No subject

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

from the Palo Alto Community Awareness newsletter, 5/15/06:

WE NEED YOUR HELP:
MIDTOWN ROBBERY AT ATM,
2750 Middlefield Rd
15May06
1:47am

A victim used the ATM. Returning to her car when a black male ran
towards her carrying a silver revolver.
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it took me a  moment to realize that the second second was a
truncated version of "She was returning to her car when..."  one
variety of what some of us in the trade call Initial Material
Omission (formerly Deletion).

arnold

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org