5. Shortening of spoken words and its causes

The process of shortening consists in clipping a part of word; as a result we get a new lexical unit. In such cases as “fence” - “defense” or “fantasy” - “fancy” we have different lexical meanings. In cases “lab” - “laboratory” we have different styles. Shortening doesn't change the meaning. It produces words belonging to the same part of speech as original words. Mostly nouns are affected by shortening. 2 main types: Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening only in written speech for economy of space. ( e.g.- examplia gratia, p.a - per annum) and also months, days of the week, name of states, names of counties Lexical shortenings are in 2 groups: 1. Consists in making a new word from a syllable of the original word. The latter may be its beginning (telephone - phone) or ending (circs - circumstances; ad - advertisement) 2. Initial abbreviations: BBC, BUP, FBI. OPEC, WORN - acronyms.

5. Blending

Words formed from a word group or two synonyms.(medicare-medical care) 3 ways:1. apocope the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word photograph > photo 2. apheresis is the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.( [k]nife pronounced /ˈnaɪf/ 3. syncope is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word ( I [woul]d [ha]ve > I'd've)

5. Graphical abbreviations. Initialism and Acronyms

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups

only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc

b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical

abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some

new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full

forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. There are three types of initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO, NATO etc.

c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form, such

initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory for

Automated School System).

Acronyms are regular vocabulary units spoken as words. They are formed in various ways :

a) from the initial letters or syllables of a phrase,which may be pronounced differently:

• as a succession of sounds denoted by the constituent letters forming a syllabic( e.g. UNO,NATO,UNESCO;

• as a succession of the alphabetical readings of the constituent letters (e.g. BBC,YCL,MP);

b) formed from the initial syllables of each word of the phrase (e.g. interpol=inter/national pol/ice;Capcome=Capsule Communicator);

c) formed by a combination of the abbreviation of the first or the first two members of the phrase with the last member undergoing no change at all (e.g. V-day=Victory day,H-bomb=hydrogen bomb)

All achronysms unlike letter abbreviations perform the syntactical functions of ordinary words taking on grammatical inflexions.

5. Sound imitation (Onomatopoeia)

1.sounds produces like human beings(to sneeze, wisper)

2.by animals and birds(to hiss,to moo)

3. by nature and objects(to bubble, clatter)

4 by means of conversion(clang,chatter)

5. Back formation

To drop the final morpheme to form a new word

By adding the suffix –er(speak-speaker)

To accredite-acredittation, to enthuse-enthusiasm

5. Reduplication.

New words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong. Most words made by reduplications are informal.

5. Concept of lexical meaning