Re: Tax chooses dead language - Australia
Nigel Hadfield writes
BBC is an abbreviation, not an acronym.
There is no viable way to distinguish abbreviations and acronyms.
Traditionally, acronyms were viewed as a pronounceable subset of
abbreviations; and this distinction certainly makes BBC an abbreviation and
COBOL an acronym. But is BSOD, 'Blue Screen of Death' an abbreviation and
not an acronym? I think not. (Some languages do give heavy weight to
pronounceability. Italian is the obvious example; and in it 'Cassa di
Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde' becomes 'Cariplo'; but English, whether
British or American, has no such preoccupation.)
What is clear is that there are different dialect-, language- and even
culture- and class-based conventions embodied in different groups' acronym-
and abbreviation-construction schemes. Moreover, these differences mean
that criticisms of other people's schemes always go wrong. They reify one
man's provincial notions into universal truths.
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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- Re: Annd yet more pedantry( was: USS pedantry (was Friday musings on the future of 3270 applications
... To be even more pedantic, I would say it is abbreviation, not abreviation. ... let's do "CHANGE acronym abbreviation all" in my posting. ... For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, ... send email to listserv@xxxxxxxxxxx with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO ...
(bit.listserv.ibm-main) - Re: Build it and they will come
... but it's an acronym more than an abbreviation. ... If the phrase "Third Person Shooter" was as widely used as "First Person Shooter" then eventually TPS could be as acceptable as FPS, but it doesn't become acceptable -or intelligible- just by making an acronym of the lesser-used phrase and expecting everyone should know it. ... But the difference between an acronym and an initialism is that an acronym has to form a new word, that can be pronounced easily. ...
(uk.games.video.misc) - Re: Build it and they will come
... but it's an acronym more than an abbreviation. ... If the phrase "Third Person Shooter" was as widely used as "First Person Shooter" then eventually TPS could be as acceptable as FPS, but it doesn't become acceptable -or intelligible- just by making an acronym of the lesser-used phrase and expecting everyone should know it. ... But the difference between an acronym and an initialism is that an acronym has to form a new word, that can be pronounced easily. ...
(uk.games.video.misc) - Re: Build it and they will come
... but it's an acronym more than an abbreviation. ... If the phrase "Third Person Shooter" was as widely used as "First Person Shooter" then eventually TPS could be as acceptable as FPS, but it doesn't become acceptable -or intelligible- just by making an acronym of the lesser-used phrase and expecting everyone should know it. ... But the difference between an acronym and an initialism is that an acronym has to form a new word, that can be pronounced easily. ...
(uk.games.video.misc) - Re: Build it and they will come
... but it's an acronym more than an abbreviation. ... If the phrase "Third Person Shooter" was as widely used as "First Person Shooter" then eventually TPS could be as acceptable as FPS, but it doesn't become acceptable -or intelligible- just by making an acronym of the lesser-used phrase and expecting everyone should know it. ... But the difference between an acronym and an initialism is that an acronym has to form a new word, that can be pronounced easily. ...
(uk.games.video.misc) |
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