The role of the internet in the proliferation of new acronyms in the Russian language

Abstract

This paper focuses on a special form of English borrowing: the use of acronyms with phraseological meaning. The Russian computer language, more precisely the Russian computer slang, is unthinkable without the influence of English. This influence is manifested at various language levels and in a variety of forms (borrowings, calques and half-calques, univerbats, reverse derivatives, alphabetic and alphanumeric abbreviations, “distorted forms” of both full names and acronyms). Based on the English abbreviations, first the meaning of the respective full form is explained in English and then its fate is illustrated in the Russian host language. Comparison with German, which also borrowed a large number of such abbreviations, shows similarities and differences in the processing of these phraseological units. The term “digital communication” here refers not only to communication on the Internet in a narrower sense (chats, forums, e-mail, etc.), but also to such channels as SMS, Twitter, WhatsApp, and others. The Internet plays a double role in the development of the modern Russian language: firstly, as a means of mass communication that provides an opportunity to popularize new linguistic phenomena in the shortest possible time and with maximum range, and secondly, as a generator of new linguistic forms that would be impossible without the Internet itself. One part of these neologisms refers to the technical features of digital communication and the tools necessary for it, while the other part refers to the implementation of a new communicative style that is clearly different from analogue communication in its oral and written forms.