| Sumario: | The article is an attempt to reconsider the nature of acronyms in English and Arabic. It suggests criteria for forming acronyms. Acronyms are universal phenomena and their formation should be governed by well-formulated and explicit principles based on regularities. The aim is to have a universal explanatory approach so as to avoid the inconsistency and overlapping in terminologies. In addition to the general principles, there should be language specific mechanisms to cater for special cases. Moreover, there is a need to go beyond a structural analysis and take usage-related aspects into account. It is a fact that the use of acronyms is more popular than their full forms. This may result in lexicalization and may consequently form the base form for other word-formation processes. Also, it may shed light on lexicology and lexical theory, the dynamic relations between writing and speech.
|
|---|