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strathspey@strathspey.org:44609

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Alexandre Rafalovitch

Alexandre Rafalovitch

Re: Emcee

March 9, 2006, 3:30 p.m. (Message 44609, in reply to message 44597)

On 3/9/06, Pia <xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote:
> I too find acronyms annoying, and have and will stress in committees that I
> find acronyms in minutes, reports and general speech during meetings
> unacceptable as it delays and distracts the thought process.

The research has shown that the acronyms do cause the breaks in the
thought process if they are unknown or conflicting with other meanings
(like the QC discussed). However, once you know what the acronym means
for the context, it has its own semantic load and actually helps out
by triggering concept parsing faster. And the same applies to longer
phrases such as Mayday, which is recognised without having to know the
French original.

In the IT (sorry, information technology) world, the abstructions are
so high and piled on each other, that spelling everything out may
really get in a way of conversation. Whether it is the same for other
fields I don't know, but I suspect it might.

Regards,
   Alex.

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