A contraction is the shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters.[1] In traditional grammar In linguistics, traditional grammar is a theory of the structure of language based on ideas Western societies inherited from ancient Greek and Roman sources. The term is mainly used to distinguish these ideas from those of contemporary linguistics. In the English-speaking world at least, traditional grammar is still widely taught in elementary, contraction can denote the formation of a new word A word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme (e.g. wolf), but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form (e.g. the English plural morpheme -s) from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic effect. This often occurs in rendering a common sequence of words or, as in French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in, in maintaining a flowing sound.
In strict analysis, contractions should not be confused with abbreviations An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase. For example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv. or abbrev or acronyms Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters or parts of words (as in Benelux). There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms (see nomenclature), nor on written usage (see orthographic styling). While popular (including initialisms), with which they share some semantic Semantics is the study of meaning. It typically focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for and phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with abstract, grammatical functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance.[1]
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English
An informal type of contraction occurs frequently in speech and writing, in which a syllable is substituted by an apostrophe and/or other mode of elision, e.g., can't for "cannot", won't for "will not". Such contractions are often either negations with not or combinations of pronouns with auxiliary verbs, e.g., I'll for "I will". At least one study has sought to analyze the category of negative informal contractions as the attachment of an inflectional suffix.
| Full form | Contracted | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| not | –n't | |
| am | –'m | |
| are | –'re | |
| is | –'s | |
| does | ||
| has | American English only contracts forms of to have when used as auxiliaries In linguistics, an auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. In English, the extra meaning an auxiliary verb alters the basic form of the main verb to have one or more of the following functions: passive, progressive, perfect, modal, or dummy | |
| have | –'ve | |
| had | –'d | |
| did | ||
| would | ||
| will | –'ll | |
| of | o'– | used mostly in o'clock |
| it | 't– | Archaic |
| you | –ya, –ja, –cha | Very informal in writing |
| — | –'em | Contracted from hem, but used for modern them |
Informal speech sometimes allows multiple contracted forms to pile up, producing constructions like wouldn't've for "would not have". Another stereotypically informal contraction is ain't Ain't is a colloquialism and a contraction originally used for "am not", but also used for "is not", "are not", "has not", or "have not" in the common vernacular. In some dialects it is also used as a contraction of "do not", "does not", and "did not" .[citation needed], for "am not" or "is not".
A commonly used English contraction of two words that does not fall into either of the above categories is let's, a contraction of "let us" that is used in forming the imperative mood Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality. It is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more than in the first-person plural (e.g., "Let's go [somewhere]"). Use of the uncontracted "let us" typically carries an entirely different meaning, e.g., "Let us go [free]". "Let us" is rarely seen in the former sense and "let's" is never seen in the latter one.
Informal contractions are, by their nature, more frequent in speech than writing, e.g., John'd fix your television if you asked him. Contractions in English are generally not mandatory as in some other languages. It is almost always acceptable to write out (or say) all of the words of a contraction, though native speakers of English may judge a person not using contractions as sounding overly formal.
Common single-word contractions include: St for "Saint" (in proper names), ma'am for "madam" and fo'c'sle for "forecastle Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast". St meaning "Street" (in proper names) is sometimes given a full point to eliminate any confusion with "Saint". Forms like gov't (or govt) for "government" and int'l (or intl) for "international" are purely written contractions.
Writers of English commonly confuse the possessive A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a possessive adjective and a noun. For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively. Like other pronouns, possessive pronouns can thus obviate the need to repeat nouns form of the pronoun it with its compounded contractions. The possessive form (its) has no apostrophe, while the contraction of it is or it has does have an apostrophe (it's). The same is true of the possessive form of "you" (your) with its contraction you're for "you are". See List of frequently misused English words This is a list of English words which are commonly misused. It is meant to include only words whose misuse is deprecated by most usage writers, editors, and other professional linguists of Standard English. It is possible that some of the meanings marked non-standard may pass into Standard English in the future, but at this time all of the.
The linguistic function of contractions is similar to and overlaps that of portmanteau words A portmanteau (pronounced /pɔrtmænˈtoʊ/ , plural: portmanteaus or portmanteaux) or portmanteau word is used to mean a blend of two (or more) words or morphemes and their meanings into one new word. In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph which represents two or more morphemes. Some forms of syncope In phonology, syncope is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel may also be considered contractions, such as wanna for want to, gonna for going to, and others common in colloquial speech.
Contractions may perform the same function as abbreviations. Strictly, an abbreviation is formed by omitting the ending of a word, for which a full stop A full stop or period (American English) is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences (period) is substituted, e.g., Lieut. for "Lieutenant A Lieutenant is a commissioned officer in the military and paramilitary. It is also used in fire services, emergency medical services, security services, and police forces as an officer rank. In many countries, the naval rank is senior to the army rank". Contractions omit the middle of a word, and are generally not terminated with a full point, e.g., Ltd for "Limited". However, US style uses more points than British style does, e.g., commonly, in Jr. instead of Jr for "Junior".
Contractions are used sparingly in formal written English. The APA style guide American Psychological Association Style is a set of rules developed to assist reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences. Designed to ensure clarity of communication, the rules are designed to "move the idea forward with a minimum of distraction and a maximum of precision." The Publication Manual of the American prefers that contractions, including Latin abbreviations, not be used in scholarly papers, and recommends that the equivalent phrase in English be written out. An exception is made for the Latin abbreviation et al. This page lists direct English translations of Latin phrases, such as veni vidi vici and et cetera. Some of the phrases are themselves translations of Greek phrases, as Greek rhetoric and literature reached its peak centuries before that of ancient Rome (for et alii, "and others"), which may be used with citations outside parentheses.[2]
Chinese
Contractions exist in Classical Chinese Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. Classical Chinese was once used for almost all formal correspondence before and during the beginning of the 20th century, not only in China but also,, some of which are used in modern Chinese.
| Full Form[3] | Transliteration[4] | Contraction[3] | Transliteration[4] | Notes[3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 之乎 | tǝ wā | 諸 | ta | In some rarer cases 諸 can also be contraction for 有之乎. 諸 can be used on its own with the meaning of "all, the class of", as in 諸侯 "the feudal lords." |
| 若之何 | nak tǝ ghāj | 奈何 | (?) ghāj | |
| 於之 | ʔā tǝ | 焉 | ʔan | 於之 is never used; only 焉. |
| 之焉 | tǝ ʔan | 旃 | tan | Rare. |
| 于之 | wa tǝ | 爰 | wan | Rare. The prepositions 於, 于, and 乎 are of different origin, but used interchangeably (except that 乎 hū can also be used as a final question particle). |
| 如之 | na tǝ | 然 | nan | |
| 曰之 | wat tǝ | 云 | wǝn | |
| 不之 | pǝ tǝ | 弗 | pǝt | |
| 毋之 | mǝ tǝ | 勿 | mǝt | 弗 and 勿 were originally not contractions, but were reanalyzed as contractions in the Warring States Period The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 475 BC to the unification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. It is nominally considered to be the second part of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, following the Spring and Autumn Period, although the Zhou Dynasty ended in 256 BC, 35 years earlier than the. |
| 而已 | nǝ lǝ́ | 耳 | nǝ́ | |
| 胡不 | ghā pǝ | 盍 | ghāp | 胡 is a variant of 何. |
| 也乎 | (?) wā | 與 | lha | Also written 歟. |
| 也乎 | (?) wā | 邪 | lhia | Also written 耶. Probably a dialectal variant of 與. |
| 不乎 | pǝ wā | 夫 | pa | 夫 has many other meanings. |
French
The French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in has contractions to facilitate ease of speech, similar to English, as in C'est la vie ("That's life"), where c'est stands for ce+est ("that is"). In general, any monosyllabic word you see e will contract if the following word begins with a vowel. For example the common words que (qu'-), je (j'-), and de (d'-). Unlike in English, however, these contractions are mandatory: one would never say (or write) *ce est or *que elle.
Certain prepositions can also be merged with masculine and plural direct articles, such as au for à le, aux for à les, du for de le, and des for de les. As with other contractions, these are mandatory.
In informal speech, a personal pronoun may sometimes be contracted onto a following verb. For example, je ne sais pas ("I don't know") may be pronounced roughly chais pas, with the ne being completely elided and the j of je being mixed with the s of sais.[original research?]
Italian
In Italian, prepositions merge with direct articles in predictable ways. The prepositions a, da, di, in, su, con and per combine with the various forms of the direct article, namely il, lo, la, l', i, gli, gl', and le.
| il | lo | la | l' | i | gli | (gl') | le | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | al | allo | alla | all' | ai | agli | (agl') | alle |
| da | dal | dallo | dalla | dall' | dai | dagli | (dagl') | dalle |
| di | del | dello | della | dell' | dei | degli | (degl') | delle |
| in | nel | nello | nella | nell' | nei | negli | (negl') | nelle |
| su | sul | sullo | sulla | sull' | sui | sugli | (sugl') | sulle |
| con | col | (collo) | (colla) | (coll') | coi | (cogli) | (colle) | |
| per | (pel) | (pello) | (pella) | (pell') | (pei) | (pegli) | (pelle) |
- Contractions with a, da, di, in, and su are mandatory, but those with con and per are optional.
- Words in parentheses are no longer commonly used, but some still exist in common expressions such as colla voce.
- Formerly, gl' was used before words beginning with i, however it is no longer in common use.
The words ci and è (form of essere, to be) is contracted into c'è, there is.
- C'è un problema - There is a problem
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Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:34:04 GMT+00:00
Towerlight (blog) ... (and we all know how painful that is) to think that [The] Towerlight, where I once served as Features Editor, would foster such gross grammar errors. ...
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of my life one in the classroom the other in books it seems that the Gods have smiled upon me and finally brought them together into one convenient little package pun intended I was at Jamba Juice the other day and happened upon a small sac labeled simply as everybody s nuts And while I have been told that the s is merely denoting a contraction I beg to differ and
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ue, 01 Oct 2002 07:00:00 GM
How to use quotemarks, apostrophes | . contraction. posession English . grammar. correct usage Sunday, 03/02/2008 by nik. After seeing yet another Bobs Taxi's (arrrggh!), I finally decided I could no longer sit back and do nothing. ...
