Theoretical foundations of the "Explanatory dictionary of compound abbreviated words of the Russian language"

   The study has been carried out on the topic of the state assignment "Structural and functional parameters of the existence and development of the Russian language of the XX-XXI centuries in its regional and general linguistic aspects" (No. 124051400024-1). The work describes the theory of the Donetsk word formation school which underlay the principles of compiling the Explanatory dictionary of compound abbreviated words of the Russian language. The dictionary is being compiled by the Experimental laboratory of research on abbreviation trends at the Russian language department of Donetsk State University.

   The object of description in the dictionary is compound abbreviations (compound abbreviated appellatives).

   These are common nouns that implement the mechanism of replacing words with abbreviated constructs during formation. They contrast with initial abbreviations (acronyms) appearing as a result of the actual reduction of the derivational phrase words to the first letters or sounds, as well as with compound abbreviated onyms built with the help of abbreviated constructs.

   The research is relevant for two reasons.

   Firstly, compound abbreviations have never been the object of an independent lexicographic description. Secondly, our laboratory has discovered a few previously undescribed distinctive features of this abbreviation type. They include the formation of word semantics in the derivational phrase as the reason for its univerbalisation and the presence of several derivative syntactic equivalents of the word. The appearance of such equivalents is caused by the action of the abbreviation construct decoding stimuli. In compiling the dictionary, a synchronic approach to abbreviation is used. It determines not how the abbreviated word is formed, but how it is interpreted through equivalent phrases at the current stage of the language existence. When collecting and interpreting synchronic abbreviations, the laboratory uses the methods of prompting words and phrases, searching for equivalents in conjunction with frequency analysis, and so on. It is predicted that a series of abbreviation dictionaries will be created using the methods developed for the dictionary being prepared for publication. These will include a dictionary of abbreviated constructs, a dictionary of compound abbreviated onyms, a prescriptive dictionary of acronyms and abbreviations.

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