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

5. Results and Discussion 
As has already been stated, abbreviation as the process of contracted linguistic forms creation in terms of speech 
process optimization and modelling is characterized by its conformity and limitations in terms of linguistic 
regularities typical of the language it belongs to. Thus, abbreviation plays an important role in the process of 
information transfer within the scope of various types of human discursive activity. It should be emphasized that 
in the course of time abbreviations of various types while functioning in speech as contracted units may acquire 
specific properties as independently functioning nominative structures.
In this paper we are trying to make an attempt to describe the abbreviation phenomenon within a number of 
discursive spheres. For example, while taking into consideration such humanitarian issues as the political 
discourse or the public relations discourse, one comes across abbreviations, which in their meaning possess the 
peculiarities of terms functioning in the corresponding area as special notions, typical of a certain discourse 
representation. The process of creation and decoding the linguistic units in question may sometimes cause 
difficulties in the written and oral forms of speech in some cases facilitating, and sometimes complicating the 
process of transmitting information and communication. As is well-known, abbreviations creation is conjugated 
with other mental-lingual procedures designed to reflect, fix, decipher and explain the meanings of the notions 
indicated by contracted forms of various structural and semantic types. 
For example, the analysis of the political and PR varieties provides for the possibility to identify the types of 
abbreviations that function within their speech representations that can be distributed according to their 
composition type. 
The prime source for abbreviations is the multi-element phrases among which three-element units are most 
widely spread: ECJ, ABM, MFN, etc. Next come two-element abbreviations: (EU, RS, US, PR) and five-element 
structures (NAALC, NAAEC), followed by the group of four-element units (FIFA, NACC), and very rarely 
six-element structures, like EPISTER, STANAG. UNESCO. An example of one-element abbreviations, as in “C”, 
“A” should be also adduced within these lines. 
Special attention should be given to homonymic abbreviations, such as C, under which different notions can be 
applied, such as compromise, constituent, controversy, conservative, etc. It is a matter of common observation 
that context is of vital importance in this connection, as well as other discursive characteristics dealt with not 
only linguistic but also extralinguistic peculiarities of the units in question functioning. One more example of 
abbreviation homonymy is a well-established fact that the MLE abbreviation has acquired a wide-spread 
application in the English language, to be associated with Multicultural London English phenomenon, i.e., the 
new ethnosociolect, appeared in Modern English (Kerswill, 2017). The same linguistic sign may be used in the 
other meanings: mobile logistics element, missile launch envelope, mobile launcher equipment (in military 
terminology), microprocessor language editor (in technology), maximum likelihood estimate, MultiLine Entry 
field (IBM, OS/2) (in computing), Mediated Learning Experience, managed learning environment (in education) 
(URL: https://translate.academic.ru/MLE/en/ru/). 
Obviously, the system of formal criteria underlying the classification of abbreviations can only be considered as 
an element of the first stage of the study, the most important part of which, at the same time, is considered to be 
its sociocultural component. Due to the current state of society development it is represented in various 

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discursive activities of people: “In modern times, breakneck progress in electronics, space exploration, and data 
processing brought new concepts, new projects, and new instruments. It also brought new acronymic forms to 
save precious inches of newsprint and precious seconds of broadcast time, to serve as cloaks of military secrecy 
and as spotlights on products, ideas, and programs that the public was expected to support, admire, or purchase” 
(URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/460376). 
Thus, context seems to be the most vividly identifiable parameter for adequate interpretation of abbreviated 
forms in terms of meaning. At the same time as for the cognitive approach implementation it should be 
mentioned that this doesn’t mean to say that context is the only possible way to decipher the content of the 
message transferred by abbreviation forms. There are conventional abbreviations, well-known to everyone due to 
their extensive use and long-term existence in language. They are lexicalized, socialized and perceived by 
professionals as well as common speakers as the linguistic units associated with a certain type of discourse they 
belong to, and in the majority of cases may not be regularly accompanied with immediate associations in terms 
of their prototypes semantic constituents. It may also entail indirect and sometimes ambiguous references to the 
original full forms. A great number of abbreviations have acquired the ability to function as lexical units proper, 
characterized by their own systems of lexical phraseological and morphological syntactic peculiarities and, as 
has already been stated, may present themselves as separate cognitive and linguistic structures. The examples are 
EU, IBM, IFM, etc. 
As the analysis has shown, abbreviated forms may consist of both letters and figures. This phenomenon is the 
evidence of the evolution of the abbreviation system, where in some cases letters alone are not sufficient to 
render the meaning of the units in question or figures may stand for the whole complexes of letters to indicate 
syllables and structural parts of lexical units subject to abbreviation. Otherwise stated, we may witness the 
process of the polycode system development, to a great extent concerned with electronic communication, which 
lies in the sphere of different semiotic systems interaction. Thus, there exist two types of acronyms and 
abbreviations that comprise figures in their structure: G8, G20, i.e., full phrases are created via the elements of 
the two sign systems combining. Figures are part of the abbreviation constructions, though in other cases they 
are words of independent semantics. 
One more abbreviation type comprises abbreviations which include figures functioning as part of words and 
phrases: a4c, 4u, 2u etc. g8debate. It is a well-established fact, that David Crystal in his book ‘Language and the 
Internet’ distinguishes a certain variation of the Internet discourse, called Netspeak due to its characteristic 
features. The following examples that comprise letters only are adduced by the outstanding author: BBS 
(‘bulletin board system’), BCC (‘blind carbon copy’), DNS (‘domain name system’), FAQ (‘frequently asked 
question’) (Crystal, 2001, p. 84). As for abbreviations comprising letters and figures, the following linguistic 
material is provided within these lines: W3C (‘World Wide Web Consortium’), Go2Net etc. The frequency of 
occurrence and the shift from the Web into everyday speech is the basis for the new variety of English to be 
recognized, which facilitates communications and makes the communication process more optimized and 
effective. 
Thus, taking into consideration the actual text material, that is representation of discourse under consideration, we 
may come across the following examples, illustrating the process of abbreviations functioning: “At the heart of 
this regime continues to stand the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although the 1945 UN Charter 
urged the promotion of ‘universal respect for, and observation of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for 
all’, it failed to specify the human rights that states had to guarantee and respect” (Heywood, 2011, p. 221); 
“Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states, such as the START treaties through which the USA and 
Russia have agreed to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons” (Ibid., p. 334).
In the text fragments above one can find abbreviations like UN, USA, START that do not need any specifications 
or particular comment, as all of them seem to be familiar to the reader and are based on the background 
knowledge possessing typical of the present-day linguistic cultural community that uses the forms under 
consideration quite naturally. As has already been stated, the human society needs abbreviations because the 
need for economical use of language tools is extremely acute in a number of registers and discursive varieties: 
“Succinctness and precision are highly valued, and abbreviations can contribute greatly to a concise style. They 
also help to convey a sense of social identity: to use an abbreviated form is ‘to be in the know’—part of the 
social group to which the abbreviation belongs… It would be strange indeed to hear someone routinely 
expanding BBC, NATO, USA, AIDS, and all the other common abbreviations of contemporary English” (Crystal, 
2003, p. 120). At the same time as for some other abbreviated forms, to be clearly understood by the recipient 
one needs to supply their use with decoding and explanatory issues. Thus, for instance, in the above text 
fragments, taken from the social-political sphere, such cases as NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and ICJ 

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(the International Court of Justice) may serve as good examples of the need for the correct interpretation. 
It should be mentioned in this connection that while taking into consideration the structural peculiarities of 
abbreviated forms typical of a certain discursive variety of English, one can distinguish various types of 
abbreviated forms functioning, for example, in the political discourse. Thus, within this type of discourse, one 
may face hybrid abbreviations, such as R2P: “The idea of a ‘responsibility to protect’, or R2P, has been widely 
used by those who wish to provide a legal basis for humanitarian intervention” (Heywood, 2011, p. 344). And 
the figures in this type of abbreviated forms can be both Arabic and Roman. They influence the visual perception 
of the meaning and depend on various nomenclature limitations, which can be exemplified by units like START1, 
START2, START3 and WWI, WWII. This is illustrated by the following contexts: “Only two permanent 
members of the P-5—the UK and France, its least powerful members—have ratified the Rome Statute. Not one 
of the nuclear powers outside Europe has ratified the treaty, meaning that the ICC is dominated by European, 
Latin-American and African states. The opposition of the USA to the ICC has been particularly damaging 
(Heywood, 2011, p. 50). 
One more type of recent abbreviations deals with the units used in the plural form: “It did this by negotiating 
bilateral immunity agreements (BIAs), sometimes called ‘Article 98’ agreements, with as many countries as 
possible, under which neither party would transfer citizens of the other country to the jurisdiction of the ICC. 
Over 100 BIAs have been negotiated, even though their legal status is unclear” (Heywood, 2011, p. 350). As for 
the syllabic structure of abbreviations, they are widely used, for example, in the political discourse: STANAG, 
which consists of ‘stan’ and ‘ag’, a two-element phrase which means ‘Standartisation Agreement’. Each of the 
elements of the phrase is written with the capital letter. One more example is AFRICOM, which stands for the 
three-element phrase—US African Commander. As is seen from the example, in this case the first element is 
omitted. The most difficult for immediate decoding and understanding are abbreviation forms that are based on 
other abbreviations, i.e., “abbreviations within abbreviations”, which can be called “double abbreviations”: NRF 
(NATO + Response Force); CCC (Customs Cooperational Council) – CCCN (Customs Cooperational Council 
Nomenclature); CAD (Computer-Aided Design) – CADCOM (Computer-Aided Design for Communication). 
Otherwise stated, there exist a number of abbreviation types that are used to facilitate the process of 
communication and are motivated by the principle of linguistic economy realization (Crystal, 2003, p. 120). 
Otherwise stated, the process under consideration concerns with onomasiological structures creation that from 
the cognitive point of view refer to propositional structures or models. In other words, the linguistic units of 
various levels may be semantically associated with each other only in case they are included into the 
propositions codified and preserved in a certain specific way in the human mind, namely, in a set of numerous 
interconnected network nodes of human memory. The most important quality of propositionality is the 
disintegration of the integral (the holistic) as well as the ability to analyse the phenomena in terms of their 
relationships with each other and with the outside world, taking into consideration such parameters as 
identification, identity, nomination and characterization (Arutyunova, 1976; Kubryakova, 1986). One of the most 
significant issues concerning the present investigation is the assumption that proposition may be regarded as the 
mental structural basis of an abbreviation determined by the nature of its prototype reference to the 
onomasiological model chosen for the contracted form creation. It should be borne in mind that the cognitive 
approach enables the learner to identify the proposition notion due to the fact that principles of perception are 
also included into the scope of the analysis. It means that while creating and decoding abbreviation forms 
various types of knowledge are included into the processes of speech production and speech perception as well 
as understanding and interpretation. 
It should be mentioned that cognitive approach correlates with linguistic semiotic approach, as the iconic 
representation of an abbreviated form serves as an incentive for generating associations as a result of its 
perception. Special attention should be paid to the necessity to use unambiguous and correct language display for 
the recipient to get the complete information contained in the abbreviated unit. Thus, as has already been said, an 
abbreviation is a reduced, folded structure, which at the cognitive level presents itself as the structure of storage 
and knowledge processing in the human mind. While analysing the abbreviation process in the English language 
we proceed from the premise that from the cognitive point of view each linguistic unit that represents the 
activities of human consciousness should be regarded not only as a carrier of a certain quantum of knowledge, 
but also as an incentive and mental basis for representing a whole integrative knowledge complex (Bates, 1979). 
This complex contributes to the implementation of cognitive operations of a higher level. As it has been stated 
above, in the process of mental representations formation as well as their linguistic representation depend on the 
perception and understanding of the world around us and the recipient’s relevant knowledge. In case of 
abbreviated forms this concerns both the level of language system and the actual speech functioning. Thus, while 

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dealing with the notion of discourse one should bear in mind that the linguistic peculiarities of the units in 
question manifestation to a great extent depends on the extralinguistic reality, which is a significant factor 
determining the specifics of updating linguistic meanings and forms. 
As has been stated above, specialists in their professional interaction resort to most concise and effective mode 
of communication and means of rendering ideas. For example, taking into consideration the public relation 
sphere of abbreviation functioning, it should be mentioned that among the first abbreviations created in the 
domain of PR is the name of the area itself. Generally understood as public relations, this word combination has 
produced a number of definitions, that reflect its different aspects and characteristics (Sergienko, 2018). For 
example: “Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies 
and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of 
action and communication to earn understanding and acceptance” (URL: https://www.marketingteacher.com). 
Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between 
organizations and their publics (URL: http://www.prdefinition.prsa.org). It should be added in this connection that 
abbreviation itself finds its extensive representation in public relations area though, according to lexicographic 
sources, even within this particular domain occupies only the third place after PR—press release and PR—Pier and 
is used to express a number of other meanings (URL: https://www.abbreviations.com/pr). At the same time this 
doesn’t mean to say that PR as referred to public relations is registered in all the dictionaries at all. For example, in 
the “McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Business Acronyms, Initials & Abbreviations” this contracted form refers to 15 
different meanings (for instance, Panama Railroad, Philippine Airlines, Physical Record, Price Rate, etc.) and does 
not include public relations in spite of the fact that the area in question is to some extent connected with the area of 
business and business organisations (Rosenberg, 1992, p. 253). Otherwise stated, there exist certain limitations of 
extralinguistic character as far as abbreviations decoding and functioning are concerned. At the propositional level 
the situation with multiple choice dependent on the contextual peculiarities and associative features comes into 
existence. 
Here are examples taken from the PR contracted terminological units, representing marketing realia and 
activities. The ATL/BTL abbreviations are commonly used in budgeting, where under ATL, or ‘Above the line’ a 
type of advertising is understood that is ‘talking at you’, e.g., television, radio, posters. These are the traditional 
forms of advertising that organizations pay for. The money allocated for this type of promotion is generally 
included into marketing. BTL means ‘below the line’, or advertising that is ‘talking to you’, e.g., direct mail, 
point of purchase, leaflets. Here PR practitioners presuppose the use of free means of convincing the audience of 
the key ideas in the message conveyed. 
The sphere of PR also provides some examples of abbreviations, which include contractions with the 
combination of letters and figures, like 3Rs in marketing: Reach, Repetition and Relevance to ensure a 
successful marking or a PR campaign; or the 3 Is: Information, Integrity and recently added Interactivity to 
describe the approach of PR strategy and availability of their message in the new age of technology. The third I 
as interactivity has come with the demand of the market for the consumers to communicate with the organization 
on par. Some other acronyms include examples, such as B2B, B2C, G2C, G2G, G2B, B2G and C2C, where ‘2’ 
stands for ‘to’ to mean the direction from the sender of the services/products to the receiver: B2B (Business to 
Business), B2C (Business to Consumer), G2G and G2C, etc.
The emergence of new words and abbreviations in particular are also explained by new notions and concepts 
coming into the language (Minyar-Beloroucheva, 2015). Here we can trace the following examples. The idea of 
POS and POS-materials became important with the development of marketing technologies: “POS (Point of 
Sale)—Point at which a sale is made, the ownership (and usually the possession) is transferred from the seller to 
the buyer, and indirect taxes (such as VAT) become payable. Commonly, a retail outlet” (URL: 
http://www.businessdictionary.com). 
The newly emerged sphere of social media prompted the appearance of SMA, or S
о
cial Media Audit and SMM, 
social media marketing. The Internet Marketing teacher explains the need for the new experts: “So what a digital 
marketer needs is a tool to audit social media within the competitive environment, i.e., relative to competitors. 
The digital marketer will be trying to work out the best way to ‘feed’ the digital marketing funnel, and he or she 
will also need to monitor/measure any discussions about his or company. This is where a