The paradigmatics of a compound abbreviation as a means of predicting equivalence relations

Abstract

The author describes the methods of finding and predicting compound word correlates in its equivalence nest on the basis of paradigmatic relations between the abbreviation and its decoding stimuli. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that it established the principles of dictionary entries formation for the Exploratory Dictionary of Russian Word Abbreviations compiled by Exploratory Laboratory of Abbreviation Trends Research at the Russian Language Department of Donetsk National University. The paper gives general idea of the multiple motivation possibilities of abbreviated words in the modern language. The aim of the study is to generally represent the dictionary methods of finding and predicting the content of compound abbreviation equivalence nests. The author considered pure search models in existing dictionaries of abbreviations and texts, where abbreviations and their equivalents are presented as absolute synonyms, as well as extrapolation prediction methods by decoding matrices models of word equivalence nests, connected with the described abbreviations and their decoding stimuli through their paradigmatic relations. The latter led to forming compound abbreviations paradigmatic associations typology, including an abbreviation nest, an abbreviation-onomasiologic field, an abbreviation group and an abbreviation paradigm. The novelty of the study has been determined by the fact that for the first it provides a set of methods for finding and predicting the equivalence nest of abbreviated words; the methodology of the obtained results verification is also described. The results have provided the possibility of a full-fledged comprehensive dictionary description of compound abbreviated appellatives. In the future, the author is planning to develop methods of searching for equivalents of other formal onomasicologic abbreviation types - initial abbreviations and onym compound abbreviations.