Der, die oder das? Zum Genusproblem bei Kurzwörtern

Abbreviations enrich the vocabulary of languages in general and can be considered an established phenomenon. They decline, undergo composition and form plural. Furthermore, they fulfill many particular functions in language. The present paper deals with the gender of German abbreviations borrowed from other languages. In particular, the author analyses the relation between the gender of an abbreviation and the gender of its full form in an attempt to answer the question if an abbreviation is borrowed with its gender or if the gender is allotted to a given abbreviation in the process of its translation into German. The paper also discusses which method should be chosen to avoid complete arbitrariness in the use of the gender of such abbreviations. Thus, the present paper focuses on an important issue that in contemporary linguistics still awaits a comprehensive treatment.