古·現代漢語縮約語의 類型과 그 特徵

Abstract

Chinese abbreviations in modern times as well as in ancient times constitute a major part of the Chinese glossary system. The awareness of the significance of abbreviations is increasing to meet the urgent need for the fast delivery and convenient exchange of a flood of information. It has been made according to economic principles that can make savings of time and process possible. This paper aims to do a comparative analysis on the patterns and characteristics between ancient abbreviations and modern abbreviations. Firstly, the targets of abbreviation in ancient times are mainly proper nouns,whereas those in modern times are proper nouns, verbal phrases and adjective phrases. Secondly, the formation patterns of ancient abbreviations include to extract and combine the common factors from one word, and two or three more ways. The formation pattern which combines the number of original words and specific components makes up the majority of all the formation patterns. The formation pattern of modern abbreviations, however, have diverse and unique ways unlike that of ancient ones. Thirdly, the modification type and the parallel type account for the structural types of the most ancient abbreviations. In case of modern abbreviation, however,there are more ways including predicate-object type and subject-predicate type. This paper may contribute to understanding the characteristics, common features and points of difference between modern and ancient abbreviation through a comparative analysis. Also, further researches on the abbreviation theory is expected to develop on the basis of this paper. We are looking forward to doing more active discussion on the normative issues in the field of abbreviation.