"Abbreviation in Internet slang"

Муниципальное бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение

средняя общеобразовательная школа № 46

с углублённым изучением отдельных предметов

Проектно-исследовательская работа

Тема: «Abbreviation in English Internet slang»

Выполнил: Кузьмин Александр Александрович

Ученик 8 «В» класса

МБОУ СОШ № 46 с УИОП

Руководитель: Телегина Анна Витальевна,

учитель английского языка

МБОУ СОШ №46

Сургут

2018 г.

Content

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….3

1. Theoretical part. The definition of the term “abbreviation”.....................4

1. History of abbreviation…..….………………………………………………4-5
2. Internet slang and computer slang ………………………….…….…………5-7

2. Practical part. Experimental work……………………………………9-11

2.1 The interview………………………………………………………….……9-10

2.2 Designing the leaflet “Chat abbreviations”..………………………………10-11

2.3 The analysis of the experiment…………………………………………....13-15

Conclusion……………………………………………………….………….……16

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………17

Introduction

Many people nowadays use the Internet. Internet has become a significant part of our life. We use the Net not only to work or find something but for communication. American researches say that 5 billion people use the Internet. To make speech faster people use abbreviations in the Net. Moreover, people use abbreviation in their speech more and more. It is a tendency for many languages, not only for English.

Therefore, it is relevant nowadays to know abbreviations in English computer slang.

Many people are sure that it is very difficult to understand English abbreviations. On the other hand, there are people who suppose that it is not so difficult as it seems. This is the main contradiction.

Our hypothesis is – if a person learns the meaning of abbreviations, he can understand them easily because he knows their definition.

The aim of the research is to prove that students will understand chat abbreviations if they often use them.

The main tasks are:

1. to learn the history or the term “abbreviation”;
2. to find out the types of English slang and abbreviations;
3. to interview the classmates;
4.  to make up the exercises and the leaflet “Chat abbreviations”.

Methods of the research: theoretical - analysis of the specialized literature on the problem under study; diagnostic - questioning, testing; experimental - statistical processing and analysis of experimental data on the topic, fixing the results.

Practical importance is that my classmates can use the leaflet “Chat abbreviations” in their life und while studying.

The research includes: introduction, theoretical part, practical part, conclusion, bibliography.

1. Theoretical part. The definition of the term “abbreviation”

1. History of abbreviation

An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, meaning short) is a shortened form of a word or phrase. It consists of a group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv., or abbrev [1].

Abbreviations should not be confused with contractions, crasis, acronyms, or initialisms. They share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all four are connected by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance. An abbreviation is a shortening by any method; a contraction is a reduction of size by the drawing together of the parts. A contraction of a word is made by omitting certain letters or syllables and bringing together the first and last letters or elements; an abbreviation may be made by omitting certain portions from the interior or by cutting off a part. A contraction is an abbreviation, but an abbreviation is not necessarily a contraction. Acronyms and initialisms are regarded as subsets of abbreviation. They are abbreviations that consist of the initial letters or parts of words [2].

History of abbreviation [1]

Abbreviations have a long history. This might be done to save time and space, and also to provide secrecy. Shortened words were used and initial letters were commonly used to represent words in specific applications. In classical Greece and Rome, the reduction of words to single letters was common. In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation." However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context.

Abbreviations in English were frequently used from its earliest days. The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included such a growth in the use of abbreviations. For example, sequences like ‹er› were replaced with ‹ɔ›, as in ‹mastɔ› for masterand ‹exacɔbate› for exacerbate. For example: “Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ”.

During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. People used abbreviation for their names, for example: J. R. R. Tolkien and his friend C. S. Lewis.

After World War II, the British greatly reduced the use of the full stop and other punctuation points after abbreviations in at least semi-formal writing, while the Americans more readily kept such use until more recently.

Over the years, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. The U.S. media tend to use periods in two-word abbreviations like United States (U.S.), but not personal computer (PC) or television (TV) [3].

Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during the 1990s allowed for a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant- and text messaging. For instance, SMS supports message lengths of 160 characters at most. More recently Twitter began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits.

1.2 Internet slang and computer slang

Nowadays, the Internet has developed almost its own language. This language is even more casual and has many abbreviations. The English language is always changing, though at a slow pace. Things online happen much faster. You might come online one day to see everyone sharing a new picture, or see a new saying that you’ve never seen before [3].

Computer slang. Every Computer geek always learn more about Computer. In computer we use many different terms. In Computer many terms are available in Abbreviation form. So if you going to attend any Computer exam or any Interview these terms are useful for you [4].

As for abbreviations, it should be saying that classification of abbreviations in the English language is numerous. There are different researchers and they have different classifications (semantic, morphological, compound, geographical and so on). Here you see the most common abbreviations in English slang.

 - Computer slang:

1. Computer Language Related Terms - terms used in programming languages

2. Computer Media Related Terms - terms used to work in a computer environment

 - Internet slang:

1. Internet Related Terms - terms used to work with the Internet

2. Chat Abbreviations - terms used for communication in the Internet

Internet slang (Internet shorthand, cyber-slang, netspeak, or chatspeak) refers to a variety of slang languages used by different people in the Internet. An example of Internet slang is "LOL" meaning "laugh out loud". It is difficult to provide a standardized definition of Internet slang due to the constant changes made to its nature [1]. However, it can be understood to be a type of slang that Internet users have popularized. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate for small character limits. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting and instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols and abbreviations are common types of Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as in group internet memes rather than time savers [5].

Origins. Internet slang originated in the early days of the Internet with some terms predating the Internet [5]. Internet slang is used in chat rooms, social networking services, online games, video games and in the online community. Since 1979, users of communications networks like Usenet created their own shorthand [5].

Motivations. The primary motivation for using a slang unique to the Internet is to ease communication. However, while Internet slang shortcuts save time for the writer, they take two times as long for the reader to understand, according to a study by the University of Tasmania. On the other hand, similar to the use of slang in traditional face-to-face speech or written language, slang on the Internet is often a way of indicating group membership [4].

Internet slang provides a channel which facilitates and constrains our ability to communicate in ways that are fundamentally different from those found in other semiotic situations. Many of the expectations and practices which we associate with spoken and written language are no longer applicable.

Types of Internet slang. Internet slang does not constitute a homogeneous language variety. It differs according to the user and type of Internet situation [3]:

1. Letter homophones
2. Punctuation, capitalizations, and other symbols
3. Onomatopoeic and/or stylized spellings
4. Keyboard-generated emoticons Direct requests

5. Leet
6. Novel syntactic features
7. Flaming

When you tell someone goodbye, you usually just say “bye.” This is a shortening that was created to save time since the word “goodbye” is so common [https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-internet-slang/].

Here you can see the table with the most basic abbreviations in the Internet: 

To sum up, the history of abbreviation development is long. There are different types of abbreviations in English computer and Internet slang. Many researchers say that it is difficult to make the difference between the Internet and computer slang. Moreover, there are same abbreviations in each type of slang.

2. Practical part. Experimental work

1. The interview

With the aim to prove that students will understand chat abbreviations if they often use them, we interviewed some students. We interviewed the 8th grade students at school No. 46 in order to study the level of knowledge of the translation of chat abbreviations from English into Russian.

The interview “Chat abbreviations”:

Give the definition to the word…

1. BRB
2. G2G
3. GG
4. LOL
5. IMHO
6. CYA
7. 2nite
8. 4U
9. CUL8R, M8
10. ROFL 

There are 28 people in the class. During the interview we found out that: 8% - coped with the test, 30% - were difficulties, 62% - failed. They explained the failure because of lack of knowledge and absence of communication in the Net.

Picture 1.Chat abbreviations translation

Thus, it was revealed that the level of knowledge of the translation of chat abbreviations among pupils of 8 "V" form is not high.

2. Designing the leaflet “Chat abbreviations”

In order to improve the translation skills of chat abbreviations, we a leaflet with translation of basic  English abbreviations.

1. LOL - Laughing out loud
2. BRB - Be right back
3. BTW - By the way
4. LMK - Let me know
5. G2G - Got to go
6. FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
7. GG - Good game
8. GJ - Good job
9. GL - Good luck

10. ROFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
11. NW - No way
12. 2nite - Tonight

13. B4N - Bye For Now
14. CYA - See Ya

15. IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
16. IRL - In Real Life
17. L8R - Later
18. 4U – For you
19. NP - No Problem
20. OMG - Oh My God

3. The analysis of the experiment

In order to improve the level of knowledge of the translation of chat abbreviations among learners, we developed the leaflet “Chat abbreviations” on this topic. The experiment was done among the students of 8 "V" form. During the work of improving the level of knowledge of the translation of words, there have been positive changes in the level of knowledge among students. We tested it with the help of special tasks.

Exercise 1. Match the phrases with their definition

SIS = all the best

SMMR = girlfriend 

B4N - to want to

ATB = rolling on the floor laughing

WAN2 = have a nice day

GF = in my humble opinion

HAND = sister 

ROFL = laughing out loud

LOL = bye for now

IMHO = summer

Exercise 2. Translate the sentences and phrases

1. My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3:- kids FTF. ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc.
2. CUL8R, M8.
3. HRU.
4. CUL.
5. BRB.

Exercise 3. Communication in social networks

The main task was communication in social networks using chat abbreviations. We make chat in social network “Vkontakte” where people should communicate only in English. There were different topics to talk about. They are: school, pastime, holidays, movie, and computer games. The research shows that students use abbreviations most of all in the Net, after practice in social networks they started to use abbreviations more often not only in the Net but in real life. For example, at school, while talking about games.

As a result of experimental work, the level of knowledge of the translation of chat abbreviations among students has significantly increased. High levels have reached - 60%, medium - 35%, low level - 5%. As a result, we observed positive changes.

Table: «Experiment results»

Picture 2. Experiment results

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be saying that study and repetition of chat abbreviations gives an efficiency in mastering the material. The aim of the research is achieved. We learned the history or the term “abbreviation”, found out the types of English slang and abbreviations, and interviewed the classmates, made up the exercises and the leaflet “Chat abbreviations”. Now I call talk with my classmates and friends using some English abbreviations.

                Bibliography

1. Internet Slang Union. Yin Yan (2006) World Wide Web and the Formation of the Chinese and English "Internet Slang Union". Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Education. Vol. 1. ISSN 1001-5795  
2. Internet slang. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_slang   
3. Origin of slang. Daw, David. "Web Jargon Origins Revealed". Pcworld.com. Retrieved 2014-01-18.    
4. Types of slang. Hohenhaus, Peter (2005). Elements of traditional and "reverse" purism in relation to computer-mediated communication. In Langer, Nils and Winifred V. Davies (eds.), Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 203-220.
5. Computer slang. prophethacker.com/2014/12/most-important-200-computer-related-short-forms-full-forms-abbreviations.html