[Lingtyp] query: 1st syllable deletion

Tue Nov 1 21:12:23 UTC 2022

There is actually a dissertation on this phenomenon:

Thrasher, Randolph H. Jr. 1974. Shouldn't Ignore These Strings: A Study of Conversational Deletion, Ph.D. Dissertation, Linguistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Cat Butz <Cat.Butz at hhu.de>
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 12:51 PM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] query: 1st syllable deletion
My suggestion was that the deletion process is morphosyntactic rather
than phonological, i.e. that it's about morphemes/constituents rather
than syllables, which I was trying to showcase by the two-syllable
examples, but your explanation does make sense (I'm assuming you meant
"[d͡ʒə] have any luck?"). In the meantime, I had come up with another
example with three syllables, "(It was a)bout time.", but even that
could be viewed as two-step process where first /ɪt wɔz ə-/ is shortened
to [∅zə] and then that syllable is deleted. I'll let you know if I think
of anything else interesting. In any case, it seems like a challenge to
distinguish a phonological first-syllable deletion process from a
morphosyntactic one, but that's what we're about, I guess.
---
Cat Butz (she)
HHU Düsseldorf, General Linguistics
Institute of Language and Information

Cat Butz (sie)
HHU Düsseldorf, Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Institut für Sprache und Information

Am 2022-11-01 10:58, schrieb David Gil:
> Nice examples, Cat.  Though if the gist of these examples is to
> suggest that deletion can apply to two syllables and not just to one,
> then I would offer an possible alternative analysis whereby your two
> sentences involve the deletion of a reduced monosyllable, applying to
> forms such as
>
> [zðæt] feel good, baby?
> [jə] have any luck?
>
> I look forward to reading the Gerken article mentioned by Adam, which
> seems to capture my intuitions that whatever is going on here is at
> least partly of a phonological nature.
>
> David
>
> On 01/11/2022 11:30, Cat Butz wrote:
>> To me, it feels more like a morphosyntactic thing rather than a
>> phonological one. Consider e.g.
>>
>> (Does that) Feel good, baby?
>> (Did you) Have any luck?
>>
>> ---
>> Cat Butz (she/they)
>> HHU Düsseldorf, General Linguistics
>> Institute of Language and Information
>>
>> Cat Butz (sie)
>> HHU Düsseldorf, Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
>> Institut für Sprache und Information
>>
>>
>> Am 2022-10-28 14:11, schrieb David Gil:
>>> 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 interesting
>>> for 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
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>
> --
> 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
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