4.6  Acronymy

    Acronymy（首字母拼音法） is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of composite names of social and political organizations or phrases used as technical terms. Words formed in this way are called acronyms, which can be subdivided into initialisms （首字母缩略词）and acronyms （首字母拼音词）depending on the pronunciation of the words.

    1. Initialisms

    These are words pronounced letter by letter, hence the name. In cases like A. D. (Anno Domini = in the year after the birth of Jesus Christ) , B, C. (Before Christ) and C.O.D. (cash on delivery)（货到付款）, the letters are separated by periods, but most of them have no periods between the letters.

1)  Letters represent full words 

VOA        Voice of America

    BBC         British Broadcasting Corporation

    c/o          care of

    p. c.         postcard

    UFO        unidentified flying object

2)  Letters represent constituents in a compound or just parts of a word 

TV          television

ID            identification or identity card

TB           tuberculosis

GHQ        General Headquarters

 

    2. Acronyms

    A true acronym is a word formed from initial letters but pronounced as a normal word, for example radar (radio detecting and ranging), Pluto (pipe line under the ocean), WAVES (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service)（志愿紧急服务役妇女队）, etc. .

    The method of acronymy is a real linguistic innovation of the 20th century and seems to have originated spontaneously in the military jargon（行话）of the First World War. It remains a favourite with the military, but it is now also used by academics, bureaucrats（官僚机构）, corporations, children, and all other classes of word coiners. Structurally, there are three kinds of acronyms: pure acronyms (formed from initial letters only)（纯粹首字母拼音词）, hybrid acronyms（混种首字母拼音词） like radar (formed with more than initial letters) and syllabic acronyms（音节首字母拼音词）, like Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). More examples are as follows:

NATO       the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

AIDS        acquired immune deficiency syndrome

BASIC       beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code

MAD        mutually assured destruction（确保双方互毁）

CORE       Congress of Racial Equality（争取种族平等大会）

Laser        lightwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

sonar        sound navigation and ranging

TEFL        teaching English as a foreign language

 

Hybrid acronyms also include such words as:

N-bomb              nuclear bomb

D Notice             Defence Notice（防卫同知）

G-man               Government man（美国联邦调查局人员）

D Day               decimalization day（十进制实施日）

V-Day               Victory Day

    It must be pointed out that there is an ethical distinction （伦理上的差异）among acronyms. Honest acronyms emerge, either by pure chance or with a little discreet（言行谨慎的；慎重的） assistance, from genuinely preexisting phrases. Counterfeit （伪的）acronyms, or retroacronyms（）, are formed by simply choosing some snappy （时髦的）or appropriate term and devising a phrase to which it can be attributed, e. g. ORACLE (Optimum Record Automation for Courts and Law Enforcement) and PACE (Performance and Cost Evaluation, or Program to Advance Creativity in Education).

    Both initialisms and acronyms have become exceptionally popular since the Second World War and thus extremely productive. This is verified by the number of such words collected in E.T. Crowley s Acronyms and Initialisms Dictionary. The 1st edition which appeared in 1961 contains 12 000 entries; the 2nd edition that came out in 1965 lists 45 000 entries and the 3rd edition which was published in 1970 collects 80 000 entries, almost twice the number in the second edition. With the advance of time, some of the words may fall out of use whereas by far a greater number of words will be added. Acronymy will undoubtedly remain a relatively important contributor to contemporary English vocabulary.