ABBREVIATIONS AND INITIALISMS IN ENGLISH: FORMATION, PRONUNCIATION, AND MEANING
Keywords:
abbreviation, initialism, acronym, clipping, English morphology, pronunciation, language evolutionAbstract
Abbreviations and initialisms are pervasive elements of modern English, reflecting the language's dynamic adaptation to technological, institutional, and cultural developments. This study explores the formation mechanisms, pronunciation patterns, and semantic interpretations of abbreviations and initialisms. By analyzing a wide range of examples from contemporary English corpora and dictionaries, the research highlights how these condensed forms function across different contexts—from formal written communication to spoken slang. The paper also distinguishes between acronyms, initialisms, clipped forms, and blends, providing linguistic and phonological insights into their usage. The findings are relevant to lexicology, phonetics, sociolinguistics, and language education
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