The contrastive study of English and Chinese Abbreviations---开题报告

（一） THE RESEARCH STATUS AT HOME AND ABROAD

Abbreviation is becoming more and more popular. According the most dictionaries, abbreviation is defined as the short form of words. It is also called contraction and shortening. Abbreviation is widely used in many language systems in the world. Take English and Chinese for example, there are numbers of abbreviations, and some of them were used very early. Therefore the formation of English and Chinese abbreviations is becoming a very interesting subject.

（二）Causes of using abbreviations. 

With the development of the economy and culture, more and more abbreviations come into being. As for the reason, this paper may make some brief analysis in cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology and pragmatics.

 

（三） Comparison of English and Chinese abbreviations in translation。

With abbreviations used more and more frequently, people pays more attention on translation for abbreviations. Professor Bomin Chen has analyzed method of abbreviations translation between Chinese and English. There are no doubt that this will be an very important area in abbreviation study.    

 

二、OUTLINE

1. Introduction

As for the formation of English and Chinese abbreviation, a lot of scholars have done some researches. In A Contrastive Study of English Acronyms Formation and Their Motivations（2002）. Zhu Yuanfu gave a comparatively detailed introduction to the formation of Chinese and English abbreviation, and also found some differences between them. But the analysis of the differences is not precise and systematic enough. In summary, most Chinese and foreign scholars study on the abbreviation are focused on following aspects:

2．Causes of using abbreviations. 

2.1 The use of abbreviation is the very typical example of this phenomenon. Therefore, organization is to rearrange and assemble the information, which can help human remember the information.

2.2 In order to make the communication more efficient, people usually use some strategies to deal with the complex information, and the use of abbreviation is one of these strategies.

3 . Comparison of English and Chinese abbreviations in pragmatics。

3.1 For example,《英汉缩略词异同浅议》written by Shaoning Ye and《英汉缩略语对比浅析》written by Yushan Fu. Shaoning Ye thought that compared with Chinese abbreviations,，English abbreviations  are more simple , lively, visual and emotional.Yushan Fu proposed that ，the formation of abbreviation is a gradual process in human’s daily life. So compared with the original language, abbreviation seems a little informal. 

3.2 On the one hand, not all people know the formation of every abbreviation. On the other hand, abbreviation is not as standard as the original form. So in many very important cases, abbreviation should not be used too much

4. Similarities of English and Chinese Abbreviations in formation 

4.1 Since both English and Chinese have their abbreviations and it has been introduced above that these two languages have their own way of composing abbreviations. There must be some similarities between these two language systems.

  

  5. Difference of English and Chinese abbreviations in formation 

English is alphabetic writing, syllable can be composed by letters, and the meanings are expressed by a group of syllables. An English abbreviation can be composed by the first letter of every word, and it can also be composed by parts of words. No matter what the component of the abbreviation is, sound and word forms are the most important elements, which are taken into consideration. Otherwise, Chinese focus on the meaning. So meaning plays an important role in the process of abbreviating. Misunderstanding and ambiguity should be avoided. For example, the abbreviation of 缴纳税款(pay tax) is 纳税 but 交款(pay), because 交款is already used as other meanings. 

6. Conclusion 

As for the use of abbreviation, some people speak highly of it; others think it brings bad influence to communication. That is because abbreviation is formed in daily use, the use of it breaks the rule of the formal structures, and so misunderstanding and ambiguity appear. In order to use abbreviation exactly, we should know the formation of it. What’s more, the economy and culture develop very fast, in order to catch up with the new society, we must know how to use abbreviations.

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