Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German

Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German t: Garland Cannon andJ. Alan Pfeffer ^he modern history of languages may suggest a movement toward simplification, despite salient exceptions like the development of case in Baltic. The simplification may involve inflections (exemplified by the once considerably inflected Chinese languages ) and/or some leveling of grammatical gender, if it ever existed. During the twentieth century there has been movement toward affinity within some Western subfamilies of Indo-European, so that the languages seem to be moving toward greater similarities rather than the differentiation once characterizing the development of the Indo-European subfamilies. This change contrasts with the slow alteration of Vulgar Latin into the generally mutually unintelligible Italian, French, Spanish , etc. English is one of the starkest examples of gender-leveling within the Indo-European descendants, particularly since the quantity of Old English gender-marking articles was comparable to that of Old High German (OHG). English lost most concord marking except chiefly in anaphoric pronouns. It underwent several centuries of terminal segmental loss that essentially eliminated grammatical gender except in the third-person singular personal pronouns, generally resulting in a situation where most nouns denote gender semantically — i.e., according to biological sex. Another major development among languages in contact especially since World War II has been the worldwide influence of English. That impact has promoted similarity to English, as in borrowing both the noun and its plural -s, even if the grammatical system of the affected language differs typologically. In a reverse example, once the Japanese neologisms employing solely English elements are phonetiDictionaries :fournal oftheDictionary Society ofAmerica 21 (2000) 52Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer cally naturalized into English, the loan camcorder (< Jp. kamuködä < a blended camera + tape recorder) is indistinguishable from recent English neologisms (Cannon 1995 and 1996, 102). The lexical influence of English on Modern High German is illustrated on most pages of Carstensen and Busse's three-volume Anglizismen-Wörterbuch (1993-96), which records some 3,000 English loans but only 26 of the data composing our current study. Bonk (1999) is the most voluminous record of abbreviations (a rubric term for the many alphabetisms and several acronyms in our corpus), which is our focus, and contains 170 of our data. Wennrich (1976-80) records 95 items, and there are 80 in Duden (1976-81). The at least 15,000 abbreviations added by Bonk to her annual three-volume Gale dictionary of abbreviations, now totaling 3,403 small-print pages, together with the considerable expansion of Wennrich in his 1980 and later collections, demonstrates that the number of abbreviations in both German and English has dramatically expanded in recent decades (Cannon 1989; cf. the small 1960 Gale dictionary ). Meanwhile, there has been a reverse borrowing of at least 5,380 German loans into English, steadily rising after 1850 (Pfeffer and Cannon 1994). In the concomitant surge in the German use of abbreviations, especially American loans, the shortened version of the German or English full form often loses any definite article that it ever had. Thereby the abbreviation appears in a noun phrase where gender is not reflected in concord, in a sense losing its grammatical gender in the structures that this paper analyzes. The loss might eventually influence loss of the article in structures where gender is presently mandatorily marked. The loss contrasts with the extensive use of OHG definite articles even with common class-nouns and translated Latin nouns that had no article in Latin texts, where the use differed substantially in detail from the German one (Keller 1978, 206). By the late nineteenth century, there had been major losses of German inflectional marking of grammatical relations. The definite article was no longer used with many more abstract terms, proverbs, and phrases. There was a considerable loss of the genitive inflection except in relationships between nouns, usually represented by -s, and total loss of the genitive in dialects and colloquial German. The instrumental case, which had generally vanished in OHG texts except in a few limited ways, was now wholly gone (Wells 1985, 232, 460). Today the German definite article is used with common class-nouns that name objects or represent their class or genus, but is not used when the class nouns express an indefinite plural or a general, abstract idea. Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 53 It is almost always omitted before proper nouns, unless, as in English, the proper noun is being emphasized (e.g., "CD-ROM is necessary" vs. "The CD-ROM that I use is necessary"). For a time, German authors were averse to borrowing French or other foreign words. But the lexical inflow was resumed in the twentieth century, and German periodicals were increasingly employing American abbreviations by the 1950s (principally alphabetisms, with some acronyms) , often with the zero article characterizing many English etyma. That is, as the etymon was usually articleless, its German form was not assigned a definite article; and the full form was seldom used, after the given author's initial identification. Some German abbreviations , outnumbering the borrowed ones but commonly modeled on American-style ones, have been similarly coined with a zero article. Actually, the coining of abbreviations in German, English, and many other languages is a major source of neologisms and an important process in modern word-formation (Cannon 1989). As these items, which are sometimes deliberate constructs, usually appear in a written German (or English, etc.) form of "specialist language," one should not ignore them as being a kind ofjargon irrelevant to the language in which they appear (Wells 1985, 538). Any current German scientific journal will normally contain many examples of articleless abbreviations , and the necessary precision in international communication sometimes entails a style and even syntax atypical of any current German variety. So, instead of collecting data from, say, a chemistryjournal , we necessarily turned to periodicals directed to a broad educated audience offering more representative data, which are nonetheless constrained by the same requirement of nonambiguity for the readers. This paper collects and analyzes the at least 326 abbreviations in eight recent issues of two such periodicals: Bild der Wissenschaft and Deutschland: Zeitschrift für Politik, Kultur, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. As Bonk (1999) and Wennrich (1976-80) list dozens of meanings for short items like AG, the AG in our texts would have been impossibly ambiguous without our identifying it among those dozens of candidates . As the meaning is often crucial to analysis and categorization, an extensive lexicographic search underpinned this mainly analytical study. Our purpose is to see if and how the data exhibit German grammatical gender, with an ancillary goal of shedding light on the pluralizing of English nouns in German. For example, our data suggest that American loans borrowed into Modern High German especially since World War II have helped to complete the standardizing of the 54Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer borrowed -s plural alongside the historical German -0, -e, -er, and -e(n) , which had been ongoing from Low German and French influences. Are our abbreviations influencing an accelerated leveling in the system of grammatical gender?1 If so, German is now undergoing significant morphological and even syntactic change, where economy and scientific precision join linguistic drift, feminism, and other motivations, in contrast to the mainly phonologically inspired leveling effected in Middle English. Grammatical gender has historically been an important feature in the formation of German nominal structures. This formation was somewhat independent of real-world factors of semantics and sex (HeIlinger 1995, 289; cf. numerous languages like Hungarian or Quechua where pronouns and modifiers show no gender). If our abbreviations indicate further development in German gender-leveling, will they offer impetus for the moving of German toward additional affinity with the long-leveled English nominal system, which is now based on distinctions of sex and animacy/inanimacy? Standard bilingual German -English dictionaries like Collins state unequivocally that "All German nouns are marked for gender in both sections of the dictionary" (1991, xv), thereby raising the problem of choosing a possible gender to be assigned to at least a borrowed abbreviation. Modern High German already exhibits numbers of clearly semantically based gender assignment of substantivized adjectives, whatever the underlying form of these terms. Examples are the masculine/feminine gender in der/die Kranke, Studierende, Vorsitzende, etc., and the triple gender in der/die/das Versicherte, so that the article automatically conveys the sex needed for the given referent, as in the English system. For abbreviations, the syntactic (rather than morphological) choice of definite article is normally determined by the gender of the German headword in the full form, or of its semantic equivalent if borrowed . The phonetic similarity to a German gender-related class can influence the choice, which is not a random choice that would involve memorization (Wells 1985, 274; see Corbett 1991, 7, 71-82). One can best ascertain whether a given loan takes a definite or zero article in standard German by analyzing it in current, representative contexts, after identifying it in the proper dictionaries. If the abbreviation and possibly even its full form never had an article, our data do not exhibit one (e.g., Collins 1991 specifies Aids as "no art, no pl"; cf. the das Aids 'See Pfeffer's eight-category German taxonomy (1987, 3-6), constructed from few abbreviations, and Cannon's 21-category English taxonomy (1987, 27). Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 55 in Duden 1976-81). Otherwise, excepting some rather fluid forms, a given item in our texts either always or never utilizes a zero article. Our ICE 'Inter-City Express' would presumably appear with derbecause Express is masculine, and is so specified in Meyer (1981-86). However, our collected usages of ICE contain syntactic elements that override any possible proof of leveling in the given structures, as will be seen, and so offer no rebuttal to Meyer. Our die ESA exhibits the "feminine" specified in Carstensen (1993-96), but our CD-ROM in "für CD-ROM" challenges his "feminine" for such structures. Such usage challenges the principle of grammatical gender for the numerous structures in which the abbreviations appear. Actually, many of our shortened items are either in the process of becoming proper nouns in at least certain structures (which seldom take an article but nonetheless can appear with gender markings, as in der grosse Mahlke) , or are already so. This paper describes the 326 items collected from two representative periodicals, offering a broad range of data in many disciplines . The Appendix lists the items and their full forms, and classifies them according to the presence of an initial article. It also specifies their location in the January and March 1995 issues of BiId, and in the August-October-December 1997 and the February-April-June 1998 issues of Deutschland. Finally, the Appendix locates them in four major dictionaries. In keeping with modern dictionary practice, Bonk (1999), Wennrich (1976-80), and Wendt (1967) omit a definite article that may be needed in certain contexts. Thus Wennrich, our principal German source, omits the article even when the item was created in German and continues in German form, rather than being either an English translation of the German creation, or the original English etymon that has been rendered into German. Thereby the scholar lacks a definitive answer to interesting questions like (1) what about gender from abbreviations entering German from English or other languages; (2) do they have the same gender as their full forms, or are there differences; and (3) is the gender (if any) for borrowed items consonant with that for the German-created full forms or abbreviations ? Bonk's primarily monolingual dictionary (1999) naturally omits all needed articles. Her omission equally conceals any needed article in her many recorded German full forms (and possibly in abbreviations ), thereby not informing non-native English speakers as to whether an English SDS 'scientific data system', say, requires an initial article. But her greatly larger English readership transcends any limited need for including articles in her hundreds of thousands of en- 56Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer tries in 3,403 pages, not to mention the complicated, space-consuming fact that some items require an article in certain environments but not in others. Excluded items In describing our 326 data, which we have analyzed according to their environments, we first set aside 178 items whose retention or nonretention of the definite article is governed by syntactic factors that shed no revealing light on possible leveling. These exclusions, constituting four groups, are symbolized by a hyphen [-] in the Appendix . The largest group consists of 89 items principally in the structure German article + full form + parenthesized abbreviation. Usually in apposition and thus noncontextual, they are typified by "die Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen (ZF) " and "das Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation kurz BZT." A few precede the full form ("die [IDC] International Data Corporation"), or identify appositions lacking the full form ("Berlin-Adlershof [IGZ])." Several appear with the German translation of the English loan ("Jesuiten-Flüchtlingsdienst [JRS]"), where, since the English Jesuit Refugee Service is not included , the German-speaking reader may have difficulty in understanding JRS. Interestingly, this English abbreviation is cited by the German author, not the 'JFD that the German full form would presumably provide. Two English full forms are assigned a German article ("die Long Duration Exposure Facility LDEF" and "das Massive-Parallel Signature Sequencing [MPSS]"), while others have an English or zero article ("The Institute for Genomic Research [TIGR]," "Electrical Power Research Institute [EPRI]"). Three of the German full forms have a zero article: the lists OTV and HBV (= "Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr" and "Handel, Banken und Versicherungen"), and BSL ("Buna SOW Leuma Olefin Verband") . Although such abbreviations have no article within their appositional parenthesis in our texts, one cannot predict whether the item will require one if used in a context. Only a few like NGOs can be pluralized with the English -s. However, some items appear both appositively and contextually . We have classified them with two other excluded groups, so as not to duplicate their description. Totaling 86 noun phrases, the two groups are more significant than the appositive kind because they have a context. One group is composed ofArticle + Modifier(s) + Abbrevia- Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 57 tion, where the modifier is an adjective and/or a noun. The modifying element evidently dictates that an article be used, even though the abbreviation is acting as the headword of the noun phrase and should be the dictator. So the included article offers no evidence as to whether it is needed when the given abbreviation appears in comparable structures lacking a modifier. Such items are sufficiently absorbed into German as to act as nouns in exercising concord over their modifiers in phrases. They exhibit the continued retention of number, case, and possible gender (see Wells 1985, 156). Another excluded group consists of 17 items, composed of Article + (Modifier) + Compound Noun. The compound has an initial abbreviation and noun, which acts as the headword because of its terminal position and thus overrides the abbreviation in governing concord. Only four of the 17 have a single adjective modifier ("das amerikanische PTO"), and none has a single noun used as an adjective. The others reflect the ease with which abbreviations fit into the sometimes complicated noun phrases of modern German. These consist of five compound nouns (e.g., "die Augsburger Tafel, e.V."), four items with Adjective + Noun ("ist der grosse Bruder CNN"), and one in the reverse (Tebcom= "die Fusion zwischen Telecom"). The single use ofFBR utilizes a modifier intrusive into a full form (in the noncontextual "um den amerikanischen Forschungsbrutreaktor FBR 1 ") , and IBIA derives from a modifier and clipped full form ("Sein eigenes Ingenieurbüro IBIA"). Sixty-nine other exclusions appear in a compound noun. Usually more complicated than the modifier kind, they are quite productive because of the vast number of nouns with which they can co-occur. Fifty-three, lacking non-article modifiers, evince the versatility of the abbreviations ("der AGF-Einstieg") . US occurs in the largest variety of compounds, with three in English ("die US-Airforce") and four in German ("das US-Unternehmen Dow"). The number 400 constitutes the noun in "der B747-400." There are three multiple nouns ("die OPECL änder Kuwait und Saudi-Arabien"). In "HTSL-Forschung ist Langfrist-Forschung," the otherwise feminine headword Forschung is a name. The structures in which PET, BATSE, and MARSAT are used lack a concurrent modifier and compound noun, but can fit into either group of noun phrases ("die [= relative pronoun] dort den Rohstoff PET" and "die PET-Masse," but not *"die Modifier Pet- Noun"). Fourteen items are the most complicated of the exclusions because the added noun headword has at least one modifier. Seven have a single adjective ("des amerikanischen F&E-Systems"), and two have a noun 58Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer ("mit dem Titel 'RTD Programmes'"). Three nouns form the compound in "der Industriewerkschaft IG Medien"; two, in the modified noun phrase in "im mexikanischen VW-Werk Puebla." Then there is the intricate "ein passables Ergebnis beim 'TOEFL-Test'." We have excluded three other items because they occur only in the indefinite plural, since German plural nouns with indefinite identity and number, like English ones, take a zero article. Hence we would not know whether the "[0] Post-Docs" in our texts predicts a singular "[0] Post-Doc" elsewhere; actually, it does not. ASIC appears only in "von ASICs," where the plural presumably outweighs the presence of the preposition, which usually requires a zero article anyway. A structure like "von ASICs" can easily mislead one, as ASIC takes no article instead of the presumably masculine der, as influenced by the German rendering of circuit as der Stromkreis. The contextless VRwould probably have the same zero as the normally neuter loan System, which, in our texts, takes the German plural -e rather than the borrowed -s that we have just seen, in a phenomenon entailing more investigation. As the presence of a number converts a unit of measurement into the definite plural, our 115 PS, mit sechs SFB2, and DM 128 (Collins 1991 and other sources mark DMas having no article) appear with a zero article , as well as in an indefinite plural. However, this trio belongs in Type 2 because of the definiteness and the numbers. Overall, while the 178 exclusions shed little or no light on the use of articles, they buttress the evidence from the tabulated items in our total corpus, by further showing the importance of abbreviations in educated writing. Tabulated items Our actual evidence for (non) leveling of gender consists of 148 items principally used in two structures: (1) (Article) + Abbreviation; and (2) Preposition (+ rare Article + Modifier) + Abbreviation; and an uncommon type in (rare Article) + Abbreviation + Conjunctional structure. They constitute the three types symbolized in the Appendix as 1-2-3: 68 with clearly marked gender because of an initial article in certain structures, 64 without the article (hence showing no gender in the structures represented), and 16 both with and without an article (and so perhaps in a presently undecided state). The 68 items with an article, composing our Type 1 , exhibit the following gender: 7 are masculine, 23 are neuter, and 38 are feminine. Some maintenance of the gender system is indicated by the fact that Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 59 four of the few masculine abbreviations are inanimate, in contrast to only four of the feminine ones and four of the neuter ones. The nouns that we traced back to MHG or OHG have retained their historical gender, without a change to neuter, as might have happened if the masculine or feminine gender of inanimate nouns were shifting toward a biologically based system. In newer nouns, like the neuter gender of das Automobil, biology might or might not have been involved in the assignment of gender to the feminine French etymon. In any case, the single occurrence ofthe unchanged neuter dasE-auto, in "... welche Funktion das E-auto erfüllen soll," negates the possibility of any leveling for this item. The retained, invariant gender of the 68 items is usually that of the German full form, particularly when the semantic equivalent of the item is well-known and determines the gender of the full form. Yet, as more and more English abbreviations are introduced and used without the Germans' knowing the German equivalent, so as to create a German full form, we find a zero article in the German use of the item. There are a few structures like "das International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis" (= IIASA), where the neuter Institut also borrowed from English explains the das initiating the full form. In many other structures, the articleless English full form is simply placed within quotation marks, avoiding the awkward insertion of a German article to replace the, which would be mandatory in English. Such an insertion would raise the possibility of double gender, since our items also include IIASA as the feminine die IIASA, in one of the few instances where the abbreviation's gender, when retained, differs from that of its full form. Our data exhibit no triple gender like der/die/das/ Versicherte. But it should be noted that in kinship terms like die Mutterand der Vater, grammatical gender frequently correlates with human biology (Hellinger 1995, 290) and so accords with natural gender. Most of our 68 items appear in at least one noun phrase where an article is the only other word (der DAX, die AEG, and das BIG). Ein Presse-Info and "auf einerDVD" the only usages of the indefinite article, shed no light on the important question of why the gender of the full form is retained, particularly if the abbreviation occurs only once in our data. Some items also appear in a noun phrase containing a modifier and/or terminal noun, structures that we have excluded and so disregard in our analysis of Type 1 items. Items like ERP offer empirical evidence of retained gender, as in the article found in both "dem ERP" and "aus dem ERP." One of six different prepositions appears in 15 of the 68 noun phrases exhibiting 60Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer an actual or contracted article: six with von or vom ("von der IAA"), four with in or im ("in die EU"), two with auf ("auf das Geo-engineering "), and three one-time usages ("bei der SPD," "für das IRP," and "zum Info-Highway"). The habit of giving gender to these 15 items must be strong, indeed, to overcome the prepositional deterrence, since none of the prepositional phrases contains an adjective or noun modifier. Various data show that our items are sufficiently syntactically adapted into the general language as to act as a genitive ("mit Gründung des IIC"), direct object ("Gerhard Raetz leitet das BIG"), nominal singular subject that exercises concord on the verb ("Das CDC hat nach dem Debakel ..."), and plural subject ("Die amerikanische AT&T und die BT haben ..."). Some insight into article retention is provided by most of the at least 28 items that are essentially literal English adoptions. BT, Geo-engineering , NASA, and UNESCO have no article in American English, because they are unique and usually noncount. ABC may be in transition, with the sometimes omitted before BBC (World Service) by Americans and even in broadcasts from Bush House in London. Excepting these four or five items, English usage may have influenced the German decision to maintain the article, with a German one substituted for the or a (ein MBA). EEG and DVD are count nouns and so can also take an indefinite article in English noun phrases like an encephalogram/EEG. In turning to the Type 2 items, one must beware of two kinds of structures that might seem to mandate a zero article, when, in fact, the language system requires a definite article. First, plurals in an environment like "[0] Post-Docs" or "[0] CD-Player können die Bord-Elektronik stören" exhibit the indefinite number dictating that Post-Doc and CD be classified as excluded items. "CDs hören kann," where CD developed from the feminine die CD-Platte, shows the influence of the English -s (instead of the historical German feminine -n). But as we have seen, the zero article in "[0] CD-Player können ..." rather than the original die from the full form, does not signal that CD is Type 2. CD may still be a feminine noun pluralizing with -s, as Collins (1991) states, besides the fact that Player acts as the plural headword in the noun phrase. The second caveat concerns a few old nouns that occur as the headword in an articleless, singular compound noun, in informal structures like "... musste [0] APS-Direktor Bob Kelly." Superficially, it would seem that Direktor has lost its historical masculine gender, perhaps with some influence from the APS in the compound; and the APS in this structure could conceivably then be classified as a Type 2 item. Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 61 However, we consider both this APS and the acronym Teresa in "... würde Teresa-Energie" as excluded items, chiefly because of their informality, even as many Americans frown at structures like "U.S. Senator Gramm." So derDirektor and die Energiewill presumably continue to retain their articles in the general language. In "Deutschlands grösster T-Shirt- und ...," the inanimate English loan Shirt already has a potential for natural gender because it was borrowed as a neuter noun. If an initial abbreviation like T- in productive noun compounds such as TShirt is affecting the gender of the headword of the compound, this would be a significant development in the general language, besides the effect of abbreviations that have been accepted into the general language but that usually began as specialist language. Most of the 64 Type 2 abbreviations occur in at least one structure that helps to explain the lack of an article. As indicated, the chief reason for the zero article is the item's occurrence as the headword in a prepositional phrase. A few appear with two different prepositions, such as von/an FPD and auf/bei BMW, or in duplicated usages (für MSDOS ) . Eleven different items occur with von. Für, mit, and an each appear with 5 different items (für BHKW, mit FIPS, an ISDN). There are 3 different ones with bei (bei SAP), 2 each with a/sand in (als DSF, in 3-D), and auf TNT. A few items have modifiers, which do not override the omission of the article generally dictated by the presence of a preposition . Thus the medial noun in "für [0] Schwerionenforschung GSI" (which might also be analyzed as the initial noun in a compound) retained from the full form, does not override the influence offür in the structure. DSF and SAP appear comparably in "als Spartensender Deutsches Sportfernsehen DSF" and "auf Platz zwei SAP." Besides sometimes appearing in prepositional phrases, an impressive 21 items are used solely with a zero article. These are esentially one-word proper nouns like UNEP. DB, EDV, and IWTZappear as titles, which are also already definite and so do not take a definite article. There are several borrowed English names like AOL, AT&T, DOW, MCI, and TV, where the lack of the in English triggers the zero article in German. PVC and RWE are the only neuter ones in this group. A few items occur in compounds where they may have influenced the gender of the other noun, as noted above: Bertelsmann/CLT, Spartensender Deutsches Sportfernsehen DSF, Weich- PVC, Super RTL, and TNT-Gehalt. Similarly, no article was assigned in the borrowing of English Free-TV, Pay-TV, and Web-TV. A non-noun terminal modifier can be added, as in DW-W weltweit. The zero article in DM 128-43 and TDB 5.0 is explained by the number serving as a noun headword. 62Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer Plural structures are articleless. Eight items appear with und ("Kopierer und Fax" — Fax was originally neuter). Two lists containing at least three nouns have a zero article: "United Airlines, Thai, [0] SAS"; and "(DVD), (DAB), (DBV)." We have mentioned the plurals made definite by the co-occurrence of a number: DM, PS, SFB2, and v. Chr. in 210 v. Chr. Finally, two other structures have a zero article: oder kurz .A-Ufe- (which uses German-style quotation marks) and the genitive Chinas CASC. Our 16 Type 3 items waver between Type 1 and Type 2, in an undecided state, since they sometimes occur with and sometimes without a definite article. Each appears with an article in at least one structure and so would be Type 1 except for its zero article in at least one other structure, a feature characterizing Type 2. Ten items appear in the singular, definite nominative: CD-ROM and PC (both also indefinite ), ECE, EMV(cf. the title "[0] EMV"), GUS, LFA, KKW, ORA, TNF, and USA. This structure would seem to entail retention of the article, except that two other items, ARD and IBM, occur with a zero article in the singular, definite nominative. Four items act as headwords in prepositional phrases: durch den DAAD and beim DAAD (cf. the singular nominative "[0] DAAD"), in ihreDNA (cf. vonDNA), durch die GMD (cf. Telecom und GMD), and mit dem ZDF (cf. two occurrences of ARD und ZDF). All five of the phrases containing the plural-rendering und lack an article: ARD und GMD, PC, ZDF, and USA. (USA also appears as a title and in the series "Europe, [0] USA undJapan.") Like the Type 2 items, the chief articleless structure for Type 3 is a prepositional phrase, with the previously cited items and 10 others appearing in auch ohne KKW, aufCD-ROM/EMV, bei IBM, für CD-ROM/ GUS/LFA, mit Otto's ECE, von LFA/PC/ TNF. There are four other articleless structures: "... sind sich DAAD," "... hat nur IBM," "kurz ORA genannt ..." and "wenn sie TNF ausgesetzt sind... ." Conclusions and implications To project how and why some abbreviations may be contributing to the loss of grammatical gender in Modern High German, we collected a corpus of 326 representative items. We excluded 178 items (54.6%) that offer no evidence about the possible use of a definite article , because they appear only in up to four structures where syntactic factors override any question of gender. As few of our other 148 items Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 63 occur in these structures, we conclude that abbreviations (and, by extension , possibly nonshortened nouns in the general language) have evidently not surmounted these four old barriers against the loss of gender. The 68 abbreviations (45.95% of the tabulated 148) comprising Type 1 have a definite article in the structures represented, and so maintain the gender of the noun headword from their full form. As the various authors choose the same gender for a given item in the structures, a gender-assignment system seems to be at work, where native speakers share a mechanism to fit neologisms and perhaps some borrowed items into their language system (see Corbett 1991, 7). Sixteen items appear in the accusative case in a phrase introduced by one of six different prepositions, in contrast to a larger number of items with a zero article occurring in sometimes identical prepositional phrases (both Type 2 and Type 3 items). The several proper nouns with articles must be marked as exceptions, because of the much larger number of proper nouns among Type 2 and Type 3 items. The fact that at least 23 are adoptions of English items requiring the may have influenced the adding of a German article; however, NASA and three other names were assigned a German article despite the fact that they do not take the in English. As only seven of the 68 items are masculine , it seems that masculine items may be more likely to lose their article, than are the feminine or neuter ones; and, of course, neuter ones name objects that have no sex. Overall, except when used in one of the four excluded structures, our 68 Type 1 abbreviations retain the gender that was assigned when the full form was well-known in German or was a borrowed item originally requiring an article. The 64 items comprising Type 2 add to the many abstract terms, proverbs, and phrases among the genderless non-abbreviations in the general language. Many are part of the growing number of English borrowings for which the exact English full form is not known by Germans, for whom it can be difficult to find a proper German equivalent. Rather than choosing a gender at random, where the otherwise generally systematic and predictable gender system cannot operate even as an exception , the common result is not to assign an article to the loan, whose phonetics and meaning may fall outside a native speaker's assignment system primarily based on morphological and/or phonetic shape, meaning, or subcategorization according to the domain (Steinmetz 1986, 209-11 and 190-91). Indeed, if gender were arbitrary, a demanding , expansive memorization of the gender for new borrowings would be entailed. So a Nullartikel is perhaps a better solution for such loans 64Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer than attempting to fit them into the many gender rules that have been proposed in recent decades, as in Steinmetz's three sets. Unfortunately , except for scattered examples like Corbett's Russian ones (1991, 40-41), the extensive research on gender does not discuss abbreviations , which nonetheless play a significant role in languages spoken in technological cultures. Our Type 2 items most often occur as the object of a prepositional phrase. They utilize eight different prepositions; but we cannot generalize that these trigger the employment of a Nullartikel, because all but aL· and mit also appear as a Type 1 item. Von is by far the most common for both types. Twenty-one of the remaining Type 2 items, which are usually proper nouns, are chiefly titles or borrowed names like 7Vthat do not take thein English. The 21 may be genderless in the given author's mind and require no special syntax to permit the zero article. Also, a unit name with a number (115 PS, BMW 316) , as well as a plural phrase in a series or following und, use a zero. The 16 Type 3 items occur in noun phrases characterizing both Type 1 and Type 2 in the structures represented. Usage has not yet determined whether they will eventually become one or the other, or remain in their present dual usage. So the 68 items with a definite article and the 64 with a zero article total roughly 90% of our tabulated abbreviations , in almost equal proportions. Semantics offers no explanation as to why an item loses or keeps its article in certain structures, as a name denoting an organization, governmental unit, system, etc., is as likely to be Type 1 as Type 2. Nor do currency and productivity provide much revelation, since our items are usually too recent for statistics to be available. The items exhibit few variant forms because of the need for consistency and nonambiguity, but have produced many new compounds and only a few derivatives like ?-lifer. Our corpus might easily be doubled if we inspected another eight issues of the two journals consulted for this study. Wennrich's Supplement records a second meaning for even the long acronym CAESAR 'Computerized Automation by Electronic System with Automated Reservations'; and he further expanded the 150,000 Anglo-American and German abbreviations in his four 1976-80 volumes by publishing a separate, additional volume in 1980. Admittedly, our study, involving the borrowing of nouns from a language without grammatical gender, into a language with such a system , offers no evidence that German inanimate abbreviations are accepting natural gender. Many nouns in the general language are experiencing a shift in marking for definiteness. And large numbers of our Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 65 items denote corporate entities or processes, which have taken on the features of already definite titles, as seen in many old English examples like the UNvs. NATO. So our 64 items with a zero article can only suggest , not prove, that they may be influencing the weakening of the German system of grammatical gender in certain structures when used in the general language. The massive Duden (1976-81) records only a fourth of our total corpus. Yet genderless abbreviations, in a general consistency from author to author in various structures, constitute a highly useful part of the German lexicon and provide rich analogical influences for leveling in non-abbreviations. Many such items have moved into and are moving in greater numbers into the closed gender for special reasons, and can act and are likely acting as Corbett's Trojan horses among unabbreviated nouns that are not special cases in the general language (1991, 98). Such items are not an ephemeral, aberrant phenomenon; the history of dictionaries of abbreviations published since the pioneering Acronyms Dictionary (1960), published by Gale Research, demonstrates an ever more explosive growth. These neologisms are not obscure creations, for many have assumed key communication roles in disciplines across the spectrum. They document and illustrate the flood of borrowed abbreviations into German in the last six decades, as well as of the German-created ones that, in toto, place German alongside American English, the leader in this fascinating modern neologistic development that has spread to many languages. Besides these interesting conclusions, our study, which is necessarily delimited because of space and time, poses at least two significant implications for future research, if the study were expanded to book-length. First, as our data cover a very short span of time, the study might be extended over several time periods. Then one could prove whether our indicated leveling in certain structures is truly ongoing and expanding, as the dictionary evidence seems to suggest. More popular sources, such as German newspapers, could be included . And detailed comparisons might be made, in view of the fact that syllabically pronounced items like our LMBV convey gender through the third person, whereas our PVC is genderless in other third-person abbreviations. How do these compare with the gender conveyed in the first and second-person pronouns in the general language ? Second, our limited corpus shows general German agreement in choice of articles and in form of items, an agreement suggesting that German technicians in Discipline A use the same item for a given 66Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer organization, procedure, etc. How international is that agreement? A comparable study of Science and Lancet could show whether American and British technicians use the same item in that discipline in the years that we covered. We saw, for example, that a German author eschewed theJFD that the full-form translation of the English JRS 'Jesuit Refugee Service' could have provided. A scanning of scattered pages in Wennrich (1976-80) and Bonk (1999) discovers numerous comparable examples . Wennrich records Bonk's WAREM, but does not define it as 'Water Resources Management and Engineering'; his 'WasservorräteVersorgung und Verwaltung' might but does not provide a differing German "WWand thus two different abbreviations for the same meaning across cultures. He renders the full form for CLO 'Centre/Center for Information and Documentation' as 'Zentralstelle für Dokumentation und Information,' without giving a competing German ZDI. If ZDIwere used by Germans, would English speakers observe it as a synonym or possible replacement for their CLO} And French and Spanish periodicals could inform us as to whether borrowed English abbreviations may be influencing those systems of grammatical gender. Engel and Tertel's grammar (1993) shows awareness of the leveling that is occurring in the grammatical gender of some unabbreviated items in general German. In the Fachausdrücke part of their Anhang , they generalize the alternatives of the definite, indefinite, or zero article: "Es sind definiter, indefiniter und Nullartikel zu unterscheiden " (1993, 283). Our 64 items with a Nullartikel, adding another dimension to their generalization, constitute a significant number of non-gender marking situations. Let us suppose that a technician uses "[0] IT" ('information technology' = 'die Informationstechnologie') in research and writing and then, out of habit, consistently repeats the articleless IT at home. Can the usage affect the family use of this common English borrowing to produce an "IT hat ..."? If so, the effect would transcend the originally technical abbreviation, as it moves into general use and, conceivably, can even affect the gender of the longtime feminine die Technologie in at least some structures. Acknowiedgment The authors are indebted to Byron Koekkoek for valuable revisionary suggestions. Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 67 Appendix 1 : 326 Abbreviations, Full Forms, and Their Locations The following abbreviations (including acronyms) and their often originally English full forms have been collected from eight issues of two representative German periodicals. The January-March 1995 issues of Bild der Wissenschaft are symbolized as l:x and 2:x, where ? represents the page number, sometimes with multiple occurrences on a page. The August-October-December 1997 issues of Deutschland: ZeitschriftfürPolitik, Kultur, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft are symbolized as 3:x, 4:x, and 5:x; and the February-April-June 1998 issues as 6:x, 7:x, and 8:x. Thus in the text of this paper, we have omitted page references . Most of the non-German sources are borrowed from American English, but include loans from Dutch, French, Japanese, Latin, and Russian. If the abbreviation is originally German, the article (if any) accompanies its full form. The 178 items symbolized by a hyphen at the left margin are omitted from the statistics on which this paper is based, because their (non) retention of the article is determined by aspects that reveal nothing about any gender-leveling. The three statisticized types, symbolized as 1-2-3, total 148. They designate, respectively, 68 items used with an article, 64 without one, and 16 both with and without one. The last designation in entries is the location in the major standard dictionaries, symbolized as B, C, D, and W (Bonk 1999, Carstensen 1993-96, Duden 1976-81, and Wennrich 1976-80, respectively ). For economy, an Xindicates inclusion in all four dictionaries. - AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science 3:35 - BW - ACE das angiotensin converting enzyme 2:96-97 - B 2 ADT die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Technologie 4:27, 29 1 AEG die Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft 3:27, 4:25, 5:21 - B 2 AG die Aktiengesellschaft 3:48; 5:19, 22; 6:11; 8:9 - BD - AGF Assurances Générales de France 6:5 - B 2 Aids acquired immune deficiency syndrome 2:15, 87; 6:37 - BCD 1 AJC American Jewish Committee 7:13 - B 2 ?-life artificial life 2:40 2 AMD1 die Amerikanische Chipfabrik Dresden 3:25, 6:45 - AMD2 Advanced Micro Devices 3:25 - B 2 AOL America Online 5:39, 47 - B - AOSIS Alliance of Small Island States 2:65 - B - APS American Physical Society 2:84 - B 3 ARD die Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlichrechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands 4:43, 60-61; 5:61; 7:25-26, 30 - BD 68Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer - ARI Autofahrer-Rundfunk-Information 3:13 - W -ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange 1:43, 96 -BDW - ASEM die Asiatisch-Europäische Medienzunft 3:33 - ASIC application specific integrated circuit 6:45 - B - ASS die Acetylsalicylsäure 4:45 - W 2 AT&T American Telephone and Telegraph 1:7, 6:35 - B - AUMA Ausstellungen und Messen im In- und Ausland 6:66 1 AWI das Alfred-Wagener-Institut (für Polar- und Meeresforschung) 2:82 - B747 Boeing 747 (Flugzeug) 1:108 - BAFF das Berliner Arbeitszentrum für Folteropfer und Flüchtlinge 8:16 1 BASF die Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik 2:32-34, 6:27 - B - BATSE Burst and Transient Source Experiment 1:103 - B 2 B.A.U.M. der Bundesdeutsche Arbeitkreis für umweltbewusstes Management 2:67-68 1 BBC British Broadcasting Corporation 3:33, 7:25 - BD - BDA die Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Arbeitgeberverbände 4:39 - bdw das Bild der Wissenschaft 1:4, 6-7, 28, 43, 86, 96; 2;6, 7 - BGA der Bundesdeutsche Gross- und Aussenhandel 6:14 2 BHKW das Blockheizkraftwerk 1:36 1 BIG das Berliner Innovations- und Gründerzentrum 4:25, 27 - Bio biology/biological 2:15 - X - BIP das Brutto-Inlandsprodukt 2:69 - W - BiRi-Tech Bite Resolution Improvement Technology 1:25 - BMBF das Bundesforschungsministerium 6:26 1 BME die Betriebsgesellschaft Mitteleuropäischer Eisenbahnen 6:11 - BMFT das Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie 1:105, 107; 2:102 -W 2 BMW die Bayerischen Motoren Werke 1:30-31, 2:100, 3:23, 4:33 - BW - BMZ das Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit (und Entwicklung) 6:39, 8:66 - BPA [popularly] das Bundespresseamt 6:60 - W - BR der Bayerische Rundfunk 7:25 - BDW - BSL Buna SOW Leuma Olefin Verband 5:22 1 BT British Telecom 6:35 - B 2 BTX der Bildschirmtext 2:80 - BD - BVG die Berliner Verkehrsbetriebsgesellschaft 6:21 - B - BZT das Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation 1:46 - CAD computer-aided design 1:11 - X Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 69 2 CAESAR Center for Advanced European Studies and Research 4:1 1 - B 2 CASC China Aerospace Corporation 7:10 - B - CD compact disk 1:50; 3:39, 66; 4:41 - BCD 1 CDC Center for Disease Control 2:15 - BW - CDG die Carl-Duisburg-Gesellschaft 6:39 3 CD-ROM compact disk read-only memory 1:494, 96; 3:38; 4:19 - BCD 1 CDU die Christlich Demokratische Union 5:12, 29; 7:5; 8:26-27 - BD - CE Conformité Européenne 1:48, 50 1 CeBit das Centrum für Büro- und Informationstechnik 3:7, 8:45 - W - CERN Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire 2:79 2 CLT Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Teledifusion 4:43, 7:28 2 CNG compressed natural gas 2:25 - BW - CNN Cable News Network 7:29 - B - CO2 carbon dioxide 2:75 - B - COE Centre D'Observation Economique 8:35 - COF Columbus Orbital Facility 8:42 - B 2 CR/LF Carriage Return/Line Feed 1:43 - B 1 CSU die Christlich-Soziale Union 5:29; 6:5, 12 - BD 3 DAAD der Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst 2:51; 3:35; 4:66; 6:51; 7:47, 49 -BDW 2 DAB Digital Audio Broadcast(ing) 4:41-42 - B - DAG die Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft 8:22-23 - D - DAI das Deutsche Archäologische Institut 2:28 - W 1 DAX der Deutsche Aktienindex 3:22, 4:23, 7:13 - B 2 DB die Deutsche Bundesbahn 6:11 - BD 1 DDR die Deutsche Demokratische Republik 2:53, 87; 3:14; 4:17, 27; 5:29; 6:11, 40-41, 57, 59; 7:16, 26; 8:54 - BD 2 DDV der Deutsche Direktmarketing Verband 7:22 - DED der Deutsche Entwicklungsdienst 6:39 - DESY das Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron 1:71 - W 2 DFl der Digitale Fernsehsender 1 4:43 1 DFG die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2:53; 4:13, 67; 5:42 - DFN das Deutsche Forschungsnetz 2:83 - B - DGB der Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund 4:39 - BD - DIHT der Deutsche Industrie- und Handelstag 4:23 - D - DIW das Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung 8:23 - BW - DKFZ das Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum 1:89 - W - DLRG die Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft 4:16, 7:19 - D 2 DM die Deutsche Mark 1:43, 96; 3:26 - BDW 1 D-Mark die Deutsche Mark 6:21, 7:20, 8:3 - DW 3 DNA deoxyribonucleic acid 2:118; 4:21; 6:27, 30 - BW 70Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer 2 DOW Dow Chemical Company 5:22 - B - DPG die Deutsche Postgewerkschaft 8:22-23 1 DPZ das Deutsche Primatenzentrum 2:14 2 DSF Deutsches Sportfernsehen 7:27 - DTB die Deutsche Terminbörse 3:22 - BD - DVA Document(ation) Validation Audit 2:120 - BW 2 DVB Digital Video Broadcasting 4:41 1 DVD Digital Versatile Disk 4:41-42 - B - DW der Deutsche Volkshochschul-Verband 8:39 2 DW-tv die Deutsche Welle-television 7:27 - E- electronic (as in E-mail) 5:34 - BW 1 ?-auto electric auto 2:54 3 ECE Economic Commission for Europe 6:8-9 - B 2 EDV die Elektronische Datenverarbeitung 1:5, 110; 4:20; 5:48; 6:20 BCD 1 EEG electroencephalogram 1:28 - BDW - EFRE European Federation for Reemployment Assistance 7:32 - EG die Europäische Gemeinschaft 7:38 - D - EMBL European Molecular Biology Laboratory 6:27 - B 3 EMV die Elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit 1:4, 46-49 - W - EP European Parliament 5:32 - B - EPL Epson laser printer 1:25 - EPO erythropoietin 2:119 - B - EPR European Pressurized (Water) Reactor 1:33, 35 - EPRI Electric Power Research Institute 1:57 - BW 1 ERP European Recovery Program 3:40, 42 - BW 1 ESA European Space Agency 2:45, 5:45, 8:42 - BCD 1 ESO European Southern Observatory 2:48 - BW 1 EU European Union 1:93, 3:14-15, 6:31-32 (+ 7 more) - B 1 EuGH der Europäische Gerichtshof 4:31, 6:32 - e.V. eingetragener Verein 7:21 - D 1 EVP die Evangelische Volkspartei 5:32 - B - EWG die Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft 6:15 - BD - EWI das Europäische Währungsinstitut 3:32 - EWU die Europäische Währungsunion 6:18, 20 - EZB die Europäische Zentralbank 6:19; 8:5, 31 1 EZU die Europäische Zahlungsunion 3:43 2 FAX facsimile (transmission) 4:20 - BDW 1 FAZ die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 4:33 - DW - FBR der Forschungsbrutreaktor 1:32 - FC der Fussballclub 3:51, 8:5 Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 71 - FCKW der Fluorchlorkohlenwasserstoff 2:33, 65; 6:36 - D - FDP die Freie Demokratische Partei 5:29, 8:28 - BD - F&E facilities and equipment 2:35 - W - FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association 8:62 - BD 2 FIPS die Flächen-Intensität pro Dienstleistungseinheit 2:86 2 FPD Fiat Panel Display 2:7 - BD - FU die Freie Universität (Berlin) 1:22 - BW 2 GARIOA Government AID and Relief in Occupied Areas 3:42 - BW 2 GAU grösster anzunehmender Unfall 1:35 - DW 2 GBI die Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaftliche Information 2:80 - B 1 Geo-engineering geographic engineering 2:72 - GEW die Gewerkschaft für Erziehung und Wissenschaft 8:22-23 1 GFZ das Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam 5:67; 7:4, 40-42 2 GmbH Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung 5:19 - BD 3 GMD die Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung 2:32; 3:9; 4:9, U; 6:66 - B 1 GRO Gamma Ray Observatory 1:102-3 - B - GSF die Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung 1:33 - W 2 GSI die Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung 1:11, 71 1 GTZ die Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit 5:33, 6:39 3 GUS die Gemeinschaft unabhängiger Staaten 2:52-53, 5:38 - GWB das Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen 7:39 - BW - Haribo Hans Riegel Bonn 4:6 - HBV Handel, Banken und Versicherungen 8:22-23 - HDL high-density lipoprotein 2:97 - BW 2 HELIOS heteropowered earth-launched interorbital spacecraft 1:93 -W - HIV human immunodeficiency virus 2:87, 4:21, 6:37 - BC - HR der Hessische Rundfunk 7:25 - BW 1 HRK die Hochschulrektorenkonferenz 2:52-53 - HTSL die Hochtemperatur-Supraleitung 1:6-7 - HWWA das Hamburgische Weltwirtschaftsarchiv 4:13 - W 1 IAA die Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung 5:4 1 IAB das Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 3:13 - W - IBIA das Ingenieurbüro für elektronische Industrie-Anlagen 4:27 3 IBM International Business Machines 1:6; 2:6, 32, 34, 117; 4:20; 7:19 -BCW - IC integrated circuit 6:45 - BW - ICE InterCity Express 3:29, 7:34 - BCD - IDC International Data Corporation 2:80 - B 2 IDN Integrated Digital Network 1:45 - BW 3 IFA die Internationale Funkausstellung 3:12-13; 4:41, 43; 5:67 72Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer - IG die Industriegewerkschaft 4:39 - BD - IGZ das Innovations- und Gründer-Zentrum 4:27 - HAS International Institute for Advanced Studies 2:35 - B 1 IIASA International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis 2:59 - BW 1 IIC Industrial Investment Council 3:29 - ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation 7:10 - INEM das Internationale Netzwerk für umweltbewusstes Management 2:67 1 Info-Highway Information Highway 2:77 - INMARSAT International Maritime Satellite 2:82 - BW 1 IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2:59 - B 1 IRP das Integrierte Rheinprogramm 2:21-22 2 ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network 2:12-13, 79; 5:47 - BD - ISI das Institut für Systemtechnik und Innovationsforschung 8:18 - W 1 ISS International Space Station 8:41 - B 2 IT information technology 4:20, 6:44 - BW - ITT International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation 3:29 - IWF der Internationale Währungsfonds 7:23 2 IWTZ das Internationale Wissenschafts- und Technologie-Zentrum 2:53 -JRSJesuit Refugee Service 5:14 - KAS die Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung 6:21 - B 1 KAVA die Kommission für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Archäologie 2:26, 28 - KEF die Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs 7:26 - KEK die Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich 7:28 1 KfW die Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau 6:39 - B - KHI das Kunsthistorische Institut 8:36-37 1 KJS die Kinder- undJugendsportschule 4:63-64 - W 3 KKW das Kernkraftwerk 1:33, 36-37, 114 - DW - KWU die Kraftwerk Union A.G. 8:38 - BW - LAN local area network 1:45 - B - LDEF Long-Duration Exposure Facility 2:44 - BW - LLM [Latin] Legum Magister 4:21 - B 1 LMBV Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft 6:43 - MAP mitogen-activated protein 2:14 - B 1 MBA Master of Business Administration 8:34 - BW 2 MCI Microwave Communications of America, Inc. 6:34 - B - MDR der Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk 7:26 - DW Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 73 - MIDER die Mitteldeutsche Erdöl-Raffinerie 3:25 2 MIPS die Material-Intensität pro Service-Einheit 2:86 - MITI (Japanese) Ministry of International Trade and Industry 1:57 - B - MPI das Max-Planck-Institut 2:51 - BW - MPSS Massive Parallel Signature Sequencing 6:27 2 MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System 1:43, 94 - B - MTV Music Television (Channel) 4:60 - B - NaFa die Nationale Freiwilligen Agentur 7:19 1 NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1:15, 103; 2:44-45 - X 1 NDR der Norddeutsche Rundfunk 7:25-26 - BDW 1 NEDO New Energy and Technology Development Organization 2:66 - NGC New Galactic Catalogue 2:98 - BW - NGO nongovernmental organization 5:14 - B - NORAD North American Air Defense Command 2:43 - BW 1 NTT New Technology Telescope 2:46 - B - n-tv der Nachrichtenkanal-tv 7:28 2 O.B.U. Ökologisch Bewusste Unternehmensführung 2:67 - OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2:65 - BCD - OECI (var. of OECD) 7:23, 8:13 1 OEEC Organization for European Economic Cooperation = OECD 3:43 - BC - OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries 2:63 - BCD 3 ORA die Oberrheinagentur 2:18, 20 - ORB der Ostdeutsche Rundfunk Brandenburg 7:26 - D - ÖTV Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr 8:22-23 - PAL Phase Alternation Line 4:13 - BW - PAMINA (die Arbeitsgemeinschaft) Rheinpfalz, Mittlerer Oberrhein, Nord-Elsass 4:37 3 PC personal computer 1:48, 50, 61, 94; 2:12, 76, 79; 4:18; 6:45 - BCD 1 PDS die Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus 8:27-28 - BD - PET polyethylene terephthalate 2:31-32 - BW - PIN personal identification number 8:45 - BCD - PNEM Provinciale Noord Brabantse Energie Matsshippi 8:38 - Post-Doc postdoctorate/-al 2:40, 6:66 - C - PR public relations 4:13 - X 1 Presse-Info Presse-Informationsblatt 6:66 2 PS die Pferdestärke 1:60, 7:23 - DW - PTB die Physikalisch-technische Bundesanstalt 1:69 - BW - PTO Patent and Trademark Office 6:29 - B 74Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer 2 PUR polyurethane 1:17 - BW 2 PVC polyvinyl chloride 2:102, 6:36 - BDW - RAF die Rote Armee Faktion 6:65 - BD - RGZM das Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum 5:55 - W - RIKEN Rikagaku Kenkyüjo = (Japanese) Institute of Physical and Chemical Research 2:81-82 - RISC reduced instruction set computer 1:25, 2:35 - B - RTD Radio Television Database 3:38 2 RTL Radio Television Luxembourgeoise 4:60; 7:24, 27-28 - BW 2 RWE das Rhein-Westphälische Elektrizitätswerk 5:19, 8:22 - B 2 SAP Systemanwendungen der Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung 4:33, 6:20 2 SAS Scandinavian Airlines System 3:22, 5:23 - BDW 2 SATl der Satellitenfernseher 7:27-28, 48 - SDR der Süddeutsche Rundfunk 7:25 - BDW 1 SED die Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands 2:87 - BD - SET Strategie European Technologies 6:23 1 SFB1 der Sender Freies Berlin 4:60, 7:25-26 - BDW 2 SFB2 das Sonderforschungsbereich 7:45 - W 1 SFG die Strukturförderungsgesellschaft (Bonn) 4:9-10 - SIS der Stellen-Informations-Service 4:23 2 S.M. Susan Mitchell 2:114-15 2 SNI Siemens-Nixdorf 6:45 1 SPD die Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands 3:5; 4:5, 17; 5:26 (+ 5 more) - BD - SR der Saarländerische Rundfunk 7:25 - BDW - SRI Stanford Research Institute 1:57 - BW - STA Science and Technology Agency 2:83-84 - B - STANKIN die (Moskauer) Staatliche Technologie-Universität 2:54 - STS space transport(ation) system 2:44 - BW 2 SWF der Südwestfunk 7:25 - BW - SWR der Südwestdeutsche Rundfunk 7:25 - T-1 Technology 5:39, 47 - T-2 (or) Tee (as in T-Shirt) 4:23 - C 2 TARA Tsukuba Research Alliance Center 2:35 2 TDB Task Database 1:96 - B - Telecom (British) Telecommunications 6:34 - BDW - Teresa [acronym] Tethered Remover Satellite 2:45 - TGV Train á Grande Vitesse 7:33-34 - B 1 TGZ das Technologie- und Gründerzentrum 4:25-29 2 3-D three dimensional 1:89-94 Abbreviations and Grammatical Gender in Modern High German 75 - THW das Technische Hilfswerk 5:33 - DW - TIBB das Technologie- und Innovationszentrum Beethoven-Stadt Bonn 4:11 - TIGR (The) Institute of Genomic Research 6:29 - B 3 TNF Tumor Necrosis Factor 2:1 1 - B - TNO Nederlandse Centrale Organisatie voor Toegepast Natürwetenschappelijk2 :102-B 2 TNT trinitrotoluene 6:50 - BDW - TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language 8:33 - BW -TTN (das Institut) Technik-Technologie-Naturwissenschaften 5:43 - TU die Technische Universität (Berlin) 1:21, 2:54-55, 4:25 - BDW 2 TV television 3:33; 6:59; 7:24, 28-29 - X - TZ das Technologiezentrum 4:30 - UEFA Union of European Football Associations 3:50 - BCD - Ufa die Universum-Film Aktien-Gesellschaft 7:28 - BD 1 UN United Nations 1:81, 4:8-9, 6:13, 8:13 - X - UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 2:62 - B 2 UNEP United Nations Environment Programme 6:13 - BW 1 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 2:72 - X - UNHCR the United Nations High Commission (er) for Refugees 8:16 -BW 1 UNO United Nations Organization 3:49 - BCD - US United States 1:27, 57; 2:33, 76, 115; 3:12; 7:20 - BCW 3 USA United States of America 1:5, 7, 11, 24, 34, 110; 2:6, 15, 33, 35, 65, 76; 5:19, 45 (+ 6 more) - X - VAT der Verband der Anbieter von Telekommunikationsdienstleistungen 3:39 2 v. Chr. vor Christo/Christus 5:53 - DW - VDA der Verband der Automobilindustrie 6:22 - VDI der Verein Deutscher Ingenieure 1:24 - BD - VDP der Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter 4:57 2 VEBA die Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks-AG 5:19 - B - VFA der Verband forschender Arzneihersteller 6:29 - VfB der Verein für Bewegungspiele 3:51 1 VHS die Volkshochschule 8:39 - DW - VIAG die Video-Aktien-Gesellschaft 3:39 - VR Virtual Reality 1:27 - B - VW der Volkswagen 7:23 - BDW 2 WAREM Water Resources Management and Engineering 7:49 76Garland Cannon and J. Alan Pfeffer - WDR der Westdeutsche Rundfunk 7:25 - BDW 1 WEF World Economic Forum 7:12 - B - WHU die Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung 8:33 1 WM die Weltmeisterschaft 6:5; 8:62, 64 - D 1 WWF World Wide Fund for Nature 6:66 - BD - WWP Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft-Politik 1:28 1 WWW World-Wide Web 2:78, 5:34 - B -X = unknown, an uncalculable symbol (used by W. C. Röntgen in 1895 because he did not know what caused X-rays) 5:45 - B - XMM X-ray Multi Mirror 5:45 - B 3 ZDF das Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen 2:80; 3:33; 4:43, 60 (+ 4 more) BDW - ZEF das Norddeutsche Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung 4:12 - ZF die Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen AG 4:23 - B 1 ZKM das Zentrum für Kunst- und Medientechnologie 6:46-49 References Bild der Wissenschaft. January and March, 1995 [symbolized as l:x and 2:x, where ? is the page number; see headnote to Appendix] . Bonk, Mary Rose, ed. 1999. Acronyms, Initialisms àfAbbreviationsDictionary. 26th edn. 3 vols. Detroit, MI: Gale Group. Cannon, Garland. 1987. Historical Change and English Word-Formation: Recent Vocabulary . Bern: Peter Lang. _____. 1989. "Abbreviations and Acronyms in English Word-Formation." American Speech 64: 99-127. _____. 1995. "Innovative Japanese Borrowings in English." Dictionaries 16: 90-101. _____. 1996. TheJapanese Contributions to theEnglish Language. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 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