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

2. Material Studied 
In the course of the investigation the material taken from the Mass Media sources was subject to the analysis. 
First and foremost, representations of the political discourse, as well as samples of public relations and business 
varieties of discourse, belonging to different genres and social environment reference were taken into account. 
The materials under consideration are characterized by both general and specific qualities that determine the 
nature and mode of abbreviation properties manifestation at the systemic and discourse levels. 
It should be mentioned in this connection that in spite of the fact that primarily written texts from printed and the 
Internet sources were taken into consideration, most of them have been designed and created as interactive issues, 

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International Journal of English Linguistics 
Vol. 10, No. 1; 2020 
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possessing linguistic peculiarities and general discursive characteristics that help establish contact with the target 
audience (the reader) and in case of the Internet presentations may get an immediate feedback from the receiver. 
And—which seems to be most important within these terms—the Internet users may have access to various data 
that help to decipher messages and meanings transferred by abbreviated forms via using hypertext powers and 
abilities. 
One more important point should be taken into account within these lines, which concerns the analysis of 
lexicographic data, i.e., dictionaries and linguistically oriented reference-books that contain the materials dealt 
with the notion of abbreviation and its types definitions as well as samples used for exemplification. One has to 
take into account invaluable sources like the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Longman Dictionary of English 
Language and Culture, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Business 
Acronyms, Initials, and Abbreviations and others that contain the information necessary for abbreviation studies. 
At the same time in the course of the investigation much attention has been given to the Internet dictionaries and 
other materials, where one can find samples of actual speech realizations of the contracted forms in question and 
the way they are realized in contexts that belong to certain discursive varieties. 
It should be emphasized that in some cases we find it necessary to refer to the Internet sites that demonstrate the 
process of abbreviation development and their discourse representations peculiarities due to the users’ approach 
and evaluation. Thus, the issue concerning the MLE contracted form usage reveals a variety of its decoding 
possibilities and not only get into the linguistic context of its realization but also keep abreast of its sociocultural 
context and situational communicative peculiarities. As we proceed from the premise that abbreviation as an 
integrated dynamic phenomenon, in terms of language and mental structures interaction, to a great extent reflects 
some basic trends in the society development and their potential to be represented at the verbal level. Thus, various 
discursive characteristics based on the real-life representations of the interactive character should be taken into 
account in the course of abbreviation analysis. 
As for the theoretical foundations of the investigation, in the process of abbreviations analysis we turned to the 
works by famous linguists and representatives of the Humanities area, paying attention to this domain of human 
knowledge and approaching the research procedure from different perspectives. In other words, the material that 
contains both practical and theoretical issues concerning abbreviation is on the one hand enormous, while on the 
other hand, it should be noted that not all the aspects of abbreviation have received all the attention they deserve 
so far, especially those referred to the discursive and cognitive properties of the abbreviation process.