Thinking about the number of times that we use incomplete sentences. Of course the previous comment was an ideal example, why did I drop the subject and the correct form of the verb to be? Again why do we miss out words when we speak and even though we understand what we are trying to say, does everyone else? Context is obviously a big part of understanding speech as are paralinguistic features, the slow rising of an eyebrow for instance. Is this why text messages often fail and social media posts cause offense without meaning to? Are spoken forms ever going to work when written down? Is it the lack of backup features or is it because the written word tends to linger until anyone and everyone can misinterpret it and put their own spin on it.
So back to missing words, which ones often disappear. What about asyndeton? Is it those poor boring connectives, conjunctions or linking words that slip into the abyss or even overly flowery adjectives, comparatives or superlatives? The honest answer is that I am unsure whether there is even a rule on what gets lost but I trust that we will still do it either from speed or general laziness. My money is on my initial thought of 'I am'.
Next blog may need to focus on our dropping of letters. Another linguistic minefield.
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