The abbreviations used in text message and on the internet

For example, ‘how are you’ can be put on the screen as ‘how R U?’ Abbreviations become very popular when young people communicate through text message or on the internet.. We do this res

The abbreviations used in text message and on the internet

by group 1

The motivation of our research

• Nowadays, mobile phones and the Internet are so

popular that almost every culture has created its own

specific language The youth play the main role of that creation It’s interesting to discover how words are

associated with each other in the native speakers’ eyes For example, ‘how are you’ can be put on the screen as

‘how R U?’ Abbreviations become very popular when young people communicate through text message or on the internet We do this research to study the origin, the development, the features and the strong points, weak points of abbreviations

We do this research to solve the

se two questions:

• I How widely are shortening words are used in text messag

e and the internet?

• II What’s the development of abbreviations?

The significance of our research

• Keeping pace with time We are English language

learners and we should be aware of the newest

English language We have to read as much as

materials to gain a great many new words, which can also help our reading skills

• Understanding English culture better From Americans

like shortening words, we can easily notice their

culture As we all know, all the new language usages are created by the native speakers, which will help us know the development process of English We can

learn how to create a new word, and why a language needs to develop

• Getting to know the youth’s condition The youth is a country’s future Text message and the Internet receive so much popularity from the youth, and it’s a good way to g

et to know them by learning about their specific language

• Helping us in note taking Many times in daily life, we ne

ed to take notes quickly However, it is difficult for us to take what has been said completely, just because the speaking speed is so fast Thus, we need to know more and more about the youth language like some abbreviations

or substitutes, both of which can improve the writing spe

ed

• I How widely are shortening words are us

ed in text message and the internet?

• We use a questionnaire to solve this quest ion.

Questionnaire about the shortening words in text

messages and on the Internet

• Thank you for your precious five minutes to do this questionnaire We are sophomores majoring in English in Soochow University, China Now we are doing some research about how widely shortening words are used in text messages and the Internet, which will help us to prepare for our final paper of lexicology Your help will do us a great favor.

• 1 please select your age group.

• 3 how many hours do you spend in chatting online on average every day?

• 6 please list Top Five shortening words which you often use

• 9 do you think shortening words is a kind of progress in English

usage? Why or why not?

• The end

• We appreciate your help very much Thank you again!

• The target people of our research are

American students and Chinese students majoring in English There are 50

American students from three different

universities, including Ohio State

University, Florida State University and

Utah State University, 20 students in

Melbourne University and 30 Chinese

students in foreign language departments involved in this research.

• Statistic:

• 1 Since we mainly aim to college students, only 1 out of

100 are below 15, ten percent is 16—19, half of the

students are from 19 to 21, 39% are above 21

• 2 20% of students send messages below 10, 30% are

below 20, 30% are below 30, 20% are above 30

• 3 20% of students spend in chatting online on average

every day less than 1 hour, 40% less than 2 hours, 20% are below 3 hours, 20% are above 3 hours

• 4 1% never use shortening words in text messages and the Internet, 20% choose B few times, 70% choose often

• 5 none choose A below 5 about the question how many

of your friends use shortening words in text messages and the Internet, 10% choose below 10, 20% choose below 15 and 70% choose above 16

• 6 please list Top Five shortening words which you often use

• AFK away from keyboard 60%

• 7 98% write the full words correctly

• 8 why people prefer to use shortening words?

• Saving time and easy 90%

• Popular and fashionable 75%

• Convenient 70%

• Funny and humorous 68%

• 9 do you think shortening words are kind of progress in

English usage?

• Yes 80%

• No 20%

• Almost every student can understand

shortening words and use them

everyday no matter online or sending a text messages, which play a very

important role in our daily life now No matter whether shortening words are

progress of English usage or not, it has already become a part of English.

•II What is the develop ment of abbreviations

?

The development of

abbreviations

• Abbreviations are regularly used in our

daily life When we send short messages

or e-mails, we use abbreviations When

we read newspapers or watch TV, we can find abbreviations Therefore,

abbreviations influenced our life quite a lot.

• All abbreviations and acronyms are now using standard code instead of the nested span hack for Internet Explorer This has meant the

functionality of the site is reduced in Internet

Explorer but this is due to the browser omitting parts of the markup standards The pages

degrade gracefully in this device, so the pages remain accessible The primary benefit of these elements is for the users screen readers, which handle this important element correctly

• Alphabetic abbreviation became possible around 1000 BC and was common in the c lassical world: the Greek letters and as a r esult of their use the fish became a Christi

an symbol; the Latin letters SPQR stood fo

r Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Sen ate and the Roman people) In addition, sh ort forms such as IMP CAES (Imperator C aesar Emperor Caesar) were common on i nscriptions and coins.

• Although present-day abbreviation in English

descends from such forms, its more

immediate origin was in the practices of

medieval scribes, among whom short forms were mnemonic and a means of economizing

on parchment, effort, and time As writing

extended from Latin into the European

vernacular languages, short forms went with

it, first as loans (such as AD for Anno Domini: from the year of the Lord), then as native

creations (such as BC for Before Christ)

• All such devices combine economy (of

effort, space, and reference) with

repetition (of the familiar and formulaic); although some are casual or temporary

creations, others have become over the centuries so institutionalized that their

origins and natures are seldom

considered: as for example AD and BC, when used for everyday secular purposes.

• Abbreviation -the minor pro cesses of word formation:

• Abbreviation or shortening 缩略法 / 截短法

– Abbreviations/clipping 截短词 (e.g doc, porn, expo; cab, van; f

lu, fridge; daily, pop)

– Initialism 首字母缩略词 (CIA, BBC, UFO, CD, IP, LCD, ID, N-b omb)

– Acronym 首字母拼音词 (UNESCO,laser, radar, SARS, AIDS, NATO, DINK )

– Blend 拼缀词 (motel, brunch, smog, chunnel, sitcom, hi-fi,talkat hon)

– Words from proper names: Eponyms (sandwich, robot, Watt ）

• Back formation 逆生法

• Nature

• Although abbreviations usually need to be concise,

convenient, and easy to remember, they do not need to

be fully understood to serve their purpose People

literate in English can work successfully with such

formulas as e.g and q.v whether or not they know their full Latin forms exempli gratia (for the sake of example) and quod vide (which see) The more familiar and

successful the short form, the less need for the full form, which may in course of time being forgotten The full

forms of mob (Latin mobile vulgus the fickle crowd) and radar (radio detection and ranging) have no functional value in the 1990s, and many are entirely unaware that these words are (or were) abbreviations The members

of organizations usually have little difficulty with the

abbreviations they use, because of sheer familiarity, but

• However, abbreviations are not

always ready to be used properly

In formal academic prose it is

considered bad form to abbreviate words simply to save space, time

or energy.

The research methods

• In this research, we used some typical research methods to study various aspects of abbreviatio

ns and made our research more specific and co nvincing

• Ask some students to fill our questionnaires ( a

s we have mentioned)

• We made a questionnaire related to abbreviatio

ns and sent them to some university students T hen, we analysed the result and got some useful information to our research.

SYMBOL MEANING EXAMPLE

e.g for example Professionals, e.g doctors and lawyers, met here etc et cetera, so forth Cats, dogs, etc., make good pets.

re: regarding, about I need to see you re: the sales figures.

esp especially Tobacco, esp cigarettes, causes cancer.

c circa, about, around, from the year This picture is c 1900

Q

A question answer Q: What is that? A: I don't know!

The conclusion of the research

• The usage of Abbreviations has become very popular among young people when they chat on the internet or through text message Most young people like new and interesting thing, while abbreviations meet their

demands When they communicate with their friends, using abbreviations is very convenient and easy to

understand Moreover, abbreviations reflect a trend of the development of English in some aspects However, excessive use of abbreviations also brings some bad

points Firstly, abbreviations are very informal, they can

be just used in some informal chatting and spoken

English Besides, this is bad for young students to learn English, it may unable students to spell and know some words well Above all, the development of abbreviations

is an issue which deserves our much more concerns

• Through this research we know many aspects of abbreviations, including the reasons they appear

ed, typical examples of abbreviations, their stron

g points and weak points, and their important rol

e in the daily life The research on abbreviations

is very interesting and meaningful, our research still has some shortcomings, for example, the qu estionnaires are not complete, the people we int erviewed are not enough, and we can not under stand the communication culture among western ers very well The research is so meaningful tha

t we should continue to study

• The motivation and significance of the r esearch: 徐晶晶

• The development of abbreviations, the typical examples: 张婷婷

• The research methods, the video found