Kurzwörter in jugendorientierter Online-Werbung
Abbreviated Forms in Youth-Oriented Online Advertising

Author(s): Ajla Memović
Subject(s): Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, Marketing / Advertising, Stylistics
Published by: Društvo germanista u Bosni i Hercegovini (DGuBiH) / Germanistenverband in Bosnien-Herzegowina (GViBH)
Keywords: advertising language; abbreviations; online advertising; youth-related communication; linguistic economy;
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the use of abbreviated forms (Kurzwörter) in youth-related German online advertising texts. The analysis focuses exclusively on textual elements of advertisements, particularly headlines, slogans and short promotional texts, while visual and multimodal components are not systematically considered. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of a corpus of 20 publicly accessible German-language online advertising texts collected in the period 2020–2025. The abbreviated forms identified in the corpus are classified according to their formal types (clipped forms, syllabic shortenings and initialisms) and analysed with regard to their textual position and communicative function. Within the analysed material, abbreviated forms occur primarily in highly condensed text segments such as headlines and short promotional statements. They can be interpreted as contributing to linguistic economy and stylistic condensation. The study provides a descriptive overview of abbreviation usage in youth-related online advertising texts and outlines methodological limitations as well as directions for further research.

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