吉林建筑大学外国语学院毕业论文 2.2.1 Acronym
Acronym is to put every word or initial of the words or phases extract and
constitute into a new word. 2.2.1.1 Acronym
Acronym is proposed by in each word or the first letter of the words or phrases (sometimes also can include other letters) and coagulation and combined into a new word. e.g.:
AIDS←—Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome DINK←—double income no kids EEC←—European Economic Community GPS←—Global Positioning System
IELTS←—the International English Language Testing System IMF←—International Monetary Fund
LASER←—Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation PC←—personal computer PE ←—physical education
SARS←—Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
These letters should be written to capital letters. And they are very convenient to write.
2.2.1.2 Semi-Acronym
Semi-Acronym is a special kind of initials. Generally, it is consists by the first letter of the first word and the whole second word. e.g.:
G-man←—Government man H-bomb←—hydrogen bomb N-bomb←—nuclear bomb V·J·Day←—Victory over Japan Day
All these examples are written to one capital letter add the head-word. And prove that the acronym of the English abbreviation is very simple eye-caching and vivid.
2.2.2 Clipping Words
Clipping words is a part of one single word or the first word of phrase as a new
whole word, or the abbreviated phrase. The motivation of the Clipping words is wood and affix, usually keep the root in the thumbnail.
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吉林建筑大学外国语学院毕业论文 2.2.2.1 Front Clippings
It is omit the prefixes of the original word, and retain its root. e.g.: bus←—omnibus cello←—violoncello
chute←—parachute copter←—helicopter coon←—raccoon net←—internet phone←—telephone quake←—earthquake scope ←—telescope van←—caravan
These words omit the front of the word. It is convenient to write and remember. 2.2.2.2 Back Clippings
It is omit the suffix of the original word, and retain its root. e.g.: demo←—demonstration disco←—discotheque dorm←—dormitory exam←—examination gas←—gasoline gym←—gymnasium hippo←—hippopotamus lab←—laboratory memo←—memorandum mount←—mountain
Prof.←—professor telecom←—telecommunication
These words omit the back of the word. It is convenient to write and remember. 2.1.1.1 Front and Back Clippings
It is omit the head part and the tail part of the word. e.g.: flu←—influenza jams←—pajamas script←—prescription tec←—detective
Clipping word is a part of the word, so it is not only easy to writing but also easy to remember.
2.2.3 Blending Words
It is connect part of a word to part of another word as a new word. e.g.: sitcom←—situation comedy Chunnel←—Channel Tunnel motel←—motor hotel paratroops←—parachute troops workfare←—work welfare newscast←—news broadcast sociobiology←—sociology biology brunch←—breakfast lunch lidar←—light radar smog←—smoke fog
Blending words make two words into one word. It is save space and time. This chapter proves that the formation of English abbreviation is consequent. It is
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吉林建筑大学外国语学院毕业论文 a product of the social development. If people learn to master the abbreviations in the composition rules and basic requirements, we can not only correctly use abbreviations but also can create a much-needed correct abbreviation in necessary. The abbreviation will have life as long as the abbreviations are reasonable simplified.
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吉林建筑大学外国语学院毕业论文 III. PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF ENGLISH
ABBREVIATIONS
Because of the simple and easy to remember English abbreviation has strong vitality. In fact, there are quite a part of English abbreviation is common for us and people no longer use its full name, such as a.m., p.m., Mr, Mrs, UFO, PPA, SOS etc.. In today’s rapidly evolving information society, lengthy and complex words will be replaced by concise English abbreviation. For example, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, people usually use AIDS in the daily life, such expression both simple and easy to remember. Compared with the English full name the English abbreviation has its unique pragmatic function.
3.1 Succinctness
In this part, there are two examples to explain this function. e.g.:
1) She is in bed with flu. 她感冒了卧病在床。
2) The province has registered 134 HIV carriers, most of whom were blood
donors infected by contaminated needles.
Abbreviations flu < word influenza, the 3 letters are instead of the 9 letters. HIV < human immunodeficiency virus, the 3 letters are instead of the 26letters. In this way, writing, speaking speed is greatly accelerated.
3.2 Eye-catching
The capital letter is eye-catching and there are many uppercase in the abbreviations. For example, capital M of McDonald’s fast food and the KFC of Kentucky Fried Chicken are both eye-catching and catchy-hook for not only Chinese but also westerner. The visual effects will be reducing greatly if they are written the full name McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
BMW and FIAI respectively refers to “宝马” and “菲亚特”. They are originating from German “Bayerishe Motoren Werk” and Italian “Fabrica Italiana Automobile Torino”. It is difficult to remember if use the full name.
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吉林建筑大学外国语学院毕业论文 3.3 Highly Descriptive
“Some English abbreviations have strong descriptive especially in the trademark, and from itself can be seen the product types and performance.” [2] e.g.:
Coolmint←—cool + peppermint Exercycle ←—exercise + bicycle Litek←—light + tek Skinice←—skin + nice
Vodaphone←—voice + data + phone
The above abbreviation trademarks, the performance of “cool”, “nice” stand vividly revealed on the paper. And the types of products “cycle”, “light”, “phone” are more evident.
3.4 Rhetorical Function
“There are some remarkable features of English abbreviation: humor, pun, metonymy, euphemism, ridicule, parody.” [3]
3.4.1 Humor
GASP is the abbreviation of the Greater Alliance to the Stop Pollution, and the meaning of gasp is “breath”. So the GASP make the people associate a scene that human breathing hardly in the case of air pollution scenarios. It is humorous and containing the tragic effect.
There is another example, a trademark of the eyeglass company in American called OIC. We can see these three letters look as if a pair of glasses, when we read the three letters just like say “oh, I see”. It is a really classical trademark. Not only the visualization but also the homophonic are really appropriate. No wonder the glasses so popular.
3.4.2 Pun
U.S.A companies such as IBM and MOTOROLA jointly developed a computer chip, which the English name is the Power-PC. And someone translate it into a powerful PC chips, which the Power is actually the acronym form of Performance
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