Extra-grammatical morphology: English acronyms and initialisms

This paper explores the phenomena of English acronyms and initialisms – of the type Aids, FAQ, laser, SARS or B.B.C., CD, IMHO, OED – which appear intriguing from different perspectives: (1) as cases of extra-grammatical (or expressive) morphology; (2) as instances of complexity in terms of naturalness parameters; (3) as frequent mechanisms in slang formations and jargon; (4) as cases of difficulty in (cross-linguistic) processing and interpretation; (5) as linguistic strategies of discourse economizing and textual efficiency. In this study only points (1) and (2) will be dealt with. Our interest in these phenomena arises from the widely-spread use of acronyms and initialisms as English word-formation mechanisms. Although long neglected or marginalized by grammarians, these mechanisms are increasingly spreading in many areas, from business and industry to science and technology. Since the mid-twentieth century, they have been extensively used to form names of associations/organizations (FNMA, NATO), medical terms (DNA, HIV), computer abbreviations (DOS, HTML), and other common words everybody is familiar with (GSM, PIN, sms, etc.). Hence, their applicability is high, and symptomatic of a correlated morphological productivity. Yet there are a number of counterexamples which in some way depart from the ordinary patterns, and which will be the focus of our analysis. The qualitative analysis conducted here has two aims. Firstly, it intends to provide a primary categorization of acronyms and initialisms, and to distinguish them from similar abbreviations of various type. Secondly, and more importantly, it intends to discuss such processes in the light of some current theories – viz. Extra-grammatical and Natural Morphology – as a way to discriminate between prototypical and marginal types, and to propose a hierarchy based on (a) criteria of extra-grammaticality, and (b) naturalness/markedness parameters.