[Lingtyp] query: 1st syllable deletion

[Matthew Dryer]

Thrasher in his dissertation discusses many examples that are not truncated questions:

·         (1.16) Gotta go now.
·         (1.17) See you next Tuesday.
·         (1.18) Too bad about old Charlie.
·         (1.19) No need to get upset about it.



From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Ian Maddieson <ianm at berkeley.edu>
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 at 8:11 PM
To: David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] query: 1st syllable deletion
I’m struck by the fact that most of the English examples cited are truncated questions, where intonation
may signal the sentence type, so the V/S inversion is redundant. I can think of quite a few examples,
such as “Going home?”, “Making a pie?”, “Raining again?”, even “Drink?”

Ian


On Nov 1, 2022, at 03:58, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de<mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>> wrote:

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

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Ian Maddieson

Department of Linguistics
University of New Mexico
MSC03-2130
Albuquerque NM 87131-0001




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