International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 10, No. 1; 2020

4. Methods and Techniques 
The investigation of abbreviation process presupposes the use of the following methods and techniques for the 
sake of functional, semantic and cognitive communicative approaches application:
-
the method of lexicographical analysis, which is based on the study of the specialized dictionaries of 
abbreviations and acronyms, and which enables the learner to analyze abbreviations per se and their 
derivatives;
-
the method of structural and semantic analysis aimed at the study of the linguistic meaning of 
contracted forms elements and the meaning of the whole word appeared as the result of abbreviation 
process to establish structural and semantic correlation of the indicated objects of study; 
-
the methods based on the cognitive conceptual and cognitive discursive approaches, taking into 

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International Journal of English Linguistics 
Vol. 10, No. 1; 2020 
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consideration both sociocultural phenomena, as well as linguistic and mental structures representation 
process. It should be mentioned within these terms that the category of linguistic creativity, which concerns 
with the creative potential of language and corresponding culture, based on the use of language as the 
means of human knowledge representation, closely connected with interpretation and understanding 
processes; 
-
the method of contextual analysis which includes various types of context investigation, i.e. linguistic 
context, which takes into consideration semantic and cognitive pragmatic peculiarities of the utterance that 
contains an abbreviated form, situational context, social cultural context and cognitive context. It refers to 
the domain of knowledge that includes the entire cognitive experience of a person as an individual and as a 
representative of certain linguistic cultural community. 
Thus, as can be seen from the list above, a number of appropriate methods and techniques should be used in the 
course of the research being done for the purpose of abbreviation analysis on the basis of the integrated approach 
to the linguistic phenomenon in question. It should be added that in the course of the investigation one should 
proceed from the premise that both the process of codifying as well as the process of decoding abbreviated 
structures deserve special attention in terms of integrated approach application.