This document defines and provides examples of initialisms and acronyms. It states that initialisms are formed from the first letters of words but cannot be pronounced as a word, while acronyms are formed from first letters and can be pronounced as words. Examples of initialisms include BBC and PBS, while acronyms include NATO, CARE, and NOW. The document also discusses true acronyms that are pronounced based on letter sounds versus reverse acronyms formed after the word.

1. ABBREVIATIONS:
INITIALISM & ACRONYM
Presented by:
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Afrida Maria Ulva
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Ainun Hidayatin
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Devi Dwi Rahayu
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11/19/2013
Mirza Fakhri Azmi
Nur Azizah
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UIN SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA
1

2. Definition of Abbreviation
• Abbreviation is the one other popular way of
forming words. It is a shortened or contracted
form of a word or phrase, used to represent
the whole.
• Abbreviation is similar in nature to blends.

3. • According to Ingo Plag (Word-Formation in
English 2003, p. 163), abbreviations can be
grouped based on two orthographic and
phonological properties, initialism and
acronyms.

4. • A brief definition of Initialism is made
from the first letter or letters of a string
of words, but can't be pronounced as
words themselves.
• A brief definition of Acronym is made
from the first letter (or letters) of a string
of words but are pronounced as if they
were words themselves.

5. Definition of Initialism
Initialism defined as a group of initial
letters used as an abbreviation for a
name or expression

6. Examples of Initialism
• "BBC" (British Broadcasting Corporation),
or "PBS" (Public broadcasting System)
• "U.K." is an intialism for United Kindom

7. Definition of Acronym
• Acronym is an initialism pronounced according to ordinary
grapheme-phoneme conversion rules. (Bauer)
• Acronym is a special type of blends. (Stockwell & Minkova
2001, p. 7)
• Acronym is the most extreme kind of truncation in which a
component of a blend reduce to just one sound or letter.
(McCarthy 2002, p. 65)
• Acronym (and initialism) is an extreme form of clipping
results. (Brinton 2005, p. 99)

8. “A combination of initial letters of word
sequence that is pronounced as a word, rather
than as a combination of letters.”

9. Examples of Acronym
• NATO  North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• HOPE  Health Opportunity for People
Everywhere
• CARE  Cooperative for American Remittances to
Europe
• NOW  the National Organization of Women

10. Terms related to acronym
• True Acronym: a typical acronym takes the first
sound from each words and is pronounced like
any other word.
e.g: WAC /wæk/, ASCII /æs.ki:/, NATO /neɪ.toʊ/
• Reverse Acronym or Bacronym: acronyms
created from some word that has been existed.
e.g: NOW  National Organization of Women,
AID  Agency for International Development,
PUSH  People United to Serve Humanity.

11. Notes:
• Intitialisms and acronyms functions as nouns and
adjectives.
• Why acronyms should be avoided in some cases
is a mystery.
(Baeur)
• When an acronym becomes fully accepted as a
word, it often comes to be spelled with lowercase letters just like other words, e.g: radar,
sonar, aids, and so on. (Stockwell & Minkova
2001, p. 7)