Vol. 61 No. 3 (2013)
Research Article

De-abbreviations: From Soviet Union to Contemporary Belarus

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  • Anastasiya Astapova
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773813Z.00000000054

Published 2013-09-01

Keywords

  • Maine,
  • American colonization,
  • Irish history,
  • Ferdinando Gorges

Copyright (c) 2013 American Name Society 2013

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of ludic de-abbreviation, backronymization, or, alternatively, humorous decoding of the well-known abbreviations (which usually serve as names for political parties, countries, universities, and so on). A brief survey of the existing research is provided. Then, despite the fact that de-abbreviation was considered characteristic of the Soviet period, now almost extinct, the author focuses on a case study based on contemporary material, which proves that de-abbreviation is still popular and productive for name-giving. As soon as an abbreviation for the name of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, used by the police for safety reasons, appeared in press (2012), it immediately caused dozens of ludic de-abbreviations suggesting alternative names for him. The article focuses on the mechanisms of these renaming de-abbreviations as well as the reasons that caused their peculiarities and multiplicity.

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