PARADOX OF “IDENTICAL” INITIAL-WORD ABBREVIATIONS IN MODERN ENGLISH

Abstract

The article deals with an investigation of structurally identical abbreviations like V-Day, V-neck, viewed from the cognitive linguistics perspective. It demonstrates how the cognitive approach can be applied to analyzing initial-word abbreviations. The results of the research show that the status of the units under investigation depends on the genesis of their first components, which allows to refer them to two subgroups: true abbreviations/shortenings and quasi-abbreviations. Regularities of forming such abbreviations, structures of cognitive knowledge behind them and main reasons of their developing polysemy are also discussed in the article.