1. Graphical abbreviations and acronyms

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word that does not end in the same letter as the original word. Generally, full-stops are used. Unless the word is used in reference list or is an accepted form for in-text references, it is important to follow the rules for formal writing and write the term in full.

Days and months: They should be written in full in text, but used in the correct standard abbreviation for longer months when it is used in reference list.

Examples: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Days of the week, e.g. Mon – Monday, Tue – Tuesday etc;

Names of months, e.g. Apr – April, Aug – August, Sep – September;

Names of counties in UK, Yorks – Yorkshire, Berks – Berkshire etc;

Names of states in USA, e.g. Ala – Alabama, Alas – Alaska, Calif – California etc;

Names of address, e.g. Mr, Mrs, Ms, DR etc;

Military ranks, e.g. capt – captain, col – colonel, sgt – sergeant etc;

Scientific degrees, e.g. BA Bachelor of Arts, DM – Doctor of Medicine.

Units of time, length, weight, e.g. f./ft – foot/feet, sec. – second, in. – inch, mg. – milligram etc.

2. A difference between acronyms and abbreviations

An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters (as in laser) or parts of words (as in Benelux and Ameslan).

There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of various names for such abbreviations nor on written usage. In English and most other languages, such abbreviations historically had limited use, but they became much more common in the 20th century.

Acronyms are a type of word formation process, and they are viewed as a subtype of blending. There is a difference between acronyms and abbreviations. An acronym is usually formed by taking the first initials of a phrase or compounded-word and using those initials to form a word that stands for something.

Thus NATO, which we pronounce NATOH, is an acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and LASER (which we pronounce "lazer"), is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

FBI, then, is not really an acronym for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is an abbreviation. AIDS is an acronym; HIV is an abbreviation. URL is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator (World Wide Web address), but many people pronounce it as "Earl," making it a true acronym, and others insist on pronouncing it as three separate letters, "U * R * L," thus making it an abbreviation. The jury is still out.

3. Abbreviations as the major type of shortenings

Abbreviations are freely used in colloquial speech as seen from the following extract, in which C.P Snow describes the House of Commons gossip: They were swapping promises to speak for one another: one was bragging how two senior Ministers were "in the bag" to speak for him.

Roger was safe, someone said, he’d give a hand. "What has the P.M. got in mind for Roger when we come back?" The familiar colloquial quality of the context is very definitely marked by the set expressions: in the bag, give a hand, get in mind,

4. Practical part of the research

Practical part of the research 1

In order to confirm theoretical positions of our research work I have made a practical research of using abbreviations. I have chosen some examples from newspapers, textbooks and have defined their types and full forms.

The type of shortened words was defined according to classifications of I.V.Arnold. We use “Oxford English Dictionary of Abbreviations” in order to find the full form of the shortened words.

I have analyzed 65 different shortened words in newspapers, informational, technical and medical textbooks.

Practical part of the research 2

Another extract from the article called “Obama Proposal Worries Insurers and Regulators” of the same newspaper: “…The entire underlying premise of the A.C.A. — balancing costs of the young, old, sick and healthy — has been left adrift with this announcement…”

The type of the shortened word: A.C.A. – acronym.

Full form of the shortened word: American Correctional Association.