Dolga zgodovina krajšanja: okrajšave z vidika tipologije in diahronije

Lingvistični krožek Janeza Orešnika vabi na 1253. sestanek, ki bo v ponedeljek, 2. decembra 2024, ob 18. uri v predavalnici 325 v 3. nadstropju Filozofske fakultete. Na temo Dolga zgodovina krajšanja: okrajšave z vidika tipologije in diahronije / The Long History of Shortening: A typological and diachronic perspective on abbreviations bo predaval dr. Alpo Honkapohja (Univerza v Talinu). Predavanje bo v angleščini.

Povzetek (v angleškem jeziku):

Abbreviating words instead of spelling them out in full is a practice that spans across the entire history of written communication, from ancient stone inscriptions and medieval manuscripts to 19^th-century telegrams and modern-day WhatsApp messages. Unsurprisingly, abbreviations have been studied across various disciplines, including lexicology, computer-mediated communication (CMC), and paleography. However, as these fields rarely engage with each other, this attention has been compartmentalised, typically focusing on a specific period, text type, or form of abbreviation.

This talk aims to approach abbreviation as a single phenomenon, driven by the shared motivations of saving time, space, and effort, across all forms of media. The presentation will include a theoretical discussion of abbreviation from the perspectives of writing system typology, pragmatics, and word-formation processes. It will also present a corpus-based study, offering a long-term diachronic comparison of abbreviation usage in English texts from the 15^th century to the present day.