Re: 'acronym' semantics

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Hi,


Am Donnerstag, 10. April 2003 14:37 schrieb Simon Jessey:
> ----- Original Message -----
> Isn't that a bit like saying all of your <strong> elements have the same
> fundamental semantics as your <em> elements, but with a presentational hint
> that "emphasis should be stronger"? I've seen suggestions that
> <strong>...</strong> should be replaced with <em><em>...</em></em>.
>
> Back to acronyms and abbreviations. What about specifying the type of
> abbreviation like this? -
>
>
> <abbr type="initialism"
>       title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr>
>
> <abbr type="abbreviation"
>       title="Department">Dept.</abbr>
>
> <abbr type="acronym"
>       title="Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code">BASIC</abbr>
>
> <abbr type="recursive"
>       title="VISA International Service Association">VISA</abbr>
>
> <abbr type="mnemonic"
>       title="Web Standards Project">WaSP</abbr>
>
> <abbr type="acronym"
>       title="Abbreviating by Cropping Remainders Off Names to Yield
> Meaning">acronym</abbr>
>
>
> I know it looks a little long-winded, but it gives the purists an option to
> give deeper meaning to an abbreviation, does it not?
It does.
Still left:
Is XML an acronym or not? At least it is a name of a language. Some say it is 
(I'd also say that), and some say it isn't.

And GNU? It is a recursive acronym, so the type attribute should be NMTOKENS 
or %AttrTypes; to enable <abbr type="recursive acronym" title="GNU is not 
UNIX">GNU</abbr> and <abbr type="recursive acronym" title="pine is no longer 
elm">pine</abbr>.

But on the other side, I think it would be extremely seldomly used.  The 
different kinds of abbreviations are not distinct, the are overlapping. Even 
abbrevations / acronyms are overlapping with normal unabbreviated words, look 
at Laser and Radar, they are becoming normal words, the abbreviations are 
only known in special language, to linguists and to some freaks. Go out on 
the street and ask people what Laser and Radar stand for. Or ask "I give you 
four words: Radar, Laser, Nato and Uno. Pick all those that are abbreviations 
or acronyms."


Bye

Christian


P.S.: For a funny acronym go to 
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=arse


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Received on Thursday, 10 April 2003 10:08:08 UTC