Structural features and specifics of abbreviations in the professional discourse (vocabulary of the nuclear industry reviewed)

The article identifies three principles of classification of initial and mixed abbreviations relating to the vocabulary of the nuclear industry: according to their lexical and grammatical category (appellatives, nomens, onyms), their pronunciation (alphabetism and acronyms) and their origin (proper and borrowed abbreviations). The types and characteristics of abbreviations are studied by means of the descriptive, contextual, pragmatic and structural methods in order to identify their specific features which are likely to denote the abbreviations of the professional discourse. The sample language material includes the vocabulary of the nuclear industry. The outcomes of the research make it possible to draw the following conclusions about the general and specific characteristics of abbreviations in professional discourse: 1) according to the communicative-discursive approach, the abbreviation process ensures the success of a communicative act providing the idea to be short and clear; 2) the use of abbreviations outside the professional discourse can lead to communicative failure due to the existing discursive antinomy «friend or foe» that defines professional language users and people irrelevant to the professional discourse; 3) the abbreviations-appellatives are likely to predominate due to long-word terms as a characteristic of a developing industry and a young terminological system; 4) the numerical or alphabetic part of abbreviations is seen as their specific features that can make sense for professionals and absolutely vague for the rest of native speakers; 5) abbreviations-onyms, including ergonyms and chrematonyms, follow the general linguistic trends; 6) alphabetisms come over acronyms that is non-typical for Modern Russian and is caused by a great number of long-word terms, often including abbreviations with hard-to-pronounce sound combinations, as well as preserving the informational significance of components or provoking homonymous repulsion processes.