RAMUNĖ VASKELAITĖ

Bank of Lithuania

ABBREVIATIONS: STRUCTURE AND SYNTACTIC USE

KEYWORDS: alphabetic abbreviations, syllabic abbreviations, mixed abbreviations, shortenings, syntactic relation, explanatory word, symbolic name.

INTRODUCTION

The shortening of words and word combinations in written language is not a new phenomenon. The widespread use of shortenings was noted as long as three decades ago, with the publication of the second edition of Lithuanian Spelling and Punctuation (hereafter LKRS) (LKRS 1992: 73). However, this phenomenon has not been studied in depth in Lithuanian linguistics. Shortenings of various kinds are usually mentioned only in language encyclopedias, reference books, or advisory publications (LKŽin 1998; LKE 1999; KancKP 2000; Kniūkšta 2004), mostly as a matter of spelling. A more critical examination of the phenomenon has been undertaken, perhaps, only in articles by Rūta Marcinkevičienė (2003), Gintautas Grigas (2007), and Asta Kazlauskienė (2008). These show that at least one type of shortening, so-called alphabetic abbreviations, is used extensively; their variety has increased as abbreviations from other languages have flooded into Lithuanian, and the existing norm has become inadequate under changed circumstances.

The issues to be addressed, as raised by the authors mentioned above, mainly concern the spelling, Lithuanian adaptation, and pronunciation of abbreviations (Grigas 2007; Kazlauskienė 2008), or matters of classification and definition (Marcinkevičienė 2003; Kazlauskienė 2008). The author of this article does not choose these matters as the direct object of analysis. Instead, abbreviations are examined from an aspect scarcely studied in Lithuanian linguistics—their structure—and, one might say, an entirely unstudied aspect—their syntactic use. This choice is primarily explained by the aim of revealing the variety of abbreviations spreading in present-day usage and the patterns governing their functioning in connected text; at the same time, it is considered that a comprehensive, systematic analysis of their structure and syntactic use could provide a basis for decisions concerning their spelling, adaptation, or other norms.

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The analysis is based on actual usage, more specifically, the language of economics. The selected texts belong to a specialized genre: detailed annual, quarterly, or monthly reports, bulletins, and statements regularly published by the Bank of Lithuania and/or made available on its website, including translations from English. What all these publications have in common is that they review developments in economic and financial processes in Lithuania or other European Union countries over a given period. Although, as befits a country's central bank, the focus is primarily on the monetary, financial, and banking sectors, virtually all areas of economic activity are covered, and thus a large proportion of the abbreviations used in the language of economics are reflected. The patterns of their use should also be relevant to usage in other fields. Some texts have a greater analytical component than others, and in places they even approach academic style, but essentially their genre is that of a review. For convenience, the sources selected for studying abbreviation use are referred to in the article as economic reviews.

When analyzing the structural features of abbreviations and their functioning in connected text, one cannot ignore the norms currently in force, if only because they are one of the factors determining usage patterns. Comparing usage with the norm is also important as a way of establishing how adequately they correspond. This analysis cannot be undertaken without naming the phenomenon under study. Doing so is rather difficult, and not only because shortenings formed from the initial letters or other elements of the components of a word combination are called different things in nearly every work that mentions them. If all these terms were simply synonyms, it would be enough to choose one; unfortunately, terms used synonymously in some works are used in others to distinguish particular types or subtypes of shortenings. Thus, choosing a term to name the object of study is a question of defining its boundaries. Accordingly, to resolve the problem of naming the object under study, define its boundaries, and justify the choice of term used in this article, it is necessary first to provide at least a brief overview of the terminology used in Lithuanian linguistics to designate this linguistic phenomenon.

VARIETY AND RELATIONSHIPS OF TERMS

Shortened forms consisting of the initial letters or other elements of words or their combinations, and mostly standing for various names, are referred to in Lithuanian descriptive, normative, and scholarly literature as—

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alphabetical abbreviations of names, abbreviations, with the type of abbreviation (alphabetic, syllabic) specified or not, acronyms, initialisms, and, less commonly, shortened forms. These works show that perhaps the most problematic issue is the relationship between the terms abbreviations and shortenings, and abbreviations / shortenings and acronyms.

(Alphabetic) Abbreviations and Shortenings

The Lithuanian terms abbreviations and shortenings, used to name shortened substitutes for names, are employed synonymously only in some works, for example, LKRS (1992: 73–74). Such substitutes are referred to here both as abbreviations and as alphabetic abbreviations of names. However, shortened forms of other kinds (e.g., graphic ones) are not called abbreviations; they are referred to only as shortenings, which would suggest that LKRS tends to distinguish abbreviations as a particular type of shortening.

In Advice on Office Language (hereafter KancKP), an attempt is made to establish the opposite part–whole relationship: various shortenings of other kinds are called abbreviations in this publication (cf. symbolic abbreviations, graphic abbreviations), whereas those consisting of capital letters are called shortenings, more precisely, alphabetic abbreviations of names (KancKP 2000: 277–279). In The Lithuanian Language Handbook (hereafter LKŽin), all kinds of shortened forms are called abbreviations, and their types are specified by qualifying words: of units of measurement, persons, positions and degrees, various (LKŽin 1998: 340–346). The term abbreviations is also used in studies of shortened variants of computing or other terms (Grigas 2007, 2011), but only terms shortened alphabetically are examined, so the relationship between the terms abbreviations and shortenings remains unclear. It is also difficult to determine this relationship from the spelling and punctuation provisions approved by Resolution No. 60 of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter VLKK), which establish the general norm for the use of non-Lithuanian abbreviations in Lithuanian, because only the term alphabetic abbreviations is used (VŽ 1997a), and examples of abbreviations formed in this way alone are provided. Shortened forms made up of letters are also called alphabetic abbreviations in Pranas Kniūkšta’s Names of Institutions, Enterprises and Organizations (Kniūkšta 2004: 17–19). Graphic or symbolic methods of shortening words and their combinations are not discussed in that publication, so the relationship between the concepts abbreviations and shortenings is not clarified there either.

Only the concept abbreviations is explained in The Encyclopedia of the Lithuanian Language (hereafter LKE), but a certain boundary is nevertheless drawn between abbreviations and shortenings (LKE 1999: 553–554). These concepts are assigned two

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meanings: 1) “shortened substitutes for compound names (consisting of two or more words), formed from the initial letters or syllables of words”; 2) “simple graphic shortenings of frequently used words (or groups of words), which have no separate spoken form” (LKE 1999: 553). The synonym shortenings is given only for the concept used in the second meaning; therefore, unlike in LKRS, abbreviations are not considered a type of shortening. The concept used in the first meaning, which encompasses initial-letter and syllabic abbreviations, is also designated synonymously in LKE by the borrowed term abbreviation.

Narrow and broad scope of the concept of acronym. Relationship to abbreviation

One subcategory of abbreviations, namely initialisms (i.e., abbreviations formed from letters), is also designated in LKE by a borrowed term—acronyms (LKE 1999: 553). In distinguishing the subcategories of initialisms and syllabic abbreviations, LKE attempts to differentiate abbreviations according to their structure. However, the term acronyms, chosen to name only one of the classification units distinguished, prompts R. Marcinkevičienė (2003) to object to the narrowing of the concept of acronym developed in English linguistics; as a result of this objection, a broader scope of the concept acronym emerges in Lithuanian linguistics.

In the English linguistics work cited by this author,¹ acronyms are considered to be abbreviations of compound names that form acceptable syllables and can be pronounced as words (Marcinkevičienė 2003: 91). Understandably, on the basis of such a criterion, it is difficult to draw a boundary between initialisms and syllabic abbreviations: after all, some letter-based abbreviations, like syllabic ones, form acceptable syllables and can be pronounced as words. Thus, the article’s author tends to eliminate the boundary drawn in LKE in terms of structure. However, in English linguistics, acronyms are considered to include not only “word-like” but also “non-word-like” shortenings, which are also contrasted with shortenings of a different kind, i.e., abbreviations. R. Marcinkevičienė proposes understanding acronym this broadly in Lithuanian linguistics as well. Yet this extended concept fully corresponds to the abbreviations, letter-based shortenings of names used in LKRS, while the boundary drawn between acronyms and abbreviations corresponds to the boundary between abbreviations and shortenings. The question therefore arises as to why borrowed terms are more acceptable to Lithuanian linguistics than Lithuanian ones.

R. Marcinkevičienė’s account of the concept of acronym highlights one important aspect of abbreviations and a possible criterion for classifying them—the similarity of a letter sequence

¹ Katamba F. English Words, London and New York: Routledge, 1994, 182–183.

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to a word. However, when attempting to apply this criterion, it would be quite difficult to select one that would be suitable for classifying both Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian abbreviations, since the characteristics of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian words differ. For example, a sufficient characteristic of an English noun is an arrangement of sounds that can be pronounced phonetically, whereas a Lithuanian noun also requires an inflectional affix (except invariable nouns). Thus, if the possibility of inflecting an abbreviation is chosen as the criterion of “word-likeness,” many English abbreviations used in Lithuanian would not fall into the group of “word-like” abbreviations; if, instead, the criterion is the possibility of pronouncing a sequence of sounds phonetically, many would qualify despite lacking the characteristics of a Lithuanian word.

A. Kazlauskienė likewise bases the concept of acronym on the criterion of similarity to a word: she proposes calling those abbreviations that can be pronounced as words acronyms, regardless of how they are formed (Kazlauskienė 2008: 73). Nevertheless, this conception, and consequently the relationship of the concept acronym to abbreviation, differs from that developed in R. Marcinkevičienė’s article: A. Kazlauskienė considers an acronym to be only one type of abbreviation. Consequently, its scope is narrower. On the other hand, the acronyms listed include not only shortenings such as the names “Keltas,” “Interleksis,” “Erasmus,” and “Leonardo da Vinci,” which are written in quotation marks and thus considered symbolic, but also the two-word abbreviation “Lietuvos rusai” (“Lithuanian Russians”) for the project title “Rusai Lietuvos Respublikos visuomenėje 1918–1940 m.: istorinės retrospektyvos konstravimas” (“Russians in the Society of the Republic of Lithuania, 1918–1940: Constructing Historical Retrospectives”) (Kazlauskienė 2008: 73). Although it is not entirely clear whether the author herself considers such words and phrases to be acronyms, she nevertheless brings out another aspect of the acronym and, in turn, another possibility for classifying abbreviations. This is the classification of abbreviations, increasingly relevant to Lithuanian linguistics, according to whether they are formations artificially created to resemble words so that they can function in language as shorter substitutes for full names, or conventionally formed abbreviations of names used in texts for convenience².

Choice of term.

The concept of shortening and its terminological use

A review of the terminology used for shortenings formed from the first letters or other elements of the components of a phrase shows that, in Lithuanian linguistic literature, the terms letter-based name- are regarded as synonyms

² Į šį aspektą atkreipė dėmesį ir R. Marcinkevičienė (2003), tik neatsiejo jo nuo kitų santrumpų klasifikacijos kriterijų.

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my abbreviations and (letter) abbreviations, acronyms and shortenings. This article adopts the term abbreviations. This choice is probably prompted most by the increasingly pronounced tendency to use this one-word term to distinguish a particular type of shortening, as well as by the term’s suitability for designating it. Of course, that type could also be distinguished by the term letter (name) shortenings, but the noun abbreviations is more suitable for naming the result of the action, and, moreover, the plural form of abstract deverbal nouns is considered atypical of standard Lithuanian³. Short forms other than abbreviations could also suitably be named using other terms, for example, symbols, graphic signs, graphic shortenings or the like, while the noun shortening is entirely suitable for use in a generalizing sense.

The terminological use of the word shortening has not become widespread in Lithuanian linguistics, apparently because of the meaning assigned to this noun in Lithuanian dictionaries. There, a shortening is commonly associated with only one word: a shortened word (DLKŽ 2000: 860), a shortened, contracted, reduced-form word (LKŽₑ 2011). The examples given in those dictionaries would indicate that a shortening is considered the result of a different kind of shortening than alphabetic or syllabic abbreviations—the ending of a word is most often shortened, for example, Marčė (from Marcelė), Gintas (from Gintautas). Nevertheless, the meaning assigned to this word in dictionaries is no reason to avoid using it with other meanings—as a term that generalizes various types of shortening⁴ or as a word obtained by any method of shortening⁵. It is used in the latter sense in this article as well.

When choosing between acronym and abbreviation, preference is given to the term abbreviation because it has a longer usage tradition and is Lithuanian. In general, the concept of an acronym is considered insufficiently grounded and not firmly established in Lithuanian linguistics, and there is no need to replace abbreviations with it. Expanded by R. Marcinkevičienė to a concept encompassing all alphabetic and syllabic abbreviations, it would help avoid the conditionality of terms used in some works, such as alphabetic name shortenings, alphabetic abbreviations (after all, this group also inclu-

³ The VLKK Consultation Bank states that abstract nouns in standard Lithuanian are generally used in the singular (servicing, voting, financing, registration), while the plural form pardavimai ‘sales’ is considered to have arisen under the influence of English, so use of the singular pardavimas ‘sale’ is recommended instead (http://www.vlkk.lt/lit/2331). The plural forms of various abstract nouns (e.g., statehoods, sales, inflammations) are also corrected in Kalbos patarimai (KP1 2002: 20).

⁴ Taip jis vartojamas A. Kazlauskienės (2008) straipsnyje.

⁵ Tokia vartosena matyti, pavyzdžiui, KancKP (2000: 277).

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des are also syllabically formed shortenings), but it would do little to accommodate terms that name or generalize other types of shortening—(symbolic shortenings (abbreviations), graphic shortenings (abbreviations)—unless they were replaced by the borrowed term abbreviations as well. Included in the general classification as a term denoting a subtype of abbreviations distinguished according to some criterion (see LKE 1999; Kazlauskienė 2008), acronym would help reveal certain aspects of abbreviations; however, compared with the usage in foreign-language linguistic works, the scope of this concept would, of course, be considerably narrower.

The article’s key concept, abbreviations, covers a group of formations with heterogeneous structures. Despite these differences, some works use the terms alphabetic abbreviations, alphabetic name shortenings to denote not only alphabetically formed abbreviations but also those formed by other means. Of course, these terms are conditional. The term abbreviations is also useful because it avoids such conditionality. The distinctions in the phenomenon that the term is intended to denote can be specified by means of modifiers. For example, differences in the structure of abbreviations can be described using compound terms such as alphabetic abbreviations, syllabic abbreviations, mixed abbreviations, and the like.

STRUCTURE OF ABBREVIATIONS

AND FEATURES ARISING FROM USAGE

The Main Principles of Abbreviation Formation

The structure of Lithuanian abbreviations is set out in the normative publication – Lithuanian Spelling and Punctuation. In 2006, the VLKK amended only the punctuation rules formulated in it, while it was decided that the publication’s section “Spelling,” which discusses abbreviations, would continue to be considered normative (VŽ 2006a, b, c). Of the other resolutions adopted by the VLKK, only the one adopted on October 26, 2000, directly affects the use of Lithuanian abbreviations, legalizing several abbreviations for use in Lithuanian texts (VŽ 2000). The structure of these abbreviations fully conforms to the normative principles of their formation.

At first glance, these principles are fairly simple: when shortening multiword names, the first capital letter of every independent word is taken (SNO – United Nations Organization); sometimes the alphabetical name of the first letter of the first word is used (ELTA – Lithuanian Telegraph Agency); function words are omitted (TVR – justice and domestic aff

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airs); two or three initial letters of words or their first syllables may be used (Elfa – electrical factory); in the latter case, the abbreviation is written like a proper name, with only the first letter capitalized (LKRS 1992: 73–74). It remains to add that when shortening compound and prefixed words whose first constituent or prefix is non-Lithuanian and is not used separately, the first capital letters of both constituents are taken (HE – hydroelectric power plant), and this covers all the ways of forming Lithuanian abbreviations envisaged by the LKRS. Such principles of formation are also repeated in works on language practice and in encyclopedic publications (LKŽin 1998; LKE 1999; KancKP 2000). The example VŠĮ (public institution) given in KancKP draws attention to the fact that an abbreviation can be formed not only from the first letters of words: lowercase letters may also be inserted between them (KancKP 2000: 277).

Summarizing the principles of abbreviation formation presented in normative works and works on language practice, it can be concluded that they envisage Lithuanian abbreviations of three structural types:

1) consisting of the first letters of words (or their constituents);

2) consisting of the initial parts of words;

3) consisting of the first letters of words, with other letters inserted as well.

In fact, the structure of abbreviations can be much more varied. For example, they may include indices denoting editions from different years (DŽ₁, DŽ₂, DŽ₃ – Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian), and abbreviations may be formed from both syllables and letters (K.GaivLT – K. Gaivenis. Lithuanian Terminology), etc. (KK 2008: 139). This might lead to the assumption that only methods for shortening widely used names have been established, while the structure of other abbreviations is left to the discretion of the author or publisher. This is also confirmed by the statement that specialized literature may use its own, specific abbreviations (LKRS 1992: 73). However, publications discussing the classification of abbreviations should make clear the place and status of abbreviations of this kind.

Alphabetic abbreviations

Abbreviations used in the sources selected for analysis partly conform to the standard principles of their formation. Lithuanian names of Lithuanian and international institutions, companies, organizations, agencies, systems, territorial and other entities, documents, and indicators, as well as economic terms, are abbreviated using the simple alphabetic method, i.e., by taking the first letters of the components of a word combination, for example: ECB – European Central Bank, ECBS – European System of Central Banks,

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EEE – European Economic Area, EFSF – European Financial Stability Facility, FARK – Federal Open Market Committee, LCKU – Lithuanian Central Credit Union, TVF – International Monetary Fund, VPK – Securities Commission; EVRK – Classification of Economic Activities, KRD – Capital Requirements Directive; ESD – current account deficit, PVM – value added tax, SVKI – harmonised index of consumer prices, TUI – foreign direct investment, VKM – exchange rate mechanism. When abbreviating combinations that include function words, these are omitted, for example: EBPO – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, EPS – Economic and Monetary Union, ERPB – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, TPFK – International Monetary and Financial Committee.

However, not only Lithuanian but also non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations are used, since their use is authorized by the spelling and punctuation provisions approved by a VLKK resolution (VŽ 1997a). The term non-Lithuanian is accompanied in those provisions, in parentheses, by the term international, in the statement that these abbreviations should be written in Lithuanian texts as they are in the original language, with only characters from non-Latin scripts transliterated into Lithuanian. This explanation can be interpreted in two ways: 1) international abbreviations are a subset of non-Lithuanian abbreviations, and therefore only international ones should be transcribed in the manner specified; 2) the terms non-Lithuanian abbreviations and international abbreviations are synonyms, and therefore all non-Lithuanian abbreviations should be transcribed in the specified manner. The second interpretation is reinforced by the fact that, among languages using Latin-script characters, only examples from English are given, for example: BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization, NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Such an interpretation would allow considerable freedom in usage—all non-Lithuanian proper names with a literal meaning, including English ones, could be used in abbreviated form without restriction. It is therefore more likely that the specified method of transferring abbreviations into Lithuanian is proposed not for all non-Lithuanian abbreviations, but only for those denoting the names of international institutions, organizations, or other entities.

This is precisely the tendency observed in the usage under study. The English-language unabbreviated forms of the names provided alongside the abbreviations (or in accompanying glossaries) show that most of them are common to the European Union, the euro area, or an even wider region, for example: CEBS – Committee of European Banking Supervisors (European Banking Supervisors Committee), CESR – Committee of European Securities Regulators (European Securities

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Markets Regulators Committee), SEPA – Single Euro Payments Area (Single Area for Euro Payments), SWIFT – Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (society for global interbank financial settlements through a telecommunications network).

Many international institutions and other names are also abbreviated from their Lithuanian forms, for example: CELPA – Central European Free Trade Association, EBF – European Banking Federation, EBI – European Banking Authority, ELPA – European Free Trade Association, EPKB – Eurosystem Procurement Coordination Office, ESRV – European Systemic Risk Board, EVPRI – European Securities and Markets Authority, TDO – International Labour Organization.

This tendency is consistent with the recommendations of language-standardization works: abbreviations of more widely known names should be formed from the Lithuanian name. It is not always easy, however, to determine when a name can be considered widely known.

A variety of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations are used in economic reviews:

two-letter: (IT – information technology, KO – corrective operations, NT – real estate, SM – Memorandum of Understanding, VP – securities, PB – probability of default;

three-letter: BSU – gross external debt, DPK – Insurance Supervisory Commission, EMT – European Payments Council, EPI – European Monetary Institute, EPS – Economic and Monetary Union, FSC – Centre for Financial Studies, FSV – Financial Stability Board, NCB – National Central Bank, PGP – purchasing power parity, SST – special drawing rights, TAB – Bank for International Settlements; CFS – Center for Financial Studies, CLS – Continuous Linked Settlement, RCC – Research Coordination Committee;

four-letter: VSDF – State Social Insurance Fund, AIFV – managers of alternative investment funds, BŽŪP – Common Agricultural Policy, FARK – Federal Open Market Committee, TFAS – International Financial Reporting Standards, VPAS – securities settlement system; CCBM – Collateral Central Bank Management, OPEC – Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, SREP – Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process;

five-letter: AVPSS – automated securities lending system, KIPVP – transferable securities for collective investment, CVPDB – centralized securities database, LCVPD – Lithuanian Central Securities Depository, TPPPC – International Center for the Prevention of Counterfeiting Currency; EONIA – Euro Overnight Index Average, ICAAP – Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process, LIBOR – London Interbank Offered Rate, TACIS – Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States;

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consisting of even more letters: CBPPPG – Central Bank Counterfeit Prevention Group, EVPRPIK – European Securities Market Supervisory Authorities Committee; CEIOPS – Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors.

As the examples show, both Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian longer abbreviations are used, whereas non-Lithuanian two-letter or three-letter abbreviations are almost never found. Three-letter, and especially two-letter, abbreviations in these texts are usually shortenings of terms (IT, KO, NT, VP, BSU, PGP, SST), but the terms are used in Lithuanian texts in Lithuanian or translated into Lithuanian, so short non-Lithuanian abbreviations are not commonly used either.

Alphabetic abbreviations that can be read according to the sounds represented by their letters are, according to LKRS, to be adapted, i.e., where necessary, endings may be added after a hyphen or apostrophe, e.g.: TASS-o or TASS’o; abbreviations whose final letters correspond to the feminine ending of Lithuanian nouns (e.g., ELTA) are recommended to be declined; in this case, only the first letter of the abbreviation is written as a capital (LKRS 1992: 74). In economic reviews, neither Lithuanian nor international alphabetic abbreviations are grammatically inflected, even those ending in a sequence resembling a Lithuanian ending—they remain unchanged, e.g.: In its statement following the final meeting of the year FARK noted that it would probably be necessary to continue tightening policy moderately (MB 2006: 23); Thus, increasing OPEC oil export revenues correspond to increasing OPEC exports (MA 2006: 71); exports to ELPA increased the most and had the greatest effect on the overall increase in exports <...>. Exports of goods to CELPA also increased (LB MA 2004: 30); in January 2008, the SEPA credit transfer service was launched and the SEPA card scheme was introduced (MA 2009: 12).

Syllabic abbreviations

In addition to purely letter-based abbreviations, economic reviews use many abbreviations formed from the initial parts of words in a name. LKRS notes that these are more accurately called syllabic abbreviations rather than letter abbreviations of names, but the only examples given—Elfa and Kuzbasas (LKRS 1992: 74)—show that the term is a matter of convention. The abbreviations presented here consist of morphemes that do not coincide with syllables. They may be called syllabic because they form words that can be divided into syllables

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although these are not real words. Nevertheless, this conventional term later becomes established (see LKE 1999: 553; Marcinkevičienė 2003; Kazlauskienė 2008) and is entirely suitable for identifying differences in the structure of abbreviations. In fact, when forming syllabic abbreviations, actual syllables are rarely used.

Of the abbreviations used in economic reviews, only the name of the Lithuanian stock index LITIN (Lithuanian Stock Exchange Index) is made up of actual syllables. The abbreviation BUCOM (Budget Committee) is formed using only the complete syllable COM from the second word (the first contributes two letters); the abbreviation ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs) consists of two syllables from the first word and three letters from the next word; EUROSTAT (European Statistics) consists of two syllables from the first word and the first four letters of the second.

The abbreviation EURIBOR for the English phrase European Interbank Offered Rate⁶, which denotes interbank market interest rates, consists of a morpheme from the first word that does not coincide with a syllable, the initial letters of the components of the second compound word, and the first letter of each of the last two words. Abbreviations for interbank market interest rate indicators calculated in European Union countries are formed in the same way, for example: TALIBOR (Tallinn Interbank Offered Rate), RIGIBOR (Riga Interbank Offered Rate), WIBOR (Warsaw Interbank Offered Rate), etc.

The structure of these shortened names reveals a fact not mentioned in prescriptive reference works: an abbreviation may be composed of both syllables (more precisely, morphemes) and letters. The structural features of non-Lithuanian abbreviations are not discussed in Lithuanian linguistics or language-practice publications, but the shortenings listed here could be classified as syllabic abbreviations, since their composition generally includes at least one syllable (morpheme). Nevertheless, distinguishing letter and syllabic abbreviations on this basis is quite difficult. For example, the abbreviation IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), formed from letters, also includes the beginning CO of the final word commissions, and is therefore neither purely alphabetic nor syllabic. On the basis of non-Lithuanian abbreviations, it would be more accurate to take as the criterion for syllabic abbreviations the conventional division of a shortening into syllables; this would also include letter-based abbreviations such as CELPA, ELPA, EONIA, LIBOR, SEPA, TARGET.

⁶ Because the initial morphemes of European and euro coincide, the abbreviation EURIBOR is often also expanded as Euro Interbank Offered Rate, especially since the object it denotes allows this interpretation: it refers not only to interbank market rates in Europe but also to interest rates on borrowing (borrowing) in euros. This kind of variation also occurs when the abbreviation is translated into Lithuanian.

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Most non-Lithuanian syllabic abbreviations reveal a deliberate effort to make them resemble words. This resemblance is achieved in various ways: by selecting certain parts of the words in the name being abbreviated and alternating them with letters, by choosing the words of the name themselves so that their abbreviations form a word, and so on. Since English words do not characteristically take inflectional suffixes, most artificially coined names, including the name of the indicator calculated by a Lithuanian institution, VILIBOR (calculated as VILIBID until 1995), are indeclinable formations. When the principle of artificially creating a word is applied to Lithuanian, the notion of resemblance to a word is understood differently. For example, when forming the abbreviation LITAS for the name of the payment system operated by the Bank of Lithuania, the word combination Lithuanian Integrated Interbank Settlement System was chosen so that the abbreviation would not only be divisible into syllables but would also have a Lithuanian ending. To achieve morphological resemblance to a Lithuanian word, the shortened name of the credit unions’ accounting system was coined: KUBAS. Such examples show that the phenomenon of artificially creating abbreviations is also becoming more relevant in Lithuania. It would be possible to designate precisely such artificial abbreviations by the term acronym, but it would be necessary to decide what counts as resemblance to a word: the possibility of dividing an abbreviation into syllables, or (also) the possibility of inflecting it.

Syllabic abbreviations formed from Lithuanian word combinations are described in LKRS as often having endings and being inflected (e.g., Elfa); they are recommended to be written with only the first letter capitalized (LKRS 1992: 74). Neither LKRS nor the spelling and punctuation rules specify to what extent this treatment of an abbreviation as a proper word applies to syllabic abbreviations from other languages. In the usage examined, non-Lithuanian syllabic abbreviations are written entirely in capital letters, without endings, e.g.: The Governing Council, assisted by BUCOM, regularly monitors expenditure not provided for in the budget (MA 2008: 23); At the same time, short-term interest rate differentials compared with the 3-month EURIBOR gradually disappeared towards the end of the period under review (PK 2006 12: 39); ECOFIN Council <...> recommended that Greece follow the broad economic policy guidelines (MB 2003 03: 85).

Since endings are not added even to Lithuanian or non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations that can be pronounced phonetically, this usage can be explained by stylistic characteristics: in economic reviews—that is, texts that essentially meet the requirements of formal, domain-specific style—there is an effort to convey official names as accurately as possible, while the grammatical marking of abbreviations representing them may be perceived as a distortion.

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No standard has been established for adapting non-Lithuanian abbreviations, and attempting to adapt them according to Lithuanian conventions would inevitably require changing the phonetic structure of some abbreviations. For example, making the abbreviation ECOFIN resemble a word in the manner prescribed by the spelling rules for syllabic abbreviations—adding an ending and writing it with an initial capital (Ecofinas)—would not suffice, since the resulting form would be misread. According to its pronunciation, it should be written Ekofinas, but that would depart from the original (and official) spelling. Perhaps for this reason, after an initial attempt to adapt the abbreviation, its original-language spelling was later reinstated. In economic reviews from 2004–2005, an attempt was made to write the abbreviation as follows: The decision to allow Lithuania to join this mechanism and participate in it under the established conditions was adopted unanimously on 27 June by the ministers of economy or finance representing the euro area countries in the EU Council of Economic and Finance Ministers (Ecofinas)... <...> and by Lithuania’s finance minister and the heads of its central banks (Pranešimas 2005: 16); ECB, taking into account the Ecofin Council’s action plan concerning EPS statistical requirements, published comprehensive quarterly non-financial and financial accounts for the general government sector in 2004 (MA 2004: 98).

Later, it was written like other syllabic abbreviations—in capital letters, without an ending, e.g.: In November, the ECOFIN Council published its conclusions on the 2009 sustainability report (MB 2009 12: 91); Governments must strictly observe the deadlines set out in the ECOFIN Council’s recommendations, implement all planned measures, and be prepared to take additional measures if necessary to achieve the objectives (MB 2010 12: 82).

For abbreviations of similar structure, EUROSTAT, EUROPOL, whose “conversion into words” does not change their phonetic form, inflected forms are perhaps used more often, e.g.: Recent data from Eurostat second-quarter labour cost index show labour market flexibility (Pranešimas 2009: 37); In combating euro counterfeiting, the ECB continues to work closely with the euro area’s national central banks, Europol and the European Commission (MA 2006: 99).

The sources examined are not suitable for drawing general conclusions about the extent to which syllabic abbreviations are more prone than alphabetic ones to becoming inflected words, or which structural characteristics determine this; usage in other functional styles would need to be examined.

One factor supporting the spelling of abbreviations without Lithuanian endings in economic reviews may also be a feature of texts in this genre, such as the abundance of graphic diagrams and tables. The requirements for a coherent text do not apply to them.

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To achieve uniformity with abbreviations written in unconnected text, endings may also be omitted from them in connected text. A broader tendency related to integrating abbreviations as a particular type of borrowing may also be discerned: names denoted by abbreviations, like quoted names of institutions, companies, organizations, and press publications, occupy an even lower position than surnames on the scale of integration of foreign names—abbreviations in other languages often do not take inflectional endings, although their graphic form is not always retained (Ambrazas 2008: 13).

The statement in the spelling and punctuation rules that non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations must be reproduced as they are written in the original language may be understood to mean that Lithuanian endings need not, or even cannot, be added to them. Admittedly, those rules mention only alphabetic abbreviations, so it is entirely unclear whether syllabic ones are treated differently or simply not distinguished from alphabetic ones. The VLKK consultation database indicates that the abbreviation GLAVLIT (Russian Главное управление по делам литературы и издательств – Main Directorate for Literary and Publishing Affairs) may be declined if it is considered syllabic, which suggests that the grammatical adaptation of non-Lithuanian syllabic abbreviations is not impossible, but that a codified norm to authorize it is lacking. Incidentally, the possibility of inflection is recognized there for non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations as well: GLAVLIT, treated as an alphabetic abbreviation, is recommended to be written according to the spelling norm for Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations: GLAVLIT-o or GLAVLIT’o (http://www.vlkk.lt/lit/7390).

Atypical-structure abbreviations

Another of the possible ways of forming abbreviations mentioned in publications discussing the structure of Lithuanian abbreviations—incorporating some medial letters of words—is rarely exploited in economic reviews. The only Lithuanian abbreviation formed in this way appears to be PvP (transfer principle). Non-Lithuanian abbreviations of this kind are more common. For example, the names of the return on equity indicator, return on equity, the return on assets indicator, return on assets, and the risk assessment indicator, value at risk, are also written using the initial letters of function words (RoE, RoA, VaR). These abbreviations are undoubtedly classified as alphabetic, since they consist of letters. However, usage also provides abbreviations of a much more complex structure—ones that the classification of Lithuanian abbreviations does not allow to be called either alphabetic or syllabic.

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When discussing the spelling of Lithuanian abbreviations, no mention is made at all of those that include numerals, although many different ones are used. Some of those in use are so-called international abbreviations, consisting of letters and numerals, e.g.: CCBM2 – Collateral Central Bank Management 2; CIS2006 – Community Innovation Survey 2006; CESAME II – Clearing and Settlement Advisory and Monitoring Experts Group 2; G7 – Group 7; G10 – Group 10, or consisting of a syllabic abbreviation and a numeral: LITIN-10 – Lithuanian Stock Exchange Index.

Lithuanian abbreviations of a similar structure are also used, e.g.: VKM II – the second exchange rate mechanism; ESS’95 – the 1995 European System of Accounts; 39 TAS or TAS 39 – the 39th International Accounting Standard; KPS4 – the fourth Quantitative Impact Study; ECB/2001/13 – European Central Bank Regulation No. 13 of 2011, ES15, ES-15 – 15 European Union member states).

The spelling of these abbreviations varies considerably: numerals are written as Roman (VKM II) or Arabic (TAS 39, KPS4); in some cases they are separated by a hyphen (ES-15), in others by an apostrophe (ESS’95) or other punctuation marks (ECB/2011/13); a space is used (VKM II, TAS 39) or omitted (KPS4, ES15); and the numeral is written either before the alphabetic part (39 TAS) or after it (TAS 39). The spelling of the abbreviations VKM II, CESAME II with Roman numerals might suggest a tendency to abbreviate in this way phrases that include ordinal numbers, but the spelling of the abbreviations 39 TAS, TAS 39, KPS4 refutes such inferences.

Although abbreviations containing numerals are not presented as a separate group in the classification of Lithuanian abbreviations, the standardization of other spelling matters nevertheless suggests that they are not considered unacceptable. For instance, LKRS mentions the abbreviations Tu-104, Il-154, 3 RK among serial brand names (LKRS 1992: 70). These examples alone show that spelling can vary considerably.

The possibility of spelling variation is confirmed by the norm established by a VLKK resolution of 26 September 1991 (Resolution 1991), which requires non-Lithuanian abbreviations formed with numerals and denoting materials, products, and normative documents to be reproduced from the original language: those whose alphabetic part consists of Latin-alphabet characters are written as in the original language (Sony CFS-W304 tape recorder), while the alphabetic part of designations formed with non-Latin characters is transliterated in public discourse and popular literature (tachometer TČ-10R, standard GOST 6920-89). Such abbreviations may be written in various ways in the original language; therefore, this variation

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transferred into Lithuanian as well. Under a rule that legitimizes such spelling variation, it would be difficult to regulate the spelling of Lithuanian abbreviations containing numerals, but it would be useful to formulate general principles for writing them that would help determine, for example, the acceptability of variants VKM II and 2-asis VKM, ES15 and ES-15. Otherwise, even those abbreviations whose letter components are translated will be written according to the original spelling.

If some abbreviations are treated as quotations, abbreviations of a structure that also contains a symbol enter Lithuanian as well, for example, S&P 500. Of course, one might consider them one-off cases of usage, but this is certainly not true of shortenings that include not only numerals but also words, e.g.: Euro MTS, SWIFTNet FIN. If their spelling is governed solely by the principle that a foreign abbreviation should be transferred into Lithuanian as a quotation, that spelling will inevitably also affect the structure of Lithuanian abbreviations. The ways in which abbreviations designating payment and settlement systems are formed show that such an influence is already evident. It is worth examining them in greater detail.

The so-called second-generation urgent transfer system created by the European Central Bank and the central banks of the euro area, whose English name is Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer 2, has the international abbreviation TARGET2. This is a letter abbreviation that also contains a numeral. The system it designates is composite. The European Central Bank’s guidelines stipulate that the names of its components (the so-called TARGET2 component systems) be formed by combining the abbreviation TARGET2 with other abbreviations or words—the names of Eurosystem central banks or member states (ECB 2007: 4). The system of the European Central Bank itself is named by incorporating the abbreviation of its name: TARGET2-ECB. The name of the component system of the central bank of Lithuania is formed by adding the bank’s name to the abbreviation: TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS. Thus, the abbreviation is expanded by the entire word combination. In this case, the influence on the Lithuanian formation can be regarded as direct: the structure of the name is determined by an international institution.

However, the Bank of Lithuania also develops its own systems, whose names are not regulated by international institutions or their legal acts. As noted, one of the first payment systems it created (LITAS) was named using a simple method of forming a letter abbreviation. The names of systems operating since 2007, apparently following certain patterns in the naming of analogous international payment systems—

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and settlement systems, are now formed by attaching other elements with a hyphen—in this case, other abbreviations: the real-time payment system is named LITAS-RLS, the retail payment system LITAS-MMS, and the system intended for euro settlements before the transition to TARGET2, – LITAS-PHA. Abbreviations naming the payment and settlement systems of many countries are formed in a similar way, e.g.: SORBNET-EURO, BI–REL. Thus, in this case, the influence on the structure of Lithuanian abbreviations-as-names can be regarded as indirect.

On the other hand, there are no rules of Lithuanian that prohibit such a structure. Under the currently applicable rules for forming symbolic names (see VŽ 2004), abbreviations can be used to form symbolic names whose ending corresponds to a Lithuanian suffix (“Eksma“, „Sodra“), but these rules apply only to the names of institutions, companies, and organizations. Moreover, the names of the systems LITAS-RLS, LITAS-MMS, LITAS-PHA are not genuine symbolic names; they are formations from abbreviations, although the word LITAS, with its Lithuanian ending, considerably blurs the boundary between an abbreviation and a symbolic name.

The structure of the name of the interest-rate indicator calculated by the Bank of Lithuania, VILIBOR (calculated until 1995 as VILIBID), can also be regarded as an example of the indirect influence of foreign abbreviations on Lithuanian ones. In forming the name of this indicator, it was not necessary to comply with the requirements of international legal acts, but it was necessary to follow the model EURIBOR (and EURIBID), as well as the patterns used to form the names of corresponding indicators calculated in other countries.

The structural features of the abbreviations discussed show that the conventional terms letter and syllabic abbreviations are no longer sufficient to describe the structural diversity of abbreviations used in Lithuanian texts, even if so-called international abbreviations are excluded from their scope, because their composition includes numerals, shortenings added after a hyphen, words, or word combinations. Of course, a name such as TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS is more likely to be considered not an extended abbreviation but a symbolic name formed with an abbreviation. However, the names of payment systems formed from letters—LITAS-RLS, LITAS-MMS, LITAS-PHA—can be regarded both as symbolic names and as abbreviations. Therefore, when presenting a structural classification of abbreviations, it is appropriate to distinguish groups of letter, syllabic, and mixed abbreviations; mixed abbreviations can be classified further according to the methods of formation spreading in other domains of use.

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SYNTACTIC USE OF ABBREVIATIONS

Differences in integration into sentence structure

Abbreviations—alphabetic, syllabic, or other formations without lexical meaning—are not isolated elements in a sentence. They have a certain relationship with other words in the sentence and enter into its structure. The norm prescribes a way of integrating an abbreviation into sentence structure, namely its grammatical marking by adding Lithuanian endings indicating case, number, and gender. Once it receives an ending, an otherwise invariable element becomes a sentence element with formal word features and can indicate its relationship with other words in the sentence. However, in the usage under discussion, there is little inclination to mark alphabetic, syllabic, or mixed abbreviations grammatically. How, then, are they integrated into a sentence, and how is their relationship with other words indicated?

Such an indicator is most often an adjective or adjectival word used with an abbreviation, taking on the morphological categories of the agreement controller, i.e. the word with which it agrees. The gender form of adjectives and adjectival words used with Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations reveals a simple pattern in its selection: abbreviations whose unabbreviated equivalents, i.e. phrases, have a masculine noun as their head give adjectives or adjectival words the masculine gender, while those with a feminine noun as their head give them the feminine gender, e.g.: First of the major central banks in the world to raise interest rates was ECB [European Central Bank] (Pranešimas 2011: 05); At lastECBS [European System of Central Banks], without compromising the price stability objective, supports the general objectives of the EU, including financial integration (MA 2006: 13); In the ECB’s books, this position represents each NCB [national central bank]’s net claim or liabilityvis-à-vis the entire ECBS (MA 2005: 98); Multilateral links are a contractual and technical system that enables two directly unconnected SSSs [securities settlement systems] to settle a transaction through a third SSS (MA 2006: 97).

Abbreviations have no number markers because they lack Lithuanian endings, but adjectives and adjectival words used with them take singular or plural forms and thus indicate in the sentence the syntactic relationship linking them to the abbreviation, e.g.: Government eurobond yields at the end of 2002 were 0.2–0.7 percentage points, and at the end of 2003 0.1–0.4 percentage points higher than the corresponding euro-area benchmark (most creditworthy) government securities [government securities] yields (MA 2004: 45); Con-

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cretely speaking, the first 12-month ITRO [longer-term refinancing operations], conducted on 24 June 2009, saw a record amount of EUR 442 billion allocated to the euro area banking system (MA 2010: 20).

In some cases, however, number agreement is conditional, since an abbreviation is introduced by shortening the singular form of the noun that serves as the head of a phrase, yet is also used to denote the plural, e.g.: More specifically, in December 2009 the Governing Council decided that the 12-month longer-term refinancing operation (ITRO) would be the last operation of that maturity in that month, and that only one further 6-month ITRO would be conducted in March 2010, while additional 3-month ITRO were to be discontinued (MA 2011: 17).

As can be seen, gender and number agreement with Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations is based on the gender and number of the word that serves as the head of the abbreviated phrase. The head of such phrases, at least those used in economic reviews, is always a noun. The phrases to be abbreviated are nominal, consisting of a noun and an adjective (NB – national budget, NT – real estate) or of nouns (PB – World Bank, VKI – consumer price index, BBPK – Basel Committee on Banking Supervision). The latter may have adjectival modifiers (ESD – current account deficit, TVF – International Monetary Fund, PVM – value added tax, TPPPC – International Centre for the Prevention of Counterfeiting of Money), while less often the modifiers are words from other parts of speech (SSMS – systemically important payment systems).

Modifiers can also be linked by coordination (EBPO – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ERPB – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, SVDĮ – small and medium-sized enterprises), but the head of the phrase is a noun. As the examples show, an adjective or adjectival word agreeing with an abbreviation that stands in for a phrase in a sentence agrees not only in gender and number, but also in case. Thus, agreement is complete, except in the aforementioned cases of number mismatch.

When abbreviating a phrase that contains an ordinal numeral, as can be seen from the abbreviation examples given above, the numeral changes position: in the abbreviation it usually appears after, rather than before, the head (VKM II, TAS 39, KPS4, KPS5) and apparently becomes a cardinal numeral. The position occupied by cardinal numerals in the unabbreviated phrase also changes—they

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usually follow nouns, e.g.: ES-15, ESS95, ESS’95. Which element does the adjective or adjectival word agree with in such cases? The texts of economic reviews show that it is nevertheless inclined to agree with the noun serving as the head of the phrase, e.g.: the ECB is helping Eurostat revise ESS95 [the European System of Accounts 1995], which provides recommendations for many decisions at the European level (MA 2009: 125).

However, agreement in gender, number, and case is possible only when the phrase being abbreviated is Lithuanian. It is difficult to determine the gender of the noun serving as the head of a non-Lithuanian phrase, but adjectives and adjectival words used with non-Lithuanian abbreviations still have gender markers. How do they acquire one gender form or another? Some usage examples suggest that agreement with non-Lithuanian initial-letter abbreviations is based on the gender, case, and number of the head of the phrase translated into Lithuanian, e.g.: SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] should be transparent (MA 2008: 158); SWIFT is important for financial stability, since it provides secure messaging services to the financial community in more than 210 countries around the world (MA 2010: 143); SMP [Securities Market Program] was intended specifically to restore this concept of liquidity, usually referred to as financial market liquidity (MB 2010 06: 24). The head of the unabbreviated English phrase society is translated into Lithuanian as community, society, while the word program is rendered as program; thus, in these cases the feminine form of the adjective is used in accordance with the Lithuanian equivalent.

When the letter sequence SWIFT is expanded and the head of the phrase becomes the noun net, translated into Lithuanian as network, the gender of the adjective used with this abbreviation also changes, e.g.: In overseeing SWIFT, the main focus was on SWIFT’s resilience under emergency conditions, internal risk management processes, and replacement of the old SWIFT messaging network with the new SWIFTNet, an infrastructure based on internet technologies (MA 2005: 119).

Nevertheless, this pattern is not always followed. For example, the head of the English name Euro Overnight Index Average, which is also abbreviated by initials, is the word average, translated into Lithuanian as average; therefore, one might expect a masculine adjective to be used with the abbreviation, but the feminine form is chosen, e.g.: With only a few exceptions, EONIA, amid a large liquidity surplus, remained lower than the fixed rate on the Eurosystem’s main refinancing operations and longer-term refinan-

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cing operations, but close to the interest rate on the deposit facility (MA 2011: 36).

The gender form of the adjective in this case is not determined by the phonetics of the abbreviation’s ending, since, as already discussed, in economic reviews these abbreviations are not grammatically adapted, and their resemblance to Lithuanian endings is disregarded. Any assumption that agreement might be with an implied feminine noun is ruled out by the fact that the masculine form is also used with this abbreviation in the same texts, e.g.: When assessing very short-term money market interest rates, it should be noted that EONIA is mainly associated with a huge amount of liquidity; Third, owing to continuous fluctuations in the system’s surplus liquidity, EONIA still remained highly volatile (MA 2010: 40).

The real reason for this variation is revealed by the tendency to use certain explanatory words with this and other abbreviations denoting interest rate indicators; these words can be either masculine or feminine, such as index, rate, e.g.: At the beginning of 2011, the EONIA index continued to be volatile (MA 2011: 36); In the second quarter of 2005, the 12-month EURIBOR rate began to decline and by the end of June reached the same level (MA 2006: 33).

Explanatory words may be expanded to a greater or lesser extent: for example, not only rate but also interest rate may be used; not only indicator but also interest rate indicator, e.g.: The 3-month VILIBOR interest rate was consistently higher than EURIBOR (LBMA 2006: 44); The interbank lending interest rate indicator VILIBOR, like the corresponding indicator for the euro international interbank market, EURIBOR, is calculated every working day on the basis of rates quoted by banks (Pranešimas 2010: 24).

Some of the explanatory words coincide with the head of the phrase associated with the abbreviation: the last letter in the abbreviations VILIBOR, EURIBOR represents the abbreviated English word rate (interest rate). The last letter of the abbreviations LITAS, KUBAS is an abbreviation of the word system, but an explanatory word system or phrases formed with it are generally used with these abbreviations, including their expanded variants, e.g.: In carrying out its function of overseeing payment and securities settlement systems, the Bank of Lithuania conducted oversight of the LITAS payment system, the LCVPD securities settlement system, and the KUBAS payment system operated by LCKU (LBMA 2007: 68); The LITAS-PHA System was developed and is operated by the Bank of Lithuania (Pranešimas 2009: 41); In 2006, the Bank of Lithuania operated the LITAS payment system and performed its operator functions (LBMA 2007: 68).

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Thus, combinations of capital letters used in sentences in these cases are no longer considered abbreviations at all. This is clearly shown by cases in which almost the entire abbreviated phrase is accompanied by an explanatory phrase, e.g.: The VILIBOR interbank litas lending rate indicator, as is the analogous EURIBOR indicator of the euro interbank market, is calculated each working day on the basis of banks’ published quotations, which they use to indicate their willingness to lend funds to other banks (Pranešimas 2011: 24); The Bank of Lithuania operates the real-time gross settlement system LITAS-RLS and the deferred net settlement retail payment system LITAS-MMS, and performs the function of operator of these systems (Pranešimas 2009: 40).

Therefore, it may be assumed that these abbreviations function in sentences not as abbreviations of direct-denotative names that directly take an adjective, but rather as symbolic names. Of course, they are also used without explanatory words, but symbolic names too may be used without generic or nomenclatural terms. When the word or phrase explaining an abbreviation is omitted, the adjective or adjectival word is made to agree with the implied explanatory word or the head element of the explanatory phrase. This accounts for the variation in the gender (and number) forms of adjectives and adjectival words.

Nevertheless, explanatory words are almost never omitted with some abbreviations, specifically those denoting various systems, e.g.: Retail payment systems of systemic importance and major significance are assessed against oversight standards by the relevant national central banks, while the ECB is responsible for assessing the EBA system TEVP 2 (MA 2005: 120); In 2004, the mandatory changes required for the transition to the new messaging system SWIFTNet FIN continued, and all components of the TARGET system successfully implemented the changes (MA 2005: 88).

With the abbreviations TARGET, TARGET2, the explanatory word system seems to be an essential part of the abbreviation, e.g.: The TARGET system began operating on 4 January 1999, with the introduction of the euro. Initially, it consisted of 15 national real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems and the ECB payment mechanism (EPM). Despite its success, the TARGET system had several shortcomings arising from its heterogeneous technical design and decentralised structure. To address these shortcomings and adapt to developments such as the further expansion of the euro area, in October 2002 the Eurosystem began work on the TARGET2 system project. The Eurosystem’s objective in developing the sys-

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tem TARGET2 was to create a modernised version of the previous TARGET system that would better meet users’ needs by offering a uniform level of service, harmonised pricing and cost-effectiveness (MA 2009: 112).

Su šias ir kitas sistemas įvardijančiomis santrumpomis pavartojamas ne tik žodis sistema, bet ir konkretesnės reikšmės žodžių junginiai, pvz.: ECB kartu su nacionaliniais centriniais bankais vertino, ar būsima Eurosistemos mokėjimo sistema TARGET2 atitinka Sistemiškai svarbių mokėjimo sistemų pagrindinius principus (MA 2007: 29); Paskutinius kelerius metus ji buvo tobulinama ir vykdomi darbai, skirti antrosios kartos sistemai TARGET2 sukurti (MA 2006: 93).

The obligatory use of the word system may be due to the way the English abbreviation TARGET is formed: the final word of the phrase Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System⁷, which usually functions in English as a direct-denotative name, is not included in the abbreviation, and so there is a tendency to use it as an inseparable part of the abbreviation or as a kind of generic (nomenclatural) term. However, this does not explain why it precedes the abbreviation written in capital letters. After all, generic terms can also be used after a name—in cases where the generic term is an essential and inseparable part of a direct-denotative name (VŽ 1997b, 2004, 2007). The fact that the word system is placed before abbreviations most likely indicates a tendency to treat certain abbreviations in texts as symbolic names. Although the postposition of generic terms after non-Lithuanian symbolic names has been linked to the influence of English (see Vaicekauskienė 1997), it has also been argued that such postposition may be a reproduction of the genitive position characteristic of inflectable Lithuanian symbolic names (see Vaskelaitė 2001).

As the examples given of abbreviations denoting interest rates show, an explanatory word or phrase is used both before and after the abbreviation. Thus, both the tendency to place certain explanatory words before abbreviations and their variable positioning may be signs of the resemblance of some abbreviations to symbolic names. Non-Lithuanian abbreviations are also linked to non-Lithuanian symbolic names by their invariable form. Even abbreviations that have an ending corresponding to a Lithuanian inflectional ending are invariable

⁷ The Lithuanian equivalent of this name has not yet become established. In publications of the Bank of Lithuania, it is usually translated as Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System; the international abbreviations dictionary gives the translation automated real-time system for large-volume interregional settlements (Buračas 2010: 554).

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ending, e.g.: LITAS-MMS the number and value of transactions carried out increased (Report 2011: 45); the active use of TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS services meant that, in terms of transaction value, this system overtook LITAS-RLS (Report 2010: 43).

These abbreviations cannot be inflected because of their alphabetic nature: when a word with a Lithuanian ending is inflected, the abbreviation would no longer correspond to the actual name. In general, it can sometimes be quite difficult to draw a boundary between an abbreviation and a symbolic name. For example, the aforementioned abbreviation LITAS should be regarded as an abbreviation, whereas for another system the non-Lithuanian name of the currency euro was chosen as its name, that is, as a symbolic name. Apparently, this is why both abbreviations and some symbolic names are formatted in the same way, cf.: EURO 1 System – a large-value, real-time gross settlement system in euros, owned and operated by a private entity (MA 2006: 127).

Thus, the syntactic environment of abbreviations used in economic reviews reveals a dual pattern in how they are incorporated into sentence structure: some tend to be incorporated through an adjective or an adjectival word, that is, an attribute; others through an explanatory word, treated in relation to the parts of the sentence as an apposition. For some abbreviations, a syntactic agreement relation is more characteristic⁸, while for others it is correlation⁹. Agreement is characteristic of abbreviations formed alphabetically from names or terms with a direct meaning, whereas so-called syllabic abbreviations correlate with nouns—as explanatory words or the head components of word combinations. Nevertheless, the syntactic use of the alphabetically formed abbreviations EONIA, LIBOR, LITAS, LITAS-RLS, LITAS-MMS, LITAS-PHA, TARGET differs little from that of those formed syllabically, which would also indicate their similarity to syllabic abbreviations. Rather, they are linked not by the formal method of abbreviation formation, but by the possibility of dividing the formation into syllables and thus by its similarity to a word. The graphic representation of all abbreviations in the usage under consideration is the same (they are all written in uppercase), but their integration into a broader structure—the text—as well as their incorporation into sentence structure, varies.

⁸ There are also various conceptions of syntactic relations in Lithuanian linguistics. According to some, agreement is considered a syntactic relation; according to others, it is only an indicator of a syntactic relation. For a more detailed discussion, see Vaskelaitė R. Models of Syntactic Relations in Lithuanian Syntax. Doctoral dissertation, 2009, Vilnius.

⁹ This syntactic relation is treated and named very differently in Lithuanian linguistics: it is considered either a distinct type of syntactic relation or a subtype of agreement, and is called form correlation, coordination of word forms, and so on (for a more detailed discussion, see Vaskelaitė 2009: 93–99).

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Tendencies in incorporating abbreviations into text

LKRS (1992: 73) nurodoma, kad santrumpa aiškintina tekste arba specialiai pridedamuose sąrašuose. KancKP (2000: 279–280) teikimas santrumpą aiškinti formuluojamas konkrečiau: pirmą kartą turi būti pateikiamas nesutrumpintas pasakymas, o skliaustuose – sutrumpintas; sąrašas ir paaiškinimai gali būti pateikiami, jei tekste santrumpų daug. Tačiau teikinys santrumpas aiškinti, atrodytų, sietinas tik su specialiojoje literatūroje vartojamomis, specifinėmis (LKRS 1992: 73) arba individualiomis (KancKP 2000: 279) santrumpomis.

In economic reviews, there is a tendency to explain all abbreviations, although the methods of explanation differ. Alphabetic abbreviations that cannot be divided into syllables are explained in the manner prescribed by KancKP: the full form of a name or a common-noun phrase is given in the sentence, and the abbreviation to be used in the text is written in parentheses afterward, e.g.: The Eurosystem’s monetary policy operations include, on the one hand, open market operations, such as, for example, main refinancing operations (MRO), longer-term refinancing operations (LTRO) and fine-tuning operations (FTO), and, on the other hand, standing facilities (MA 2008: 98); This article covers the deposits of members of the European Banking Authority (EBA), which are submitted to the ECB as collateral for EBA payments made through the TARGET system (MA 2006: 187).

Abbreviations that include a numeral are incorporated into the text in a similar way, e.g.: It is expected that many of the G10 member and non-member countries will prepare the fourth quantitative impact study (QIS4) (MA 2005: 111); With the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary System (and its component, the Exchange Rate Mechanism), which had been in force since 1979, was replaced by the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) (MA 2005: 73).

Neither the current Lithuanian spelling rules nor, still less, the norms governing the use of non-Lithuanian abbreviations specify how to incorporate non-Lithuanian abbreviations into a text, particularly when one also wishes to provide a translation of the non-Lithuanian name being abbreviated, although Lithuanian abbreviations are recommended for more widely used Lithuanian names. Two solutions are found in the usage examined:

1) when first mentioned, the unabbreviated name is written in Lithuanian translation, and the abbreviation to be used in the text is given in parentheses, e.g.: At the end of 2006, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced its oil production quota and actual output, while OPEC supply growth from non-OPEC countries did not meet expectations and therefore failed to offset the decrease

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OPEC gamybos apimties (MA 2008: 27); Bendros mokėjimų eurais erdvės (SEPA) iniciatyvos, kurią ECB labai rėmė nuo pat jos pradžios, antras svarbus etapas buvo SEPA tiesioginio debeto pradžia 2009 m. lapkričio mėn. (MA 2010: 12) (originalūs pavadinimai dažniausiai pateikiami pridedamuose žodynėliuose);

2) both the abbreviation and the name in the original language are given in parentheses, e.g.: The Bank of Lithuania, in turn, carries out the supervisory review and evaluation process (Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process – SREP) (Report 2010: 55); Following the increase in the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU – nonaccelerating inflation rate of unemployment), estimates of the <...>, over the past decade, NAIRU have declined slightly (MA 2006: 59).

Abbreviations formed in the typical alphabetic way are most often introduced into and explained in the text by these means. Syllabic abbreviations, that is, those that form a construction that can be divided into syllables, are introduced into and explained in the text in other ways. There are, however, cases in which an attempt is made to treat them like other abbreviations—by giving the full name at first mention and the abbreviation used subsequently in parentheses, e.g.: The Bank of Lithuania operates three payment systems. Two of them—the real-time gross settlement system (LITAS-RLS) and the designated-time retail payment system (LITAS-MMS)—are intended for payments in litas, while the real-time gross settlement system (LITAS-PHA)is intended for payments in euros. <...> In preparation for restructuring LITAS-PHA (settlement services will be restricted from November 2011), the Bank of Lithuania is carrying out a comprehensive information and consultation programme for the credit institutions concerned. <...> The number of transactions carried out through LITAS-RLSincreased, but their value decreased (Report 2010: 44); Until and including December 1998, overnight deposit interest rates were expressed as the period-end rates offered on interbank deposits; thereafter, they were expressed as period averages of the euro overnight index average (EONIA). From January 1999, interest rates on 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-month deposits are euro interbank offered rates (EURIBOR). Before that date, the London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR)applied. The LIBOR shows the interest rates on 3-month deposits in the United States and JapanLIBOR (MB 2010 12: 88).

Providing the unabbreviated version of a name is quite difficult, since in the language from which it originated, the abbreviated form is better known. Coined names are created precisely to function in place of the real ones—much longer combinations of words. On the other hand, even when one knows how to explain a particular

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abbreviation, its Lithuanian translation may be entirely uninformative or even inaccurate. For example, a literal translation of the aforementioned abbreviation VILIBOR, formed from the phrase Vilnius Interbank Offered Rate, Vilnius interbank lending interest rate, would distort the meaning of the name denoted by the abbreviation, since these are not Vilnius but Lithuanian—or, more precisely, interest rates in the interbank market operating in Lithuania—at which banks do not borrow, but are prepared to lend. It would be inaccurate to translate the abbreviation ECOFIN, formed from the symbolic name Economic and Financial Affairs, as Economic and Financial Affairs. More accurate Lithuanian equivalents could be provided for the unabbreviated forms of abbreviations made from only the initial letters of the abbreviated name (e.g., TARGET, EONIA), but apparently there is little reason to do so—the text will in any case use the non-Lithuanian abbreviation.

Nevertheless, attempts are made to introduce all such names formed by abbreviation into the text, and one way of doing so is by using various explanatory words and phrases, sometimes almost identical to the unabbreviated version of the name. Explanatory phrases may be used either before or after abbreviations. When used after abbreviations, they appear in sentences as various parenthetical insertions, e.g.: In addition, the ECB participated in the activities of UNIDROIT, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, concerning an international convention on securities held by intermediaries (MA 2006: 126); Such transactions are carried out mainly through TARGET—the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System (MA 2005: 98); For example, a solution has been envisaged to connect SORBNET-EURO, Narodowy Bank Polski’s euro real-time gross settlement system, via the ECB of the euro area (MA 2005: 89).

Besides explanatory phrases, various metalinguistic comments, such as known as, called, or, are also used to introduce abbreviated versions of names into the text, e.g.: For this purpose, the Eurosystem created, for high-value and urgent euro payments, the Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System, known as the TARGET system (MA 2009: 112); These shortcomings, together with the growing importance of collateral held in a country other than the country where the transaction is conducted, led the Governing Council on 8 March 2007 to decide to review the Eurosystem’s current collateral management procedures and to develop a new common platform-based Eurosystem collateral management system, called Collateral Central Bank Management, or CCBM2 (MA 2009: 116).

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These methods of introducing non-Lithuanian abbreviations into the text also display some characteristics of the integration of loanwords or neologisms into the text (see Girčienė 2005), which would suggest that abbreviated name equivalents are treated not only as abbreviations or symbolic names, but also as foreign elements that need to be explained. Metalinguistic comments may also be intended to guard against an inaccurate understanding of a non-Lithuanian abbreviation.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES AMONG ABBREVIATIONS: FACTORS OF USAGE AND NORMS

As noted earlier, abbreviations are generally divided into alphabetic and syllabic types. In light of how abbreviations are formed, attempts are also made to establish norms for their inflection and spelling: LKRS lists all syllabic abbreviations as inflectable, while among alphabetic abbreviations it proposes adding an ending only to those read by pronouncing the sounds represented by the letter names, for example, TASS, ELTA, FIAT (LKRS 1992: 74). This recommendation indicates that the latter are similar to syllabic abbreviations, but an attempt is made to distinguish between them: syllabic abbreviations (Elfa, Kuzbasas) are recommended to be written with an initial capital and inflected by appending the ending directly, whereas for abbreviations pronounced by sound, the ending is appended after a hyphen or apostrophe (TASS-o, TASS’o); admittedly, abbreviations in the latter group that end in a vowel corresponding to a feminine ending (e.g., Elta) are recommended to be written like syllabic abbreviations, that is, with an initial capital and without a hyphen or apostrophe (LKRS 1992: 74). As noted earlier, it is unclear to what extent such inflection and spelling distinctions apply to non-Lithuanian abbreviations. In the usage examined, all abbreviations are grammatically formatted in the same way: they are all written without endings and in uppercase letters. Nevertheless, they are treated differently, as revealed by differences in their syntactic use.

Patterns in how abbreviations are incorporated into sentences and texts reveal two types: shortened forms of names with a direct meaning, used in a text in place of their unabbreviated forms, and abbreviations that enter a text already as ready-made forms requiring some explanation. The former may be considered a means of linguistic economy, while the latter are rather a form of excessive usage. The latter abbreviations are often explained not merely by one or two words, but by an entire phrase that stands in for the unabbreviated version of the name, and the explanatory word itself is often included

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in the abbreviation. Abbreviations explained in this way function in a sentence more like symbolic names. Although syllabic abbreviations are most inclined to symbolic use, the analysis shows that many Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian alphabetic abbreviations are also used symbolically (LITAS, KUBAS, TARGET, EONIA, LIBOR). This prompts a refinement of the concept of a syllabic abbreviation, especially since, with the spread of so-called international abbreviations, the boundary between alphabetic and syllabic abbreviations has become blurred: many non-Lithuanian abbreviations are formed from the letters of the components of a word group, from syllables, and from word parts that do not coincide with syllables. Such abbreviation data would suggest classifying as syllabic those abbreviations that can be divided into syllables.

A stronger tendency to use syllable-divisible abbreviations symbolically would indicate that “word-like” abbreviations are inclined to symbolic use: that is, those discussed in R. Marcinkevičienė’s article (Marcinkevičienė 2003: 91) as deliberately acronymized formations, and in A. Kazlauskienė’s article (Kazlauskienė 2008: 73) as artificially coined names. Symbolic use is not characteristic of alphabetic abbreviations used in a text as shortened forms of names or terms with a direct meaning. Thus, the concept of acronym, which R. Marcinkevičienė proposes using to designate all abbreviations, would be useful in Lithuanian linguistics precisely for distinguishing abbreviations that are artificially coined, enter a text as ready-made forms, and tend to function differently from conventional abbreviations. It would also be useful to take account of the boundary revealed by syntactic usage when establishing norms for the inflection and spelling of abbreviations. As discussed earlier, the norms for inflecting and spelling non-Lithuanian abbreviations are generally unclear. Perhaps this lack of clarity or inadequacy in the norms is one of the factors behind the fact that abbreviations treated differently syntactically in a text are grammatically formatted in the same way—that is, they are all indeclinable and written entirely in uppercase letters.

The LKRS-prescribed way of writing syllabic abbreviations—with an initial capital followed by a Lithuanian ending—cannot be acceptable for the usage under examination: such “conversion into a word” of an abbreviation in a text in the official register may be perceived as distorting it. On the other hand, no spelling norm has been established for non-Lithuanian syllabic abbreviations, and applying the same rule as for Lithuanian ones would alter the structure of some abbreviations and, consequently, the official name, most often established by Lithuanian or international legal acts. The Bank of Lithuania establishes the creation and operation of certain payment systems through legal acts; therefore, writing in its publications the names that those acts spell in uppercase letters

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in some other way would hardly be a feasible task. It would also be difficult to observe the principle of inflecting syllabic or certain alphabetic Lithuanian abbreviations and writing them with only an initial capital, because this would conflict with the principle of analogy with non-Lithuanian abbreviations that designate the same kinds of objects (systems, indicators). The Lithuanian norm for syllabic abbreviations, which establishes their status as names with a direct meaning (Elfa, Kuzbasas), is also inconvenient in practice because abbreviations are often needed to designate identical objects that differ only in name. All this apparently explains the choice to grammatically format abbreviations whose syntactic use differs in the same way as others—that is, to write them in uppercase letters, without endings. On the other hand, their differing syntactic use is a sign that they are construed differently.

The fact that both conventional abbreviations and abbreviations approaching the meaning of symbolic names are formatted identically in texts is probably influenced in no small measure by the currently applicable norm not only for abbreviations but also for symbolic names. It prescribes that symbolic names be written in quotation marks (LKRS 1992: 70–71; VŽ 2004, 2006; Kniūkšta 2004: 28–29). Although Lithuanian symbolic names are not formed from abbreviations, exceptional symbolic names formed from inflectable abbreviations are prescribed to be written in quotation marks (VŽ 2004, 2006). Thus, the proposal to use certain computing terms’ abbreviations (POP protokolas, POP pašto protokolas) as symbolic names (see Grigas 2007) is incompatible with the currently applicable norm for writing symbolic names. The established norm for formatting symbolic names is unacceptable for the usage under study because legal acts usually prescribe that an abbreviation be written not in quotation marks but in uppercase letters. Writing them both in uppercase letters and in quotation marks is not recommended. The fact that symbolic names may be written in uppercase letters on signs, labels, and in advertising (VŽ 2006) suggests that uppercase letters are considered equivalent to quotation marks.

Actual symbolic names in economic reviews are written in quotation marks (or in a different typeface), for example: „Visa“ system’s share of the debit card market fell from 72.3 percent (2005) to 70.9 percent. „Master Card“ system’s share of the debit card market rose from 27.4 to 28.9 percent (LBMA 2007: 71); This was also driven by the renewed operation of the ammonia plants of the joint-stock company „Ache ma“, and by the considerable rise in fertilizer prices (Pranešimas 2010: 16).

Besides the factors discussed, the consistent graphic representation of abbreviations of different kinds is apparently maintained not only by the spelling norm for symbolic names but also by the concept of symbolic names presented in Lithuanian linguistics. The spelling of symbolic names and

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In the resolutions regulating their formation, they are generally associated only with figurative names of companies, institutions, and organizations (Kniūkšta 1996, 1997; 2004; VŽ 1995, 2002, 2004). The VLKK resolution “On the Declension of Symbolic Names” gives examples (the “Ežys” card, the “Palemonas” typeface, the “Zebros” internet plan) that reveal a broader scope for the concept; however, none of the examples is a non-Lithuanian symbolic name that is an abbreviation (VŽ 2007). As noted, the rules for forming Lithuanian symbolic names do not permit such names to be formed from indeclinable letter abbreviations, and consequently their spelling is not regulated either.

In any case, the boundary drawn by the norms between the spelling of symbolic names and abbreviations raises certain contradictions, as illustrated by instances of usage in which a name consists of both an abbreviation and a symbolic name. An abbreviation should be written in uppercase, while the accompanying verbal part of the name should be placed in quotation marks; however, the abbreviation and that verbal part together form a semantically indivisible unit. Attempts to reconcile the differences established by the norms for writing abbreviations and symbolic names have led to considerable variation in usage. Sometimes the preposed abbreviation prevails, and the whole name is therefore not set in a different typeface or enclosed in quotation marks, e.g.: Parliament also takes the view that TARGET-Securities project could help integrate the European securities settlement infrastructure (MA 2008: 176); The OMX Vilnius Index rose by 13 percent over the quarter (Pranešimas 2011: 22).

In other cases, both the abbreviation and the verbal part of the name are set in italics¹⁰, e.g.: Dow Jones EURO STOXX price index rose by about 20% over the year compared with the end of 2005 (MA 2007: 38); Dow Jones EURO STOXX index rose by about 10% at year-end compared with the end of the previous year (MA 2005: 34).

There are also cases where an attempt is made to reconcile both spelling norms: the abbreviation is written in uppercase, while the verbal part of the name, as a symbolic name, is set in italics that serve in place of quotation marks, e.g.: Dow Jones EURO STOXX the forecast annual growth rate in earnings per share for the companies included in the index reached a historic low of −4% in the spring, looking ahead to the next 12 months (MA 2010: 45). The aim of this project, called TARGET2-Securities <...> is to harmonize settlements

¹⁰ All examples quoted in the article are set in italics, so the roman type here corresponds to the italic type in the source. Editor’s note.

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eurais už vertybinius popierius centrinio banko pinigais (MA 2007: 12). Beje, nagrinėjamoje vartosenoje pasvirusiosiomis raidėmis išskiriami tekste vartojami svetimi elementai, todėl gali būti, kad tokie pavadinimai traktuojami ir kaip simboliniai, ir kaip nelietuviški.

Thus, it would be worth considering the spelling of abbreviations that function in a text as symbolic names. If it were decided to narrow the distinction between them and symbolic names, this could be done in at least two ways. One would be to clarify the spelling norm for symbolic names, that is, to recognize that in continuous text such names may be written not only in quotation marks but also in uppercase. The current norm for writing them (in quotation marks) is not acceptable in usage that meets the requirements of formal business style for names formed by abbreviation, most of which are made officially subject to uppercase spelling by various legal acts. Another way to narrow the boundary between symbolic names and names used symbolically would be, in light of the increasingly common use of artificially coined Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian names, to authorize writing these names both in uppercase and in quotation marks.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Abbreviations formed from the initial letters or other elements of the components of word combinations are scarcely analyzed in Lithuanian linguistics, while works on language practice and standardization generally discuss them only as a matter of spelling. Analysis of the structure and function of abbreviations in continuous text, based on texts from the field of economics, reveals that this phenomenon is not unidimensional, and that the currently applicable norms for the use of abbreviations do not encompass their full diversity and are unclear or insufficient.

2. Only some of the abbreviations used in the economic reviews examined conform to the concept of a typical letter abbreviation, which is, moreover, imprecise and contradictory. Most non-Lithuanian abbreviations are formed not only from letters but also from syllables or word parts that do not coincide with syllables, prompting a need to refine the concept of the syllabic abbreviation. Based on usage data for non-Lithuanian abbreviations becoming more widespread in Lithuanian texts, it is more accurate to classify as syllabic not abbreviations formed from syllables, but abbreviations that can be divided into syllables.

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3. In addition to alphabetic and syllabic abbreviations, many others are also used that are not mentioned at all in works on the practice of the Lithuanian language—namely, abbreviations whose components include both numerals and words or word combinations. These may collectively be called mixed abbreviations. The spelling of such abbreviations is regulated only by a general principle: non-Lithuanian abbreviations are transcribed into Lithuanian as quotations. However, this principle inevitably leads to variation in the spelling of analogous Lithuanian abbreviations as well. This variation could be reduced by general principles for spelling abbreviations of atypical structure.

4. The concept of a non-Lithuanian abbreviation is not defined in Lithuanian linguistics, and the norm for its grammatical integration is rather unclear. The lack of clarity in the norm should be regarded as one of the factors behind the tendency in the usage under study to use such abbreviations as indeclinable.

5. The syntactic use of abbreviations, namely tendencies in their incorporation into sentences and texts, reveals considerable differences that are discussed in none of the works presenting classifications of abbreviations: some abbreviations function in coherent texts as shortenings of names with a literal meaning and are incorporated into the text as a means of linguistic economy; others function rather as already established symbolic names. Since such artificially created names require some explanation in the text, and that explanation often coincides with a word from the abbreviated word combination or even with the entire word combination, such abbreviations constitute a form of redundant usage.

6. It is evident that the uniform treatment in usage of abbreviations of different kinds is determined to a considerable extent, alongside certain requirements imposed by style and genre, by the norms for writing abbreviations and symbolic names, as well as by the current understanding of a symbolic name. The boundary between a symbolic name and abbreviations tending toward symbolic use should be considered more broadly and defined more clearly, or abolished altogether.

ŠALTINIAI

ECB 2007: Europos centrinio banko gairės 2007 m. balandžio 26 d. (ECB/2007/2).

LBMA 2004: Lietuvos bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2003.

LBMA 2006: Lietuvos bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2005.

LBMA 2007: Lietuvos banko metų ataskaita, 2006.

MA 2004: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2003.

MA 2005: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2004.

MA 2006: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2005.

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MA 2007: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2006.

MA 2008: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2007.

MA 2009: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2008.

MA 2010: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2009.

MA 2011: Europos centrinis bankas. Metų ataskaita, 2010.

MB 2003 03: Europos centrinis bankas. Mėnesinis biuletenis.

MB 2009 12: Europos centrinis bankas. Mėnesinis biuletenis.

MB 2010 06: Europos centrinis bankas. Mėnesinis biuletenis.

MB 2010 12: Europos centrinis bankas. Mėnesinis biuletenis.

PK 2006: Europos centrinis bankas. Pranešimas apie konvergenciją.

Pranešimas 2005: Lietuvos banko pranešimas apie pagrindinio tikslo įgyvendinimą, funkcijų vykdymą ir bankų sistemos būklę.

Pranešimas 2009: Lietuvos banko pranešimas apie pagrindinio tikslo įgyvendinimą, funkcijų vykdymą ir bankų sistemos būklę. 2009 m. lapkričio mėn.

Pranešimas 2010: Lietuvos banko pranešimas apie pagrindinio tikslo įgyvendinimą, funkcijų vykdymą ir bankų sistemos būklę. 2010 m. lapkričio mėn.

Pranešimas 2011: Lietuvos bankas. Pranešimas apie pagrindinio tikslo įgyvendinimą, funkcijų vykdymą ir bankų sistemos būklę. 2011 m. gegužės mėn.

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džio 30 d. nutarimo Nr. 35 „Dėl firmų vardų“ pakeitimo“ (2002 m. birželio 27 d., Nr. 3 (83). – Valstybės žinios, 2002, Nr. 70–2955.

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SHORTENINGS: STRUCTURE AND SYNTACTIC PATTERNS OF USAGE

Summary

The paper sets out to examine shortenings in written language, which seems to be gaining importance but so far has hardly been researched. The notion is problematic; it tends to compete and overlap with similar terms, such as abbreviations, alphabetical shortenings, alphabetisms of titles and names, acronyms etc. In the present paper preference is given to shortenings, a largely acknowledged term by Lithuanian linguists. The notion includes three varieties: alphabetical shortenings, syllabic shortenings and mixed shortenings. The choice has been determined by the current usage patterns of shortenings, more precisely, by the tendencies identified in the language of economics.

The paper aims at identifying the structure and syntactic patterns of shortenings used in economic reviews published by the National Bank of the Republic of Lithuania. When analysing a large variety of shortenings in present-day Lithuanian and variation in their usage in sentences and longer texts, a number of

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specific cases have been identified. They are not included in publications dealing with the language norm and should be discussed in reference to the norm. From this point of view, a number of shortenings which seem to be spreading in actual usage have not been given sufficient evaluation yet. They include numbers, words or even symbols; from the structural point of view, they should make a separate category of shortenings. The analysis of alphabetical or syllabic shortenings, the usage of which is mainly regulated by the language norm, has revealed that the issue has become rather problematic due to a rapid spread of non-Lithuanian shortenings. The so-called international shortenings, which are fairly difficult to categorise either as purely alphabetical or syllabic shortenings, reopen the discussion of the notions of alphabetical or syllabic shortenings and their boundaries. The above international shortenings also reveal important differences in their functioning in the text. A syntactic approach helps identify two varieties of shortenings: those which tend to be used with other words which grammatically agree with the shortening and those which require explanatory words. The latter type seems to be much closer to symbolic names than to alphabetical shortenings, which are introduced into the text for the purposes of language economy. The paper also discusses a possibility to introduce grammatical markers, which help discriminate between the two varieties of shortenings.

KEY WORDS: alphabetical shortenings, syllabic shortenings, mixed shortenings, abbreviations, syntactic relationship, explanatory word, symbolic name.

RAMUNĖ VASKELAITĖ

Lietuvos bankas

Gedimino pr. 6, LT-01103 Vilnius

[email protected]

R. VASKELAITĖ. Santrumpos: sandar ir sintaksinė vartosena

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