The long history of shortening: a diachronic analysis of abbreviation practices from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century

IF 0.9 2区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
ALPO HONKAPOHJA, IMOGEN MARCUS
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article investigates continuities and changes in abbreviation practices from late Middle English to twenty-first-century digital platforms. Adopting a diachronic perspective and lexicological framework, it quantitatively analyses frequency patterns across fifteenth-century memoranda, letters and administrative receipts, seventeenth-century letters and depositions, late nineteenth-century letters, early twentieth-century letters and a subcorpus of WhatsApp instant messages dating from 2018–19. It then presents analyses of the frequencies of various abbreviation forms, such as clippings, and abbreviated lexemes, such as their use for names, over time. The article then provides a qualitative analysis of these lexeme categories over the centuries, with a focus on specific examples. Major changes to overall abbreviation density across time are identified. The forms of abbreviation also go through major change, but the types of lexemes that are abbreviated stay more consistent over time. For example, abbreviations being used for closed-class function words such as the and that are dominant from the earliest data we have looked at to the present day. Overall, the study demonstrates how situating new media abbreviation practices within a historical continuum can enhance our understanding of them.
缩略语的悠久历史:从15世纪到21世纪缩略语实践的历时分析
本文研究了从中古英语晚期到21世纪数字平台的缩写实践的连续性和变化。采用历时视角和词汇学框架,定量分析了15世纪备忘录、信件和行政收据、17世纪信件和证词、19世纪晚期信件、20世纪早期信件以及2018-19年WhatsApp即时消息子语料库的频率模式。然后分析了各种缩写形式(如剪报)和缩写词汇(如名称)随时间变化的频率。然后,本文对几个世纪以来的这些词素类别进行了定性分析,并重点介绍了具体的例子。确定了总缩写密度随时间变化的主要变化。缩略词的形式也经历了重大变化,但缩略词的类型随着时间的推移保持一致。例如,缩略语被用于封闭类的功能词,如和,从我们看到的最早的数据到现在都是占主导地位的。总体而言,该研究表明,将新媒体缩写实践置于历史连续体中可以增强我们对它们的理解。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
2.70
自引率
10.00%
发文量
46
期刊介绍: English Language and Linguistics, published twice a year, is an international journal which focuses on the description of the English language within the framework of contemporary linguistics. The journal is concerned equally with the synchronic and the diachronic aspects of English language studies and publishes articles of the highest quality which make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the structure and development of the English language and which are informed by a knowledge and appreciation of linguistic theory. English Language and Linguistics carries articles and short discussion papers or squibs on all core aspects of English, from its beginnings to the present day, including syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics and lexis.
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