Grammar
It’s human nature to want to expend the minimum possible effort. Why say National Aeronautics and Space Administration when you can simply say NASA?
An acronym is usually formed by taking the first letters of the full form to create a new word. The NASA example of abbreviating is called initialism. It’s also possible to snatch a few extra letters and still form an acronym. RADAR = RAdio Distance And Ranging. Radar is an example an acronym has become so familiar that it has become a proper word, people don’t even bother capitalising it and relatively few people know what radar stands for.
Some acronyms are pronounced as words, such as our earlier NASA example, and some are spelt out letter by letter. Then there are examples combining the two approaches such as CD-ROM (cee-dee rom). Some acronyms may stand for more than one thing depending on the field of use. IRA (spelt out letter by letter is an Irish terrorist organisation) and IRA (pronounced as word eye-ra) is a tax-efficient savings scheme.
TLA’s
My first introduction to the world of TLA’s (Three Letter Abbreviations) was in the in the world of eighties computing. TLA’s were the In Thing (amongst the nerdy anyway) and were bandied about to keep non-technical users in the dark.
“I have upgraded your PSU, CPU, HDD and RAM”
“What about the motherboard?”
“I haven’t touched that, someone else will need to do that, I only do TLA’s”
There is little point in using acronyms unless people know what you’re talking about. Style guides advise that you should (unless it’s a very common example) let your readers know what the abbreviation stands for. After that you can feel free to use the acronym. I remember talking to some girl on IRC (internet relay chat) back in the early days of the internet. She typed in “ASL”. I promptly ended the conversation. How was I to know that she was asking my Age Sex and Location? I thought she was being abusive and calling me an a**hole.
Nowadays we have MSN messenger and phone texting. LOL is a much overused phrase. There are already keyboards available that allow us to type words like LOL with a single keystroke. No doubt, in time, PMSL will become a standard key on mobile phones.
Mnemonics
The colours of the rainbow? Easy..
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
How do I remember that? By means of a mnemonic (memory aid). At school I was taught two methods of remembering the initial letters of the colours.
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain - spelling out ROYGBIV
Or the letters can just as easily split that up into a person’s name of sorts Roy G. Biv
Redundancy
So accustomed are we to using acronyms that the meaning behind them is often pushed to the back of our minds and we add words that are already in the expanded form of the acronym.
I hope you have enjoyed this particular lazy man’s guide to acronyms (LMGTA). So, from me, it’s TTFN (tata for now)
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Grammar
The Lazy Man's Guide to Acronyms
It’s human nature to want to expend the minimum possible effort. Why say National Aeronautics and Space Administration when you can simply say NASA?
An acronym is usually formed by taking the first letters of the full form to create a new word. The NASA example of abbreviating is called initialism. It’s also possible to snatch a few extra letters and still form an acronym. RADAR = RAdio Distance And Ranging. Radar is an example an acronym has become so familiar that it has become a proper word, people don’t even bother capitalising it and relatively few people know what radar stands for.
Some acronyms are pronounced as words, such as our earlier NASA example, and some are spelt out letter by letter. Then there are examples combining the two approaches such as CD-ROM (cee-dee rom). Some acronyms may stand for more than one thing depending on the field of use. IRA (spelt out letter by letter is an Irish terrorist organisation) and IRA (pronounced as word eye-ra) is a tax-efficient savings scheme.
TLA’s
My first introduction to the world of TLA’s (Three Letter Abbreviations) was in the in the world of eighties computing. TLA’s were the In Thing (amongst the nerdy anyway) and were bandied about to keep non-technical users in the dark.
“I have upgraded your PSU, CPU, HDD and RAM”
“What about the motherboard?”
“I haven’t touched that, someone else will need to do that, I only do TLA’s”
There is little point in using acronyms unless people know what you’re talking about. Style guides advise that you should (unless it’s a very common example) let your readers know what the abbreviation stands for. After that you can feel free to use the acronym. I remember talking to some girl on IRC (internet relay chat) back in the early days of the internet. She typed in “ASL”. I promptly ended the conversation. How was I to know that she was asking my Age Sex and Location? I thought she was being abusive and calling me an a**hole.
Nowadays we have MSN messenger and phone texting. LOL is a much overused phrase. There are already keyboards available that allow us to type words like LOL with a single keystroke. No doubt, in time, PMSL will become a standard key on mobile phones.
Mnemonics
The colours of the rainbow? Easy..
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
How do I remember that? By means of a mnemonic (memory aid). At school I was taught two methods of remembering the initial letters of the colours.
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain - spelling out ROYGBIV
Or the letters can just as easily split that up into a person’s name of sorts Roy G. Biv
Redundancy
So accustomed are we to using acronyms that the meaning behind them is often pushed to the back of our minds and we add words that are already in the expanded form of the acronym.
PIN Number -> Personal Identification Number number
ATM Machine -> Automated Telling Machine machine
SIM card -> Subscriber Identity Module card
ATM Machine -> Automated Telling Machine machine
SIM card -> Subscriber Identity Module card
I hope you have enjoyed this particular lazy man’s guide to acronyms (LMGTA). So, from me, it’s TTFN (tata for now)
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- Defending The Queen's English
What is it about American phrases and spellings that some Britons find so offensive? Extremists (loyalists even?) might refer to British English as “The Queen’s English”. You lazy Americans are distorting the language and thereby insulting the Queen....
- Writing Formal Letters
When you’re writing informally to friends you probably don’t pay much attention to your style, however, with formal letters there are certain rules you have to remember and respect. This might be tricky for foreigners as it would seem that conventions...
- Evolution Of Spelling?
I got involved in an interesting discussion with @ciarancurran76 and @rougeit on Twitter which I’d like to share with you. I might be following it up with a longer article soon as well. Let me just add that both lovely gentlemen are totally worth following...
- Glottal Stop, Clipping And Elision
I got into a conversation with somebody on Twitter yesterday about the phonetic processes. To be truthful, it wasn’t much of a conversation and rather a question asked by them followed by my monologue with possible answers. They wanted to know ‘’what...
- How Baby Words Are Made.
Modern English vocabulary is the result of the mixture of five major linguistic influences: 1. Old English (Anglo-Saxon)2. French (after 1066)3. Norse (Vikings)4. Latin and Greek (mostly from the late Middle Ages onwards)5. Miscellaneous words borrowed...