1016: Omitting Redundant Words Sep 20, 2017

Though in general people rely on numerous grammatical and lexical conventions in order to understand what is being said, people are also very good at supplying information on their own that is left out. For instance, if someone were to say "I have coffee before work", it is understood that there is an implied '...starts' after 'work', or "...going to..." before 'work', or something such as that. Even though 'work' is not a time in the way that 'Tuesday' only relates to dates, people can assume from context or from habit what the intention would be. This also happens because of grammar, quite often. Sometimes, if the verb is obvious—perhaps within a relative clause when the verb was already supplied—it will simply be omitted from speech, to little or no confusion on the part of the listener. In some languages or dialects, the verb 'to be' used existentially will be left out because it is sensible given the context. Speakers of both Latin (when it was spoken) and African American English would leave out the existential 'to be' because in constructions such as "he is smart", the verb is obvious enough to be unnecessary, making "he smart" just as understandable, and more efficient to say. In other languages where the subject is indicated by the verb like in Latin, subjects like 'I' will often be omitted because it would be redundant (to say).