Methods for Classifying Abbreviations Document Names (Based on the Material of the Modern German Language)

Abstract

The article offers options for the classification of abbreviations-documentary names on the basis of various characteristics. The following can be selected as the classification criteria: the number of components in an abbreviation, which affects its derivational potential; the structure of the abbreviation, i.e. the division of abbreviations into initial, syllabic and combined; the types of documents, for example: laws, regulations, agreements, et.; the classification on a thematic basis, i.e. in relation to the sphere of management and economics. This classification is mainly based on truncated components, which are more informative than initials. Among document names there are abbreviations consisting of purely German components and abbreviations that are borrowings or consisting of a combination of autochthonous and borrowed components. It is possible to classify documentary abbreviations by the presence of borrowings in their composition. The main attention in the article is paid to the classification by their place in the internal onomastic field. The names of documents used in the common European space and the names of documents with a narrower scope of distribution (Germany as a whole or in specific federal lands) are distinguished, which determines their entry into the nuclear or peripheral zone of the onomastic space. The presence of other onyms in the documentary names, among which toponyms, that characterize the effect of specific legal documents in a certain territory, occupy a special place. It is concluded that abbreviated document names represent a certain field of onomastics, the core of which are global document names, and that they represent a certain system, and not a simple set of abbreviated onyms.