types of shortening.

Word-building processes involve not only qualitative but also quantitative changes. Thus, derivation and compounding represent addition as suffixes and free stems respectively are added to the underlying form. S h o r t e n i n g , on the other hand, may be represented as subtraction, in which part of the original word is taken away. The types of shortening are: clipping, blending, abbreviation and acronyms.

C l i p p i n g is a type of word-building shortening of spoken words. Shortening consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result of which the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own. The part retained does not change phonetically, hence the necessity of spelling changes, e.g., double :: dub, microphone :: mike, tranquilizer :: trank.

The generally accepted classification of shortened words is based on the position of the clipped part. According to whether it is the final, initial or middle part of the word that is cut off we distinguish:

1) i n i t i a l clipping (or a p h e s i s , i.e. a p h e r e s i s , from Greek "aphairesis" - a taking away), e.g., cap (captain), phone (telephone), story (history), chute (parachute);

2) f i n a l clipping (or a p o c o p e , from Greek "apokoptein" - cut off), e.g., cap (captain), gym (gymnasium, gymnastics), lab (laboratory), ed (editor);

3) m e d i a l clipping (or s y n c o p e , from Greek "syncope" a cutting up), e.g., fancy (fantasy), ma'am (madam).

Final and initial clipping may be combined and result in the curtailed words with the middle part of the prototype retained, e.g., flu (influenza), frig (refrigerator), tec (detective).

If we approach the shortened word from the point of view of the structure of the prototype we distinguish two groups:

1) shortened words correlated with w o r d s , e.g., cabbie (cabman), nightie (nightdress), teeny (teenager);

2) shortened words correlated with p h r a s e a , e.g., finals (final examinations), perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), pub (public house), taxi (taximeter-cab).

Unlike conversion, shortening produces new words in the same part of speech. The bulk of shortened words are nouns. Verbs are rarely shortened, e.g., rev (revolve), tab (tabulate). To phone, to taxi, to vac and others are converted nouns. Clipped adjectives are also very few, e.g., comfy (comfortable), awk (awkward), impos (impossible), mizzy (miserable).

B l e n d i n g is a type of compounding by means of merging parts of words into new one word. The process of formation is also called t e l e s c o p i n g , because the words seem to slide into one another like sections of a telescope. E.g., brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), smaze (smoke + haze), slimnastics (slim + gymnastics). It seems practical to distinguish the following groups of blends:

1) coining a new word from the initial elements of one word and the final elements of another, e.g., drunch (drink + lunch), skort (skirt + short);

2) coining a new word by combining one notional word arid the final element of another word, e.g., manglish (man + English), radiotrician (radio + electrician);

3) combining the initial elements of one word with a notional word, e.g., mobus (motors + bus), legislady (legislative lady).

Such coinages are often formed with a playful or humorous intent and have a stylistic status. They can convey various shades of emotive colouring (irony or mockery), which makes them most active in different types of slang: dopelomat (dope + diplomat), Yanigan (Yankee + hooligan), nixonomics (Nixon + economics).

Blends, although not very numerous altogether, seem to be on the rise, especially in terminology and also in trade advertisements.

A b b r e v i a t i o n is a type of shortening when words are formed from the initial letters of each part of a phrasal term. Abbreviations are pronounced as a series of letters, i.e. the alphabetical reading of the letters is retained. E.g., B.B.C. (The British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. (Member of Parliament), P.M. (Prime Minister), T.V. (Television), Y.C.L. (The Young Communist League).

A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Ukrainian is represented by Latin abbreviations, which are not read as Latin words but substituted by their English equivalents, e.g., a.m. (ante meridium) – in the morning; p.m. (post meridiem) – in the afternoon; i.e. (id est) – that is; cp. (comparare) – compare; e.g., (exempli gratia) – for example.

A c r o n y m s (from Greek "acros" end + "onym" name) are abbreviated words formed from the initial letters of word-combination; the abbreviated written form lends itself to be read as though, it were an ordinary English word and sounds like an English word. E.g., NATO /neitou/ - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UNO /ju:nou/ - United Nations Organization, SALT /solt/ - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, radar – radio detecting and ranging; laser – light amplification stimulated emission radio; maser – microwave amplification stimulated emission radio.

Christian names in acronyms:

Fred – fast reading electric device;

Oscar – orbiting satellite;

Eva – electronic velocity analyzer.