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How to use abbreviations

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commonly used abbreviations in academic writing

1. The following is a list of abbreviations you will often see in the text, the index, or the bibliography of books designed for serious readers.

2. They are nearly all brief or shortened forms of expressions in Latin.

3. Many people also make use of abbreviations when taking notes, and they are also used in the footnotes and endnotes of academic writing. Examples are shown below.

4. Don’t use abbreviations in the main text of any formal writing. If you wish to use these terms, they should be written out in full.

5. That is, don’t put e.g., but write out for example.

6. Notice that a full stop is placed after an abbreviation, but not when the full word is used.

7. This is correct usage, but sometimes the full stop may be omitted in order to avoid double punctuation.

8. Note that these terms are often shown in italics.

9. You should never begin a sentence with an abbreviation.

10. If you are in any doubt, always write out the expression in full.

Abbrev. Full term
app. appendix
b. born. For example, b.1939
c. (circa) about: usually with a date.
For example: c.1830.
cf. (confer) compare.
ch. chapter (plural chaps.)
col. column (plural cols.)
d. died. For example, d.1956
do. (ditto) the same.
e.g. (exempli gratia) for example.
ed. edition; edited by; editor (plural eds.)
esp. especially.
et al. (et alii, aliae, or alia) and others.
For example, Harkinson et. al.
et seq. (et sequens) and the following.
For example, p.36 et seq.
etc. (et cetera) and so forth. [An over-used term. Worth avoiding.]
fig. figure (plural figs.)
f./ff. following.
For example, 8ff. = page 8 and the following pages.
ibid. (ibidem) in the same place: from the source previously mentioned.
i.e. (id est) that is.
inf. (infra) below: refers to a section still to come.
l. line (plural ll.) [NB! easily mistaken for numbers ‘One’ and ‘Eleven’.]
loc. cit. (loco citato) at the place quoted: from the same place.
n. note, footnote (plural nn.)
n.d. no date given
op. cit. (opere citato) from the work already quoted.
p. page (plural pp.) For example, p.15 [Always precedes the number.]
para. paragraph (plural paras.)
passim in many places: too many references to list.
q.v. (quod vide) look up this point elsewhere.
For example, q.v. p.32.
sic thus. As printed or written in the original. usually in square brackets [sic].
supra above: in that part already dealt with.
trans. translator, translated by.
viz. (videlicet) namely, that is to say.
For example: Under certain conditions, viz…
vol. volume (plural, vols.)

Examples

Here’s the use of abbreviation in an academic footnote. The first reference used edn for edition and p for page. The second reference uses ibid for ‘in the same place’.

2. Judith Butcher, Copy Editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors, and Publishers, 3rd edn., Cambridge University Press, 1992, p.234.

3. Butcher, ibid., p.256

Here’s an example which uses the abbreviated names of two well-known organisations:

The BBC reported yesterday that the leaders of NATO had agreed to discuss the crisis as a matter of urgency.

Abbreviations are commonly used in displaying web site addresses:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/home.html

Every term in this address, apart from the names ‘Bath’ and ‘home’, are abbreviations

http = hypertext transfer protocol

www = world wide web

ac = academic

uk = United Kingdom

html = hypertext markup language

© Roy Johnson 2000

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Hyphens – how to use them correctly

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Hyphens – definition

hyphens Hyphens are short horizontal marks – (shorter than the dash).

redbtn Hyphens are used to show a link between words.

Examples

mother-in-law
re-enter
matter-of-fact
author-critic
president-elect
co-operation

Use

redbtn Hyphens are used to join words when forming compounds.

redbtn They are also used after prefixes – especially where it is necessary to avoid an awkward or confusing sequence of letters (as in re-enter).

redbtn Notice the difference between a compound word and the same terms used separately:

a fifteenth-century manuscript
in the fifteenth century

redbtn NB! The hyphen is not the same thing as the longer dash ( — ) but this distinction is rarely made in the UK.

redbtn Hyphens should be used where it is necessary to avoid ambiguity:

two-year-old cats
two year-old cats

redbtn They should also be used to distinguish terms which are spelled identically, but which have different meanings:

reformation – change for the better
re-formation – to form again

recover – to regain control
re-cover – to cover again

resign – to stand down
re-sign – to sign again

redbtn Hyphens are used when new terms are formed from compounds, but they are dropped when the compound is accepted into common usage. (This process is usually more rapid in the USA than in Europe.)

bath-tub -> bathtub
book-shelf -> bookshelf
club-house -> clubhouse

redbtn This phenomenon is currently visible in computer technology, where all three forms of a term may co-exist:

Word processor
Word-processor
Wordprocessor

redbtn Remember that the hyphen is not the same thing as the longer dash. A distinction between the two is commonly made in the US, but not in the UK.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Idioms – how to understand them

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Idioms – definition

idioms Idioms are fixed phrases which are only meaningful as a whole.

redbtn All languages contain idiomatic phrases.

redbtn Native speakers learn them and remember them as a complete item, rather than a collection of separate words.

Examples
IDIOM MEANING
a red herring a false trail
raining cats and dogs raining very hard
fly in the ointment spoiling the effect
Use

redbtn Idioms often break semantic conventions and grammatical logic – as in I’ll eat my hat [I’ll be amazed if …].

redbtn The object of the verb ‘to eat’ is conventionally something edible, but as part of this idiom it is something definitely inedible.

redbtn Non-native speakers find the idiomatic side of any language difficult to grasp.

redbtn Native speakers of a language acquire idioms from a very early stage in their linguistic development.

redbtn NB! You’re getting this advice straight from the horse’s mouth.

redbtn Idioms are generally impossible to translate between languages, although some families of languages use idioms based on identical ideas.

redbtn In French, for example, the idiomatic phrase ‘mon vieux’ is parallel in its meaning with the English ‘old chap’.

redbtn Idioms very often contain a metaphor, but not always. For example, ‘How do you do’ is an idiomatic greeting but it is not a metaphor.

redbtn Idioms are not always used or recognised by the whole of the language community. Sub-groups of speakers employ idioms peculiar to themselves.

redbtn Teenagers, occupational groups, leisure groups, and gender groups all employ idioms or special phrases. These will mean something within the context of the group and its communication.

Medicine I went to the GP for a check-up
Sport He was caught leg-before-wicket
Gender She was at her sister’s hen-party

redbtn Idiom also determines the way that certain combinations of words make meaningful statements, but not others.

redbtn For instance, we are ‘in a quandry’ but ‘at a loss’; we are ‘out of sorts’ but ‘in low spirits’; whereas the expressions ‘at a quandry’ or ‘in sorts’ would have no meaning in English.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003

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In Other Words

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a language lover’s guide to intriguing foreign words

This is a book for people who love words – no matter what their origin. In Other Words collects some of the most intriguing and peculiar expressions from countries around the globe for which there are no easy English equivalents. There is an expression in Japanese for instance which describes the particular stress the people there feel when speaking another language. But translated literally, Yokomeshi is ‘a meal eaten sideways’. Yoko means ‘horizontal’ and meshi means ‘boiled rice’. The explanation (and joke) is that Japanese language is normally written vertically. Makes sense now, doesn’t it?

In Other WordsEntries are listed alphabetically by country, and the languages covered include East and West Europe, Nordic, Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and Creole and Pidgin languages. The entries for each group are prefaced by a short essay outlining examples of contemporary usages and problems.

Examples include explanations of terms which have been commonly taken up in English such as enfant terrible and doppelganger, as well as those special terms for which there is no English equivalent, such as the German Torschlusspanik (literally ‘door-shutting panic’) for which the nearest would be ‘fear of being left on the shelf’, and the Yiddish luftmensch – literally somebody who lives on air, but figuratively a person who sponges off those around him.

Actually, some of the examples he offers disprove his own thesis about translatability. The Italian attaccabottone (literally ‘button attacker’) is exactly as the person who in English ‘buttonholes’ you to relate some long tale of woe.

It doesn’t have the in-depth comprehensiveness of a reference such as The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases, but it offers much longer and quite amusing explanations.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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C.J. Moore, In Other Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.127, ISBN: 0192806246

Irony – how to understand it

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Irony – definition

irony Irony is saying (or writing) one thing, whilst meaning the opposite.

redbtn The true meaning may be conveyed by vocabulary – or even by tone.

Examples

“So you’ve lost the keys. That’s clever!”

“You’re standing on my foot – thankyou!”

Use

redbtn Irony is a means of making a critical comment by casting a topic into a new light or reversing a perspective on it.

redbtn It is often used to make witty observations.

redbtn People using irony are distancing themselves from the subject in question.

redbtn NB! Irony should not be confused with sarcasm, which is a direct remark meant to wound or offend.

redbtn There are various types of irony. They have in common the adoption of a distance from the subject for satirical or critical effect.

redbtn A speaker might take up an opponent’s argument and then exaggerate it to reveal its weaknesses. This is Socratic irony.

redbtn Writers or speakers might pretend to hold opinions which are the exact opposite of what they truly believe. [The reader or listener must be alert and skillful to avoid being drawn into a trap.]

redbtn Dramatic irony occurs when the audience at a play know something of which the characters on stage are ignorant [the lover hidden in the next room].

redbtn Irony is often classed as a form of humour, along with sarcasm and satire. These do not necessarily evoke laughter, but rather a wry shrug or assent to the idea that the received world picture has been disturbed.

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© Roy Johnson 2003

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Jargon – how to understand it

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Understanding jargon – definition

understanding jargon Jargon is ‘the technical vocabulary of a profession or group’.

redbtn The word is used as a form of criticism when such terms are used unnecessarily for communication outside a group.

Examples
legal probate, conveyance, intestate
computers download, Megabyte, serial port
engineering sprocket, crankshaft, centrifuge
gardening mulch, perennial, phlox
Use

redbtn Jargon can be a useful form of communication between members of the same group. It acts as a ‘shorthand’ which eliminates the need for lengthy explanations.

redbtn The most important thing about jargon is that it should only be used when communicating with people in the same group.

redbtn Some items of jargon eventually pass into common use because they seem to fill a need. Terms such as own-goal [from football] or repression [from psycho-analysis] were once jargon.

redbtn NB! There is often a very fine line between jargon [salary] and pretentious nonsense [personal remuneration package].

redbtn There is nothing wrong when jargon is used amongst members of the same group. It often acts as a sort of ‘shorthand’, which eliminates the need for lengthy explanations.

redbtn For instance, the foreman in a garage does not need to write on a mechanic’s worksheet:

‘Please regulate the device which provides a constant supply of petrol to the inlet manifold of the engine.’

redbtn He writes ‘Adjust the carbuettor’ — or even ‘Fix the carb’.

redbtn However, when you are communicating with people outside a group, you should use jargon as little as possible.

redbtn The term jargon in its most negative sense describes the use of technical or obscure terms when addressing a general audience.

For instance, what follows is a sentence in a letter from the Inland Revenue. It is addressed to ordinary members of the public.

The basis of assessment for Schedule D Case I and II, other than
commencement and cessation, is what is termed a previous year
basis.

redbtn This is an example of bad manners and poor communication. [Would you know what a ‘previous year basis’ means?]

redbtn Academic study has its own jargon too, depending upon the subject in question. Terms such as hegemony (political philosophy) discourse analysis (linguistics) and objective correlative (literary studies) would not be recognisable by an everyday reader, though they might be understood by someone studying the same subject.

redbtn Whatever the jargon of your own discipline, it should be used with precision, accuracy, and above all restraint.

redbtn Eric Partridge quotes the following example to illustrate the difference between a statement made in technical and non-technical form:

‘Chlorophyll makes food by photosynthesis.’

‘Green leaves build up food with the aid of light.’

redbtn Only use the specialised terms of your subject if you are quite sure of their meaning. Never use jargon to show off or ‘impress’ your reader. It is likely to create the opposite effect.

redbtn Do not use a jargon term where perfectly ordinary terms will be just as effective. There is not much virtue in using terms such as aerated beverages instead of fizzy drinks. These simply cause disruptions in
tone and create a weak style.

redbtn Here is an even more pretentious example, spotted recently:

“Enjoy your free sample of our moisturising cleansing bar”

redbtn …in other words – our soap.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Jargon in essays

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sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Jargon is ‘the technical language of a profession or group’. The implication of this definition is that their language may not be understood by people outside the group.

2. For example, when solicitors use terms such as ‘probate’, ‘conveyance’, and ‘leasehold’, they are using the jargon of their profession, which is usually only understood by other solicitors. Similar examples could be given for doctors, engineers, and even bookbinders.

3. There is nothing wrong when jargon is used amongst members of the same group. It often functions as shorthand, which eliminates the need for lengthy explanations. However, when you are communicating with people outside a group, its use should be minimised.

4. The term jargon in its most negative sense describes the use of technical or obscure terms when addressing a general audience. For instance, a letter from the Inland Revenue to an ordinary member of the public which contains the following sentence is an example of bad manners (and poor communication):

The basis of assessment for Schedule D Case I and II, other than commencement and cessation, is what is termed a previous year basis.

Some steps have been taken to eliminate this occurrence in public documents, but there is still a long way to go.

5. Academic discussion can have its own jargon too, depending upon the subject in question. Terms such as ‘hegemony’ (political philosophy) ‘discourse analysis’ (linguistics) and ‘objective correlative’ (literary studies) would not be recognisable by an everyday reader, though they might be understood by someone studying the same subject.

6. Whatever the jargon of your own discipline, it should be used with precision, accuracy, and above all restraint. Only use the specialised terms of your subject if you are quite sure of their meaning.

7. Never use jargon to show off or ‘impress’ your reader. It is likely to create the opposite effect. Similarly, do not take half-understood jargon from one discipline and import it into another.

8. Take the trouble to learn the meanings of these specialised terms within the context of your subject. A word might have a particular meaning when used within a subject discipline which it does not have in general usage.

9. Do not use a jargon term where perfectly ordinary terms will be just as effective. There is not much virtue in using terms such as ‘aerated beverages’ instead of ‘fizzy drinks’. These simply cause disruptions in tone and create a weak style.

10. Here is an even more pretentious example, spotted recently.

‘Moisturising cleansing bar’ [in other words – ‘soap’]

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Language acquisition – understanding it

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Language acquisition – definition

language acquisition The term ‘language acquisition’ refers to the process by which humans begin to use language in speech.

redbtn In linguistic study it usually refers to child language development, but it can refer to adult acquisition of any language.

Examples

redbtn There are three main theories of language acquisition:

Behaviourist [Skinner] – language is learned by imitation

Cognitive [Piaget] – understanding leads to competence

Innate [Chomsky] – language automatically acquired

Use

redbtn Chomsky’s innateness theory has superseded the others and is now generally accepted as definitive.

redbtn Some knowledge of language acquisition theory is useful to anyone studying the English language, especially to schoolteachers who are teaching youngsters to read and write.

redbtn Speech therapists and audiologists also need to have a substantial knowledge of how language is acquired and developed.

redbtn NB! We acquire language just as we acquire the ability to walk upright. [That’s the current theory, anyway.]

redbtn In the study of language, speech is considered primary and as a system which is entirely separate from writing.

redbtn Children who are learning to write often confuse the two. They produce a written form of speech.

redbtn Maturity is demonstrated by the ability to use a literary style which is completely discrete and separate from speech.

redbtn Humans acquire speech due to their innate programming. Writing on the other hand is a skill which must be learnt in the same way as driving, sewing, or cooking.

redbtn Chomsky has argued that children do not learn language but acquire it by means of an innate facility. This means that they will be able to use language, just as they will walk on two legs or acquire a second set of teeth.

redbtn All children develop their ability to use language at approximately the same age and the same rate, despite any variations in nationality or circumstances.

redbtn In the process of child language development, the acquisition of phonology, semantics, and grammar progresses simultaneously until linguistic maturity is reached around the age of seven.

redbtnAfter this, an individual’s linguistic competence varies according to training, environment and perceived necessity.

redbtn Most people who have not studied child language acquisition would say that children acquire language by imitating what they hear. Even parents of young children are often of this opinion.

redbtn However, scientific research [and careful observation] shows that this is not true. The following is just some of the evidence in support of the innateness theory.

redbtn Young children acquire language universally at roughly the same rate, despite differences in their upbringing.

redbtn Children produce utterances they have never heard. For example, children often say ‘I goed’ instead of ‘I went’ or ‘I felled’ instead of ‘I fell’.

redbtn These mistakes (which amuse parents) are actually proof of the child’s programmed competence. In adding the sound ‘ed’ they are over-applying the rule for forming the past tense.

redbtn In other words, their pre-programmed facility is working. They actually have to learn those irregularities separately. The same process occurs in forming the plural of nouns.

redbtn The rule for this in English is to add ‘s’ or ‘es’ — as in houses, books, roads, toys, and most common nouns.

redbtn However, when it comes to terms such as ‘women’, ‘mice’, ‘sheep’, or ‘narcissus’, the child will over-apply the rule and say ‘mouses’, or ‘womens’ or ‘sheeps’. These mistakes are a positive sign that the innate faculty is operating.

redbtn The truth is that parents imitate children, rather than the other way round. In any supermarket or on any bus, we hear parents repeating a child’s baby-talk. If they are not doing this they are translating the baby talk. What is definitely noticeable by its absence is the child imitating adult speech.

redbtn Adults believe they are teaching children to speak, but research shows that children ignore these attempts and progress at their own pace. The process is useful however, as part of the desirable emotional bonding between adult and child.

redbtnPiaget believed that language competence went hand in hand with understanding the world around us. A child would only be able to speak meaningfully about concepts already internalised.

redbtn For example, a child would have to understand that a specified amount of water will reach vastly differing levels if poured into a narrow beaker or a wide bowl. Only then, would the child be able to verbalise anything concerning this phenomenon.

redbtn Piaget also divided the language learning process into three or four distinct stages. In the 1960s this lead to the practice of teaching foreign languages in primary schools to children of the ‘critical learning age’. This practice was quickly abandoned, because the children were very slow at picking up the foreign language compared with adults who were receiving the same method of tuition.

redbtn Skinner as a behaviourist believed that imitation was all and that children learnt language by imitation.

redbtn Whilst this is true for some factors of the acquisition process — such as learning the exceptions to rules of grammar – all the evidence points to the validity of the innateness theory.

redbtn Learning a foreign language is difficult unless the individual has been exposed to more than one language from infancy.

redbtn In adults, learning a foreign language means gaining a skill rather than drawing on the innate capacity, as in child language acquisition.

redbtn The most efficient way of acquiring a foreign language, therefore, is to be surrounded by native speakers of the language. This is the nearest to the natural process, but it can’t be the same because of the individual’s cognisance with his or her native tongue.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Language, Technology, and Society

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how technology interacts with speaking and writing

Most people think that writing and speaking a language are more or less the same thing – that writing is speech transcribed onto paper. The fact is that they are two different (though closely related) systems, and writing is an abstract system of symbols for representing the spoken language. There are some languages which are spoken but which have no written equivalents, and there are some languages (computer code for instance) which are never likely to be spoken. Richard Sproat in this wide-ranging study Language, Technology, and Society emphasises from the start that the most important connection between speech and the written language is the technological invention of writing. He takes the radical line that most written languages have built into them a strong element of encoding the sound of the language – including even Chinese, which many people imagine to be entirely ideographic.

Language, Technology, and SocietyHe examines a number of languages – Arabic, Chinese, Phoenician, Egyptian – to demonstrate that they have this thing in common, even though some are written without vowel sounds, and some are written right-to-left in sequence. Next he covers the issue of decipherment – how we can understand ancient inscriptions such as the Rosetta Stone and Linear B. The examples he looks at add up to further evidence that even apparently ideographic languages such as Egyptian hieroglyphics were not properly decoded until it was recognised that they recorded the sound of a spoken language – even if improperly, and mixed with symbols and ideograms.

In a chapter on literacy he demonstrates fairly convincingly that the relative complexity of the writing system has little or no relation to rates of literacy. Chinese and Japanese children have to learn thousands of symbols representing the words and concepts in their language, as against the twenty-six or so letters learned by children in most western European languages.

it is remarkably simple to make the case that literacy is a product of economics and indeed, has little or nothing to do with the complexity of the writing system in use in a country.

To raise standards of literacy in a society, ‘all’ that’s required is to raise the living standards of its inhabitants.

There’s a chapter on the history of the typewriter – a technological phase which was quite short lived, but which has left us with the legacy of the QWERTY keyboard layout. Despite the fact that alternatives to this have been invented, QWERTY has prevailed, largely he argues, because it is quite good ergonomically.

He finishes with two chapters which are clearly dealing with his own specialism: (he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories for eighteen years. The first of these is on speech recognition technology, and the second on machine translation (MT) which he argues has come a long way since it first began during the Cold War. But it still has a long way to go, as even Google will demonstrate if you ask it to translate a web page into a second language you understand.

There’s a full academic apparatus of endnotes, glossary, bibliography and annotated suggestions further reading, yet I was rather surprised that throughout the whole of this very thorough study he made no reference to some of the seminal texts on the relationship between language writing and technology. For these you will need to move on to Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy, Henri-Jean Martin’s The History and the Power of Writing, and Jay Bolter’s Writing Space.

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© Roy Johnson 2010

Richard Sproat, Language, Technology, and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.286, ISBN: 0199549389

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Lexicography: An Introduction

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how dictionaries are compiled and written

This book is an accessible introduction to lexicography – the study of dictionaries and how they are compiled. Howard Jackson provides a detailed overview of the history, types and content of everybody’s essential reference book. He starts with a very readable introduction to the grammar, structure, and history of the English language, then traces the development of dictionaries. This goes from their origins as lists of ‘hard’ (that is, foreign) words in the early Renaissance, via Dr Johnson’s famous attempt to ‘fix the meaning of words’ which when it appeared in 1754 carried a preface admitting that such an attempt was pointless.

Lexicography: An IntroductionNext comes the monumental Oxford English Dictionary, begun by John Murray in 1884, which took forty-four years to complete. He gives a detailed account of the editors’ attempts to be as systematic as possible, constructing their evidence from the work of volunteers. He covers the American tradition of democratic lexicography pioneered by Noah Webster in what emerged at the US popular option, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. There’s a careful explanation of the differences between shorter and concise dictionaries, and an account of what’s possible in the increasingly popular electronic dictionaries. These now commonly offer search facilities, sample pronunciations, and hypertext links between entries.

He discusses issues of range – what to include or exclude – how entries in a dictionaries are to be displayed, and how much detail is to be provided under each entry. This becomes most interesting when he tackles problems of including new terms, slang expressions, obsolete and taboo terms, and how much etymological history to provide.

The other highpoint is a consideration of the different ways in which words can be defined, when they have multiple meanings (horse, table, back) and often take their meaning from the context in which they are used.

Who will be interested in all this? Students and teachers of language, lexicographers of course, and anyone with an interest in the most popular source of reference in most cultures – the book (or CD-ROM) to which we turn when we need information on the spelling or meaning of a word.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Howard Jackson, Lexicography: An Introduction, London: Routledge, 2002, pp.190, ISBN: 0415231736

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