SHORTENINGS AS THE COMPONENT OF SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCOURSE: HISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC ASPECT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of shortenings as an integral component of the process of social and political communication. It is purposed at studying the linguistic formation foundations of the abbreviated writing system in historical retrospect. The historical stages of formation of such systems of shortenings as Tiro’s marks or nota Tīrōniāna, specially compiled collections of abbreviations Notae Iuris and a list of shortened words from Christian sources – Nomina Sacra – were studied. The reasons for the words shortening and the origin specifics of various types of abbreviations are considered. In addition, the article pays attention to the definition and correlation of such basic concepts as “abbreviation”, “acronym” and “contraction” (“clipping”) taking into account the differences in domestic and foreign approaches to the typology of abbreviations. The article states that socio-political discourse is any linguistic structure, whose subjects and addressees relate to the sphere of politics and society. This type of communication requires saving resources in the context of exchanging large volumes of socially useful information. Therefore, text coding of such information requires the usage of a significant number of shortenings. The tradition of abbreviated writing, which was used in shorthand to record public speeches, dates back to ancient Rome, where the first abbreviations took place in political records. Later shortenings became widely used in legal and early Christian texts. In the XV–XVI centuries abbreviations did not lose their popularity. They were used in the first printed editions, trying to imitate the handwritten style. The need for their widespread usage began to weaken from 1731. The author came to the conclusion that shortenings have an ancient origin and are the result of abbreviation process – one of the most productive ways of word formation. In modern linguistics, the category of shortenings includes abbreviations, acronyms, and contractions or clippings. Approaches to their interpretation and categorization sometimes differ significantly that gives grounds for further research in this direction.