Abbreviated appelatives as independent modifications of abbreviations

Abstract

The paper is devoted to compound abbreviated appellatives, i.e. non-initial common abbreviations, related to the collocations by means of “spontaneous” formation (in diachrony) and/or motivation (in synchrony).The relevance of the investigation is determined by implementing a new approach to interpreting abbreviation based on identifying onomasiologically significant mechanisms of the producing unit transformation into an abbreviation as well as on the differentiating synchronous and diachronic methods to abbreviations. As the result, the author can define new principles of abbreviations’ lexicographic description. The aim of the article is to establish the basic options for determining and describing compound abbreviated appellatives as an autonomous onomasiological type of abbreviations in diachrony and in synchrony. The novelty of the research consists in the following facts: firstly, the necessity to differentiate abbreviations as nominative units, arising from overcoming asymmetric dualism of descriptive collocations, from reductions, which act as formal doublets of abbreviated words because they preserve the onomasiological status of the original unit, is justified; secondly, it defines the reasons to refer compound abbreviated appellatives to an autonomous onomasiological class of abbreviations; thirdly, it shows the need to differentiate synchronous and diachronic descriptions of abbreviations. The practical significance lies in the fact that the results of the study can be used for composing dictionaries of abbreviations.