"English abbreviations in electronic correspondence"

                 Municipal budgetary educational institution

Bobrovsky educational Center "Leader" named after A.V. Gordeev

    "English abbreviations in electronic correspondence"

                                                                                        Written by: Mathew Trineev,

                                                                                     the student of the 6th "A" form

                                                                                        Supervisor: E.N. Aristova,

                                                                                                     English teacher

                                                 Bobrov, 2023

Content

Introduction …………………………………………………………………………3

The history of the formation of abbreviations in electronic correspondence………..3

Types of English abbreviations in electronic correspondence……………………….4

Analysis of the results of the student survey…………………………………………6

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………8

References……………………………………………………………………………9

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………..10

Introduction

The Internet today is a whole world through which you can exchange information with all the inhabitants of our small planet. There are many ways to receive, transmit and exchange information. In this paper, we will talk about the most effective and popular forms of electronic writing used by modern teenagers, as well as about the features of communication on the Internet.

The relevance of the work is that modern youth lives in the world of social networks and abbreviations during writing. It has become a natural part of communication.

The purpose of the work: to study English abbreviations in electronic correspondence.

Subject of research: English abbreviations in electronic correspondence.

Object of research: abbreviations of English words and expressions in correspondence.

Hypothesis: English abbreviations in electronic correspondence are an integral part of modern communication of teenagers on the Internet. The use of abbreviations in electronic correspondence contributes to a deeper study of the English language, gives understanding of the importance of learning English for using it not only in real, but also online communication.

Tasks:

1. Consider the features of communication on the Internet. 2. To study the types of abbreviations in electronic correspondence.

3. Create a dictionary-directory of the most frequently used English abbreviations in electronic correspondence.

Research methods: • analysis of types of abbreviations;

 • classification of abbreviations found on the Internet.

The history of the formation of abbreviations in electronic correspondence

 The Internet appeared in the USA, and for a long time English remained the predominant language of the Network. Therefore, all network slang has English-speaking roots. For a modern teenager communicating on the Internet, it is no longer enough just to learn and apply English, it is also necessary to be able to use special speech tactics to establish contacts, positive self-presentation and cultural exchange via the Internet.

Writing electronic messages using the keyboard, reading them from screens, frequent correspondence — all this has become like a conversation. Consequently, the Internet has its own specifics of writing, for example, emotionally-colored icons and abbreviations to describe the feelings, emotions of the writer.

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In 1979, Kevin Mackenzie, a member of one of the very first news groups – MsgGroup - suggested using visual icons made up of punctuation marks – colons, hyphens and brackets - to convey emotions in writing.  And for more than 20 years, emoticons have been filling all kinds of forums, chats, used in instant messaging on the Internet and decorate emails. There is another kind of "incomprehensibility" - strange words like lol, rtfm, etc. These are well-established abbreviations of template English phrases.

The main reason for the appearance of such abbreviations is the specifics of communication on the Internet and the need to save time. The time spent on the Internet was once quite expensive. Therefore, brevity was also necessary from an economic point of view.

The exchange of electronic messages involves short phrases, the use of abbreviations and emotionally-colored icons, the so-called "emoticons" (from English. "to smile" - to smile).

 So, abbreviations in electronic correspondence are a new language of communication that is currently being formed as a result of the development of the Internet and means of communication.

Types of English abbreviations in electronic correspondence 

Before classifying abbreviations according to certain characteristics, it is necessary to analyze the very concept of "abbreviation". The dictionary of the Russian language gives the following concept: "An abbreviation is a compound word or a conditional abbreviation of words in a letter."1 A large encyclopedic dictionary interprets this concept in this way: "Abbreviation (ital. Abbreviatura, from Lat. Abbreviio - abbreviate) is usually a noun consisting of truncated words.

There are 5 most popular types of abbreviations used in modern English:

 1. Alphabetic - abbreviations for the first letters of words from expressions. This type of abbreviations is formed in the following way: the first letter of each word from the phrase is taken, while such an abbreviation is read not by letters, but by a single word. For example, among the SMS abbreviations of this type can be called: LOL (Laughing Out Loud) - laugh out loud; V.I.P (a Very Important Person); ASAP (As Soon As Possible) – as soon as possible; OMG OMG (Oh My God) - О, Господи; YW (You’re welcome) — пожалуйста; NP (No problem). 

2. Digital abbreviations - Abbreviations in numbers (Alphanumeric). In this type of abbreviations, one digit can replace a whole word or part of a word by similarity of pronunciation. For example, the number 2 (two) can replace a preposition or particle to, an adverb too, or be part of a word as one of the syllables: 2day = today (today), 2nite = tonight (tonight), 2moro – tomorrow (tomorrow).

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3. Abbreviation – one letter instead of a word. This type of abbreviations is based on the same pronunciation of a letter and a whole word. For example, the letter "b" [bi:] replaces words such as "be" [bi:] - be, "bee" [bi:] – bee or the syllable "be" in the word: b there (bethere) – be there; the letter "c" [si:]replaces the word see [si:] – see, understand: I c (I see) – I understand; the letter "u" is used instead of the pronoun "you": c u (see you) – see you.

4. Abbreviations, which produce some letters from words (mostly vowels). For example, pls (please) –please, txt (text) – text, msg (massage) – message, tnx (thank you) – thank you.

5. Abbreviations by symbols. These abbreviations use symbols as whole words or individual letters. There are not many such symbols used. For example, the symbol @ - replaces the preposition "at" in SMS messages: @wrk (at work) - at work; cu @7 (see you at 7) – meet me at 7.

Table 1. English abbreviations in electronic correspondence

Analysis of the results of the student survey

Due to the appearance of the In Contact, Facebook, Viber, Whatsup, etc. network portals, the popularity of electronic correspondence is growing rapidly today. Every year the community of Russian Internet users is getting younger. According to statistics in Russia, on average, only a third of adults are Internet users, while among schoolchildren there are almost 90%. The Internet provides great opportunities for children and adolescents to communicate: exchange messages, blog, and chat in forums. In order to find out whether students are aware of modern English abbreviations and whether they use them in electronic correspondence, I conducted a survey of 6th grade students (36 people in total). To do this, we have compiled a questionnaire where we asked students to answer the following questions (Appendix):

1. "Do you use electronic correspondence, if SO, how often?"- Almost all students answered "Yes", which is 97% and only one student answered "No" (3%).And almost all students answered that they use correspondence often, only 5 (14%) people answered that they rarely correspond on the Internet.

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2. "Do you use abbreviations of words when communicating on the Internet?" - "Yes" was answered by 29 students (81%) and "No" was answered by 7 students (19%).

 3. "Do you know any English abbreviations?" - 25 (69%) students answered YES, and 11 (31) people answered NO.

4. "What abbreviations do you use? Russian Russian Russian Russian abbreviations (emoticons, pictures, abbreviations in Russian, English abbreviations)" - 13 (36%) people use all types of abbreviations; Russian and English abbreviations are used by only 3 people (8%); only Russian abbreviations are also used by 3 people (8%), emoticons and pictures together with Russian abbreviations are used by 10 a person (28%), emoticons and pictures are used by 5 people (14%) and 2 people (6%) answered  that they do not use abbreviations in correspondence at all.

5. "Would you like to know more about English abbreviations in electronic correspondence? If Yes, then for what?" - 15 (41%) people answered YES and 21 (58%) people answered NO.

 After analyzing the results of the survey, I came to the conclusion that almost all students regularly use electronic correspondence. At the same time, 81% of students use various abbreviations (emoticons, pictures, abbreviations in Russian), and 44% of students use English abbreviations.

So, we can conclude that 69% of students have an idea about English abbreviations, and almost half of students use them in electronic correspondence. At the same time, 47% of respondents wanted to learn more about English abbreviations, this is due to the fact that students simply do not have knowledge about English abbreviations. The students noted that knowledge of English abbreviations will facilitate communication in English with foreign peers, make it easier and more convenient, as well as interesting, and improve their knowledge of the subject. I have clearly presented the results of the survey in figure

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 Conclusion

 Internet communication is a special communication that requires a special virtual language. Internet slang is very common and is constantly changing. A person who spends a lot of time on the Internet meets strange and incomprehensible abbreviations for himself. In order to conduct electronic correspondence, to be mobile, i.e. to respond quickly, to provide the necessary information, while we often do it on the run (in transport, subway, walking on the road somewhere), we have to use abbreviations. Using abbreviations helps to replace long words or expressions, save time on typing. As you know, English is the language of the Internet. 53.6% are English-language sites. Therefore, in order to communicate freely with the world, it is necessary to master English abbreviations.

In this paper, we have studied the history of abbreviations, identified their types, and compiled a list of frequently used English abbreviations. The practical part of this work consisted of conducting a survey of students, which allowed us to confirm the hypothesis: modern English abbreviations are known to students and they use them in electronic correspondence. So, English abbreviations in electronic correspondence are an integral part of modern communication of teenagers on the Internet.

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References

1.English-Russian dictionary of abbreviations by N. O. Volkova, I. A. Nikonorova

2.English-Russian dictionary of modern abbreviations by «Drofa»

3.«Acronyms and Abbreviations an English-Russian Dictionary for Communications and Modern Information Sciences» by N. N. Slepov

4.https://www.lifewire.com/what-does-rofl-mean-2483551

5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_language#Pictograms_and_logograms_.28rebus_abbreviation.29.5B8.5D

6.http://englishfull.ru/znat/anglijskie-sokrashheniya.html

7.http://eng911.ru/words/sleng/fyi-abbreviatura.html

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Appendix

Diagram 1. Results of the student survey

Diagram 2. What abbreviations do you use?

Booklet

The dictionary- reference book of the most used English abbreviations in electronic correspondence

Приветствие

LTNS - long time no see - давно не виделись

LTNT - long time no type – долго не писал

WB - welcome back - c возвращением

Знакомство

AFAIK - as far as I know - насколько мне известно

ASL - age/sex/location - возраст/пол/место жительства

F2F - face to face - с глазу на глаз

FAQ - frequently asked questions - часто задаваемые вопросы

MF - male or female - мужчина или женщина

RE - how are you – как дела?

SUP - what's up – как дела?

Прощание

BBIAF - be back in a few minutes – вернусь через несколько минут

BBIAH - be back in an hour – вернусь через час

BBIAM - be back in a minute – вернусь через минуту

BBIAS - be back in a second – вернусь через секунду

BBS - be back soon – скоро вернусь

CU - see you -до встречи

GTG - I got to go – я должен идти

TTFN - ta ta for now – ну давай, пока!

Подпись в конце письма

WBR - with best regards - сердечный привет

WBW - with best wishes - с наилучшими пожеланиями

WRT - with respect to – с уважением

Положительные эмоции

GR8 - great - восхитительно

LOL - lot of laugh – куча смеха

ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing – кататься пополу со смеха

Недовольство

H8 - hate - ненавидеть

ONNA - oh no, not again - о нет, только не снова!

TANJ - there aren't no justice – нет справедливости

Благодарность

10X - thanks - спасибо

TFHAOT - thanks for help ahead of time – заранее благодарен

Устойчивые выражения

AFK - away from the keyboard - меня нет за клавиатурой

IMO - in my opinion – по моему мнению

IMHO - in my humble opinion – по моему скромному мнению

IMNSHO - in my not so humble opinion

LOL - lot of laugh – куча смеха

PMJI - pardon my jumping in - прошу прощения что вмешиваюсь

POV - point of view – точка зрения

ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing – кататься по полу от смеха

Смайлики и значки