Abstract:

This paper takes the civil engineering industry terms which are formed by abbreviation as the research object. We classified the abbreviations of civil engineering industry as three main word-formation methods: contraction method, omnibus method, and English initial word method. We also analyzed the causes of the civil engineering industry acronyms from the following four aspects: extent of simplicity, workers’ educational level, innovation of technology and management, and policy of industrial development. Furthermore, we discussed the evolution path of civil engineering industry acronyms from the perspective of system linguistics, and explained how civil engineering industry acronyms embodying the language of economics principle from the perspective of communication system model in social informatics.

Key words: abbreviations, civil engineering, linguistic economics, evolution