SHORTENING/ABBREVIATION one of the most active and productive minor types of word-formation (= subtraction of the original word or word-group).

. The earliest shortenings in English are Mr. and Mrs. And according to the The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary they go back to 1447 and 1582 respectively. They are just graphical shortenings, used in written speech, not new words. If words acquire specific sound form and meaning they may change into lexical shortenings, like prep for preparatory school or fan for fanatic. Cases of lexical shortenings were also registered some time in the 15th century, though this process of forming new words has become really active only recently. Lexical shortenings can be of different types.
I.

Shortening a change of the word-structure resulting in a new lexical item, i.e. clipping ( ): Apocope (), the word is clipped at the end: bio (biography), lab (laboratory), ad (advertisement), sec (second), bike (bicycle), etc. Aphaeresis (), the word is clipped at the beginning: car (motorcar), plane (aeroplane), bus (omnibus), etc. Syncope (), the word is clipped in the middle: maths (mathematics), specs (spectacles), etc. The word can be clipped both at the beginning and at the end: flu (influenza), tec (detective), fridge (refrigerator), etc.

II.

Abbreviation transformation of a word-group into a word:

1. acronymy (). Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of a fixed phrase or title. They are regular vocabulary units spoken as words.

Types of acronyms: from the initial letters (NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization, UNO United Nations Organization, , laser Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, etc);

from the initial syllables (Interpol International Police, hi-fi High Fidelity, etc); from the initial letter/syllable plus a word (V-day Victory Day, A-bomb atomic bomb, ID-card identification card, etc.). British

2. letter abbreviations (pronounced letter by letter): TV, BBC Broadcasting Corporation, ITV Independent Television, etc.

Sometimes names of letters are given in spelling: disc jokey D.J. dejay; General Purpose vehicle jeep. 3. Blending or telescoping ( ). Many words in English are the result of blending or telescoping, where initial and terminal segments of two words are joined together to create a new word. They are also called portmanteau words (-): smog (smoke + fog); brunch (breakfast + lunch), etc. 4. Substantivization /ellipsis (, ) dropping pf the final nominal member of a frequently used attributive word-group: e.g. a documentary film a documentary/documental. Substantivization /ellipsis is very often accompanied by clipping: e.g. permanent wave perm; popular music pop. Productive suffixation often takes place (sometimes on the contracted base), the suffixes er is most often used: a one-wing plane a one-winger; smoking carriage smoker; flicking pictures flickers.