Structural classification of English abbreviations for forms of assessment and names of diplomas and certificates related to language teaching

Abstract

Professional training of future foreign language teachers and translators/interpreters requires knowledge of the terminology of the relevant field, including abbreviated forms of such terminology. The article analyses thematic groups (TG) and subgroups (TSG) of English-language abbreviations in the field of language learning, in particular abbreviations denoting forms of assessment and names of diplomas and certificates. Based on similar studies of Ukrainian and foreign language terms in various fields, the author claims the lack of research on English abbreviations, which, together with the need for their systematic, structural and thematic classification, accounts for the relevance of the study. The aim of this study is to identify the aforementioned TG and TSG and determine their structural characteristics. The tasks included selecting the research material, dividing it into thematic groups and structural types, and formulating conclusions and prospects for further research. The system of English terminology, formed on the basis of relevant conceptual features, includes a set of lexemes united by extralinguistic properties. An important task of studying the terminological system is the division of lexemes into TG and TSG. The denotative feature, which denotes the realities of extra-linguistic reality, is the criterion for distinguishing TG and TSG. The research material included 100 abbreviations selected from original English-language sources. TGs and TSGs within the analysed corpus have different degrees of branching, which determines the location of the most numerous and most branched TGs and TSGs in the centre, while the least numerous TGs and TSGs are located on the periphery. Based on the thematic classification, TGs and TSGs were analysed according to the quantitative composition of components (ranging from 2 to 6), structural models of construction (the ratio of initialisms, acronyms and combined abbreviations; combination of full forms with abbreviated forms, different types of abbreviated forms in one abbreviation); belonging of components to corresponding independent or functional parts of speech, presence of homonymy features. The components of abbreviations are based on different term-forming models, on which the method of translating abbreviations may hypothetically depend. The prospect for further research focuses on more detail-oriented description of structural models of abbreviations, on the study of such dependencies and on the application of the results of such research in the training of future foreign language teachers and translators/interpreters.