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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 02.11.22 um 11:33 schrieb Randy
LaPolla:<br>
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cite="mid:135FF336-C47B-40D3-889D-E2BC635FAD03@gmail.com">
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Good question, David!
<div>Not a matter of phonetics or morphology, though. </div>
<div>Possibly a simple pragmatic phenomenon where predictable
elements, especially topics, can be left unspoken. </div>
<div>Common in many languages. </div>
<div>Not considered “grammatical” in English, but maybe English is
changing. <br>
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<div dir="ltr">Randy</div>
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Judging from German, Randy seems to be on the right track here. See:<br>
<br>
Lehmann, Christian 1991, “Grammaticalization and related changes in
contemporary German”. Traugott, Elizabeth C. & Heine, Bernd
(eds.), <i>Approaches to grammaticalization</i>. Vol. II: Focus on
types of grammatical markers. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: J.
Benjamins (Typological Studies in Language, 19:2); 2:493-535. <nobr>[
<a
href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246338410_Grammaticalization_and_related_changes_in_contemporary_German">download<img
src="http://localhost/fundus/pdf.gif"></a> ]; section 5.2.</nobr><br>
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Best,<br>
Christian<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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<td>E-Post:</td>
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moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a></td>
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<td>Web:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.christianlehmann.eu">https://www.christianlehmann.eu</a></td>
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