Abbreviations and acronyms in English word-formation
Garland Cannon’s analysis places initial-letter forms in a longer history of English word formation, before social media.
Publication recordResearch undertaken for a PhD thesis
How does English take shape online?
A field guide to abbreviations, acronyms and informal forms in digital communication, drawn from work Osman Bedel carried out for a PhD thesis at Moldova State University. It includes a 2016 questionnaire and scholarship available through 2018.
LANGUAGE / FORMATION / CONTEXT01 — 12
LOLinitial letters
gonnainformal reduction
b/cshortened writing
150adult respondents
2016survey year
12named forms in the questionnaire
These figures describe the historical questionnaire. They are not counts of observed messages or estimates for all English users.
01 / Explore language
One survey.
Many forms of expression.
The questionnaire placed initials, short spellings and speech-like reductions side by side. Browse its twelve named examples to see why their structure and use should be considered separately.
12 forms
These classifications are guides to the forms, not evidence that the 2016 survey captured their use in actual messages. Pronunciation and meaning can vary by context.
02 / Survey findings
What respondents reported.
Explore descriptive results from the 150 questionnaires. Each view keeps the original question type visible so a judgment about commonness is never presented as a count of personal use.
BACKGROUND QUESTION
Familiarity with abbreviations, acronyms and emoticons
2016 questionnaire · N = 150Percent of responses
View data table
| Recorded category | Respondents / share |
|---|
Read the measure before the number. Q9 asked about respondents’ own use of broad form types. Q10 asked how common named forms were on social media. Neither measured the frequency of forms in collected messages. The original conversion from numeric ratings to the saved verbal categories is undocumented.
03 / Research library
Follow the evidence.
The thesis compares self-reports with studies that observed messages, tracked lexical change or tested language outcomes. These methods answer different questions.
Linguistic ruin? LOL! Instant messaging and teen language
Tagliamonte and Denis examined actual instant messages. Their unit of analysis differs from respondents’ judgments in this survey.
Publication recordDiffusion of lexical change in social media
Eisenstein and colleagues used dated social-media text to study how lexical variants spread across locations.
Open-access studyThe Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children
Van Dijk and colleagues measured children’s language-related outcomes. Their sample and measures cannot be attributed to the adult survey respondents.
Open-access study04 / Methods & evidence
What the study can tell us.
The original work considered broad questions about English, online communication and social effects. This website keeps the claims tied to the measures that survive.
01
Who answered?
The thesis reports 150 Facebook-recruited adults aged 18–35. Recruitment details and a response-rate denominator are unavailable. These results describe this group, not a representative population.
02
What was measured?
Questionnaire responses about familiarity, self-reported use and perceived commonness. No participant messages, historical first occurrences, or tests of language ability were collected.
03
What remains uncertain?
Two surviving questionnaire versions differ, including the H2 section and H5 wording. The exact administered form and the original scoring of the five modeled outcomes are not established.
04
How are models treated?
The five regression models are part of the original report. Applying the available syntax to the supplied respondent matrix does not reproduce their reported fits, so this website does not use them as independently verified causal findings.
2016Questionnaire and original reported analyses
2018Thesis manuscript dated December in Chișinău
05 / About & publications
A research record by Osman Bedel.
Research manuscript
Cite this research
Bedel, O. (2018). Social and linguistic impact on the formation of abbreviations and acronyms in modern English [Undefended PhD thesis manuscript]. Moldova State University.
Research resources
Open these sections in the thesis PDF.
Questionnaire PDF page 74 ↗ References and bibliography PDF page 66 ↗PHD THESIS MANUSCRIPT · PDF · 79 PAGES
Read the full thesis manuscript
Download Social and Linguistic Impact on the Formation of Abbreviations and Acronyms in Modern English, prepared by Osman Bedel for his PhD research at Moldova State University.
Download thesis PDF The manuscript is dated December 2018 and was not defended. The limitations of the survey and reported statistical models are explained on this site.Details from the thesis title page
- Author
- Osman Bedel
- University
- Moldova State University
- Faculty
- Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures
- Department
- Department of German Linguistics and Intercultural Communication
- Specialty
- 621.04: Lexicology and lexicography; terminology and specialized languages; translation
- Supervisor
- Mr. Dumitru Melenciuc, associated professor
- Place and date
- Chișinău, December 2018
Thesis and degree status
Bedel conducted this research at Moldova State University as part of his work toward a PhD. The manuscript draws on a 2016 questionnaire and scholarship available through 2018.
While abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bedel could not proceed to the thesis defense. He did not resume the process afterward. The manuscript remains undefended, and he was not awarded a PhD degree for this work.
Bedel’s 2017 conference paper, The Source and the Driving Force Behind the Modernization of English Language by Inventing New Words from Old Ones, reports the same line of research. It is not a second independent sample.
Contact Osman Bedel