Singkatan

[Joseph Cathcart]

Wondering if someone could point me to any resources or work done on
'singkatan' (abbreviations) in Indonesian (e.g. Puskesmas: Pusat Kesehatan
Masyarakat, Krismon: Krisis Moneter). Some questions:-

(1) have there been attempts to classify such abbreviations?
(2) are there 'official' critera/guidelines for coining such terms?
(3) are new 'singkatan' chiefly derived from English loan words?
(4) are there particular language domains where 'singkatan' are common?

It seems to me that this phenomenon occurs with particular frequency in
Indonesian/Malay, but I would be glad to hear about the situation in other
languages.

Thanks,

Joe Cathcart
Language Technology Group
Macquarie University

Phone: +61 2 9850 6345
Fax: +61 2 9850 9529
Email:  josephc at ics.mq.edu.au <mailto:josephc at ics.mq.edu.au>