Y. Shortening.

Shortening is a way of coining new words by clipping a part of their prototypes. The remaining part does not usually change phonetically so it is sometimes necessary to change the spelling: mike (from microphone), trank (from tranquilizer), dub (from double).

The change of meaning may also take place:

a) shortened words are usually colloquial while their prototypes may be neutral (e.g. bike, mike, doc);

b) shortened words are as a rule monosemantic while their prototypes may be polysemantic (e. g. to double has several meanings:1) to increase twofold; 2) to multiply by two; 3) to add the same note in the lower or higher octave; 4) to make another soundtrack of a film in a different language. The shortened word to dub retains only the fourth meaning).

The correlation of a shortened word and its prototype may be as follows:

a) the curtailed form is a lexical variant or a synonym differing from the prototype stylistically or emotionally (e.g. exam: examination, doc: doctor);

b) the connection can be established only etymologically, e.g. fan: fanatic, fancy: fantasy.

Unlike conversion shortening produces new words belonging to the same part of speech as their prototypes. The bulk of shortened words is constituted by nouns. Verbs are hardly ever shortened (e.g. to rev from revolve). Shortened adjectives are few and mostly reveal a combined effect of shortening and affixation, e.g. comfy from comfortable, mizzy from miserable.

Shortened words are often homonymous with other shortened words, e.g. van (the short for caravan and for vanguard), gym (gymnastics and gymnasium), vet (veterinary and veteran).

Classification of shortened words is based on the position of the clipped part. We distinguish:

1) final clipping (the end is cut off, the beginning of the prototype is retained), e.g. ad (advertisement), ed (editor), coke(coca-cola);

2) initial clipping (the final part of the prototype is retained), e.g. story (history), phone (telephone), drome (airdrome);

3) final and initial clipping combined, e.g. fridge (refrigerator), tec (detective), flu (influenza);

4) medial clippinf (the central part of a word falls out), e.g. specs (spectacles), ma’am (madam), maths (mathematics), fancy (fantasy).

Shortened words are opposed to shortened phrases, which result from a combined effect of clipping, ellipsis and substantivation, e.g. weekly (weekly paper), finals (final exams), pub (public house).

A special case of shortened words are fusions, or blends, or telescopic words. They result from shortening and compounding of clipped stems. The patterns may be:

a) initial element of the first stem + the second stem, e.g. paratroops (parachute troops),

automaniac (automobile maniac);

b) the first stem + the final element of the second stem, e.g. slimnastics (slim + gymnastics),

popcert (popular concert), videot (video + idiot);

c) the initial element of the first stem + the final element of the second stem, e.g. smog

(smoke + fog), weddiversary (wedding anniversary), bit (binary digit).

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