engleski

Formation of acronyms within the framework of Optimality Theory

This paper discusses the possibilities of analysing formation of English acronyms within the framework of Optimality Theory (McCarthy 2008, Kager 1999). One of the main reasons why acronyms and other types of abbreviations are regarded as marginal modes of word-formation is the lack of systematic typology of abbreviation types, as witnessed in some earlier studies of abbreviations in the English language (Cannon 1989, López Rúa 2004). This absence of systematic distribution of abbreviations into their respective types with clear-cut delineation between the categories is best reflected in the fact that scholars often fail to distinguish between abbreviations that are pronounced as single words (acronyms) and those pronounced letter-by-letter (initialisms/alphabetisms). However, recent studies of prosodic features of abbreviations (Alber 2010, Bat-El & Cohen 2012, Lappe 2007, Luo 2013) underline the necessity for reinvestigating the earlier assumptions about their structural and semantic unpredictability by focusing on the regularity in patterns of their formation. The aim of this paper is to show how the creation of acronyms, despite their apparent unpredictable features, is nevertheless a result of interaction of specific morphological and prosodic constraints and that the system of constraints provided by the Optimality Theory can help shed some light on their creation.

abbreviations, acronyms, alphabetisms, Optimality Theory, word-formation

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