[Lingtyp] query: 1st syllable deletion

[David Gil]

Adam,

You could indeed be right that these are different phenomena. But I'm 
not sure, and I must confess that the rather limited response that I 
have received so far to the query suggests that maybe there's something 
interesting going on here that hasn't received due attention.  (Though 
there's always the alternative that it's my query that is missing out on 
something obvious.)

On (1) I share your judgements, but don't know what to make of this.  On 
(2) and (3) I'm not sure what lies behind the labels that you offer.  In 
particular, with regard to (2), it seems to me that — in my variety of 
English at least — the auxiliary "are" cannot be dropped when it is not 
in initial position: contrast (2) with the affirmative

(2') ?* (I see) you Ø going home

This in turn is what's behind my gut feeling that (3) isn't just a case 
of (pardon the phrase) "ordinary pro-drop", but rather the outcome of 
the same process that's going on in (1) and (2), which to me has an 
almost phonological flavour.

Best,

David


On 01/11/2022 11:07, Adam Schembri wrote:
> I was wondering if this is generalising across what are actually different phenomena.
>
> (1) The first might be construction specific. I mean, I can say '(What) the fuck is going on?'. Maybe '(What) the hell is going on?', but I'm not sure. '(What) in god's name is going on?' sounds very unlikely to me.
> (2) Isn't this variable auxiliary reduction/expression?
> (3) Isn't this variable subject pronoun expression? There's quite a bit of research on this in variationist sociolinguistics and the factors that condition it across different languages (I have done work on this for Auslan, the majority sign language of Australia's deaf community, where it's very common). The factors that condition it are not going to be the same factors as in (1) and (2).
>
> Adam
>
> On 01/11/2022, 09:00, "Lingtyp on behalf of contact at jocelynaznar.eu" <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org on behalf of contact at jocelynaznar.eu> wrote:
>
>      Hi David,
>
>      just some questions for clarifying the query, but do you think this is
>      valid only when:
>      - the 1st syllabe is a whole word?
>      - when all the other information removed can be inferred from the situation?
>
>      Also, would you qualify those are elipsis? or do you have another
>      interpretation in mind?
>
>      Best,
>      Jocelyn
>
>      Le 28/10/2022 à 14:11, David Gil a écrit :
>      > Dear all,
>      >
>      > English seems to have a rule which, under particular conditions, allows
>      > for the first syllable of an utterance to be deleted.The first example
>      > below is from a movie that I saw last night, the next two are made up:
>      >
>      > (1) (What) The fuck happened to you?
>      >
>      > (2) (Are) You going home yet?
>      >
>      > (3) (I) Think it's gonna rain
>      >
>      > And there's also the formulaic "Wish you were here".
>      >
>      > My questions:
>      >
>      > 1. Has anybody written about this? Seems like it could be interestingfor
>      > a number of reasons.
>      >
>      > 2. Are there similar phenomena in other languages? (Haven't seen
>      > anything like it in the other languages I happen to be familiar with.)
>      >
>      > Thanks,
>      >
>      > David
>      >
>      > --
>      > David Gil
>      >
>      > Senior Scientist (Associate)
>      > Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
>      > Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>      > Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
>      >
>      > Email:gil at shh.mpg.de
>      > Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
>      > Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
>      >
>      >
>      > _______________________________________________
>      > Lingtyp mailing list
>      > Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>      > https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp

-- 
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302