ON THE COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH ABBREVIATIONS.docx

摘要 语言随着社会的发展而发展。当今世界由于政治、经济、文化、科技等方面的发展新事物、新现象层出不穷，必然要求语言增加大批简洁易于识记的词语来表示它们，从而满足人们语言表达的要求。缩略语就是在这种形势下应运而生。由于缩略语本身所具有的活力和内在表现力，越来越受到人们的青睐。打开报纸和电视缩略语随处可见。它已渗透到社会生活的方方面面。而随着经济全球化的不断加强，国际贸易的不断拓展，英语的作用尤显重要。这两个原因使得英语缩略语在国际贸易合同、信函、电传及单证中使用越来越频繁，应用范围也越来越广泛，成为国际贸易英语词汇的重要组成部分并被称之为商务英语缩略语。商务英语缩略语的使用能保证规范、减少误差，同时提高了人们的工作效率, 丰富了人们语言表达的方式。特别是在社会经济的高度发展，商业经济高度繁荣，全球经济一体化逐渐形成的大环境下，带来了可观的商务英语缩略语。本文仅就经济贸易中使用的英语缩略语，针对它的功能及应用进行了分析和探讨。将商务英语缩略语的方方面面呈现人前。从而使人们能更好的了解商务英语的特性、功能等。让人们使用起来将更加的得心应手，让商务英语缩略语能更好地推动商务活动的运行，促进国际贸易交流的发展。关键词 缩略语 英语缩略语 经贸英语 功能 应用abstractlanguages developing goes with society developing. in current world, due to the development of public, economy, culture, technology and some other things, new things and new phenomenon are emerged in endlessly. it requests to increase a large number of conciseness and easy to memorized words to express them. only by this way human beings requirement of language expression can be satisfied. abbreviations just born at the right moment. because of vigor and internal expressive force of abbreviation itself, the abbreviations are becoming more and more favored by human beings. you can find abbreviations everywhere when you turn on the newspapers and television, the abbreviations have permeated in every sides of society. along with the strengthening of economic globalization, international trade are developing unceasingly, english play a very important role in the society. you can find english abbreviations are frequently appeared in international trade contract, email, telegram and document due to these two reasons. the application of english abbreviations is becoming wide range. and these kinds of abbreviations become the main constituent part of international english vocabulary, and called business english abbreviation. the use of english abbreviations can guarantee standard, reduce error, and increase human beings work efficiency, enriched people language expression way at the same time. especially in a big background that society economy developing fast, trade economy highly prosperous and integration with the global economy grows up, a large number of business english abbreviations were bring out. this paper just base on the english abbreviations which used in economic and trade, aimed at its functions and application to go on with the study and analysis. present business english abbreviations all sides in front of human beings, by this way let human beings get a better understand of business english abbreviations functions and application. key words abbreviation english, abbreviation business english, function, application instructionin the modern society, with the rapid development of scientific technology and the widespread globalization, the communication between different worlds is increasingly frequent；therefore people have more opportunities to contact foreign cultures, and the english language has already made itself a very important and universally used language as a media to communicate with other countries in the world, especially in business activities. as we all known, business negotiations all over the world are usually held in english and sometimes this is a reason of discomfort for those whose first language is not english. understanding the other side is not easy at all. and the use of english is more and more extended since the internationalization of business environment grows. furthermore, international companies, mergers and multinationals are expected to increase. thousands of international non-native to non-native communications are undertaken daily in a huge number of settings: trade, diplomacy, tourism, journalism, science and technology, politics etc. when persons are involved in long-term international communications, such as international trading negotiations, the participants can not stay together all the time, so for the business communications they need to achieve it through email, telegram, phones. for these kinds of communication ways requested the participant use some professional and clear language.and abbreviations as a very popular english form, it reflected all kinds of sides of the society which using this language. along with the new centurys coming, refined, brief, simple become a kind of fashion. this kind of conciseness expression promote human beings put their sight on the abbreviations, the highly development of society economy brings a large number of english abbreviation. the meaning of this selected topic is trying to make people get a detailed understanding of business english abbreviations by studying the functions and application of business english abbreviations. these can help people to find out the characteristic of business english abbreviation and its existence meaning.1950s in england, the using of abbreviation still belongs to individual phenomenon. nowadays, english abbreviations have been widely used in network, financial, computer, science, technology, medicine, transportation, etc. the study of abbreviations was in the edge position abroad and not be recognized by the linguistics main stream. but along with the technology keep developing, abbreviations spring up very fast. deepening the research on abbreviations is extremely urgency. business english abbreviations act as a most important tool in communicative activities. its existence and use become more and more attention by people. now, many domestic and foreign scholars set perspective fixed on the translation, composition and application of business english abbreviations, carried on many thorough professional researches on business english abbreviations. such as: “the original, composition and grammatical function of business english abbreviations” write by ying liao and some other scholars, it published on hunnan university journal(social science edition) on 2007 second phase. personality business english abbreviations is not only an important factor in business communications it can also play an active role in society economy. so i further the research based on the existence study results and combine with society economy trades development. i hope this can help people master and use abbreviations more and more clear and easy. and reduce the incorrect use and create of abbreviations. on the functions and application of business english abbreviations1brief introduction of business english abbreviations1.1 the original of business english abbreviations in the ancient time, just like any other abbreviations, english abbreviation often appeared on the numismatics, insignia, design and epigraphy. in order to record some complex content on smaller items, it can only use abbreviations. furthermore these numismatics, insignia, design and so on are the most necessary factors for the business activity. so business english abbreviations formation is an inevitable step in business activities.international business activity is a kind of transnational activity. along with the telegraph, telephone, and telex invention, international trade international trade obtained a rapid development. those contracting parties who are far away from each other need to communicate with each other by making a call, sending message or emails. to go on with all these kinds of activities required the content are simple and clear, it must be easy to remember and record, then the international business can save both time and money. it is as the same principle as the language economy which raised by the modern linguist. so there are amount of abbreviations were made in business field. and these abbreviations have various simplification ways.1.3 business english abbreviations development we can find business english abbreviations in everywhere in the international business contract, agreement, letter, instrument and document. moreover, in recent year, the business english abbreviations show rapid growth status. marine press 1992 edition of the dictionary named english-chinese abbreviations comprehensive dictionary contains large amount of vocabulary of 260,000. single said in the economic sector, china financial and economic publishing house published in 2002 the wto trade/e-commerce english-chinese dictionary of abbreviations has received more than 4 million entries of the business english abbreviations. this is as similar as law of development of most of human activity. it is the inevitable outcome of society, technology and culture development rather than a prior planning thorough, organized sport. furthermore is not as what mr. chomsky said that is a talent received which called “language acquisition get mechanism device” (short as lad).after world war ii, along with the technology developed, economy leaped, society advanced and also the frequent social intercourse between human beings, all above appearance asked to use fast and concise language to describe these complicated newly emerging things and social phenomenon. especially in today, global economic trend integration, in order to save the communication time and improve efficiency when deal with the works, it seeks to concentrate in communication by using fast, clear and concise statement. the only way to reach this goal is to developing abbreviations vigorously.business english abbreviations increasing rapid, variety, wide range and come down to economy, trade, finance, banking and etc. field. this is not inherent in the minds of men, neither decided by humans genetic gene. it is the product formed by various tide merging. the trend is mainly refer to global science and technologys development turned the global economy trend to integration, then asked for a kind of simple and convenient communicative language used to record and express. this is the demand of social and trend development.2the functions of business english abbreviationsbusiness english abbreviations use several simple letters to express complex meanings, the feature of using less word to indicate clear and concise content, in this way we can achieve a rapid communication. it is wide used in international trade, international finance, international economic technology cooperation field. it plays a most important role in business communication context. in details, it has the following functions.2.1 economic functionin some situations, one abbreviation can express a meaning which must show by several common words, thats really concise and comprehensive. moreover, it is short and useful, so in news and advertisement type of writing, it shows high frequency.as we all known that most of the fax/telegram charge by word amount, and in business activities, fax/telegram is a necessary way to help communicate and transfer the documents. so if the formulations are too complicated, that will charge a lot of money during the trading. but with abbreviations you can use as little words as you can to express yourself or the things clear. such as: please transfer the payment by telegraphic transfer. in real life we will write for fax as follow: pls transfer the payment by t/t. by this way you can save several words or letters. so if the fax/telegram charges by words counting, you will save some money. please see a sample telegram as below:abcco londonpyc la754 offervalid till-15th 200mt in-tins rmb1400/mt cfrc2 london september stop demand brisk recommend acceptance chinaprocothe plain language for the above telegram is: referring to your cable of 10th, we make you the following offer which is valid until 15th of this month: honey la745, 200 metric tons, packed in tins, at rmb1400 per metric ton, cfr london with your commission of 2%, for shipment during september. the demand for honey is active. we recommend your acceptance.1compared with the plain expression, the abbreviations use reduced a large number of letters and words in the telegram, and if the telegram charged accord with the word counting, please do think that you can save how much money in one telegrams, and this can help add how much profit in one business contract. 2.2 euphemistic functionin verbal communication, influenced by communicative objects, context and some other factors, people do not want to express them directly and clearly on some topics. they will express them in some other ways. and this way must either let themselves well understood by others or not made the noted people feel intolerable, unpleasant and sad. so at this kind of situations, abbreviations will play the main role in communication as its expressive flexibility. such as: in diplomatic language, ldc(less developed countries) used to indicate the countries which are not developed. mdc(more developed countries) used to express the countries are highly developed. pow(prisoner of war) to call the prisoner emerged in a war. 2.3 humorous functionenglish abbreviations own a wide randomness in its breviary progress, and it gives the abbreviation some flexibilities, left a much wide imaginary space for people to understand these words. such as, abbreviation “kind(=kindness in nature & defense)“. from literal meaning is to be mercy, and protect the nature. but you can find more from the short word, it indicates the fact that the nature has been destructed, and ring the alarm bell to human beings. we need to stop our vandalism to nature. the abbreviations meaning and the original meaning work in cooperation with each other, it is a humour expression and at the same time you can feel sadness for nature. also, there is an american optical companies whose brand is oic, if made a little change on the three letters, it can become a vividly and visual glasses design. and if you spell the abbreviations as “oh i see”. this is a homophonic abbreviation, attention on the abbreviation, you can find that discourse in rows appearing somewhat humorous. so the abbreviations can give people a deep impression that hard to forget it. this is what all companies want, give customers a deep impression. 2.4 emotional reposing functionin english some name used by people can also be abbreviated to show a very intimate relationship. we call that nickname, in our regular communication we often use nickname to call someone who you are familiar with. such as, we short thomas to tom, elizabeth can short as lize. in the company, if the superior can use nickname to call their clerk, it will made their relationship and communication more easy and intimate. 3the application of business english abbreviations in different business activitiesthe application of business english abbreviations is varied. but we can category it as following:3.1 application in international business trade terms in business activities, the most common application of business english abbreviations are showed in international business trade terms, as we can find that all the terms are expressed by abbreviations.trade terms can also called price terms, trade condition, it was generated in a long international trade practice. it is consist of a short and concise concept or several letters. it is professional language to show the price composition of the product, introduce the delivery site, confirm divide of risk, responsibility, and cost. use the trade terms can simplify the negotiation content, save negotiation time and costs. and to some degrees, it can make the negotiation trends to more standardization. so it was widely acknowledged and accepted by international trading community, and gradually become the international conventions, on the basis of incoterms 2000, according to english letters efcd, divided the 13 kinds of trade terms to four fundamental type;(1) e group, there are only one term- exw: ex works (named place), it means the seller should to deliver the goods at its factory location.(2) f group, there are three different terms. fca: free carrier(named place), fas: free alongside ship(named port of shippment), fob: free on board(named port of shippment), for above three terms the seller should to deliver the goods to the appointed carrier.(3) c group has four terms in total. cfr: cost & freight(named port of destination), cif: cost, insurance and freight(named port of destination), cpt: carriage and insurance paid to(named place of destination), cip: carriage and insurance paid to(named place of destination). all these terms indicate that the seller must sign a transportation contract, but he is not to take responsibility of the other fees cost by goods loss and damage and any other fees created after shipment.(4) d group has five terms, but these are not often used. lets see daf: deliverd at frontier(named place), des: delivered ex ship (named port of destination), deq: delivered ex quay (named place of destination), ddu: delivered duty unpaid (named place of destination),ddp: delivered duty paid (named place of destination). when use this group of terms the seller needs to take responsibility of the whole fees and risks to shipping the goods to the destination countries. so when signed business contract you are only need to mark out which kind of terms to use to introduce the whole delivery details. in this way you can omit some complicated introductions and also made the trade tend to international standard. all above items explained the detailed situations for the application of business english abbreviations in international trade terms.3.2 application in business communicationanother application of business english abbreviation can reflect in business communication telegram, telex and email. telegram, telex and email are the most popular and useful communication ways in business communications now. the main feature of these three communication ways is the language they used are conciseness. these requested to use several clear and concise abbreviations to in place of a long string of complex word. lets see below:tele