33. Contractions
A contraction is a word
that is formed by combining two or more words which often occur
together in speech. In the process of this combining, one or
more segments (i.e. vowels and/or consonants) of the component
words are phonetically altered, reduced, or omitted entirely.
Dictionary-recognized
contractions
Some English contractions are
well established and are included in dictionaries, such as do
not → don't, I am → I'm, it is
→ it's, we would → we'd. Here is a
list of some of the most common contractions
which have a recognized form; at the following links, about the
same list is classified into positive, negative and
other contractions.
These established contractions are used in the same form in most
dialects of English, including General American (GA) and
Standard British English (RP). Although some style books advise
you to avoid contractions in writing, this is not necessary
unless you are writing in an extremely formal style.
Informal
contractions (not in most dictionaries)
Beyond the recognized
contractions that are acceptable in writing, there are a number
of informal contractions, such as going to →
gonna, want to → wanna, should have
→ shoulda, have to → hafta, kind of → kinda,
sort of → sorta. You will hear these in
very casual speech, and see them used at times in comics and
jokes, but they are not found in most dictionaries, and should not
be used in most kinds of writing. Here is a fun list of some
very casual informal
contractions. (Keep in mind that some of these
pages are not intended for specialists in linguistics, and they
are not written in a linguistically rigorous way.) Here is a
page that discusses contractions, from an excellent e-book on
language; here is
another discussion of informal contractions.
Informal contractions differ from
dialect to dialect; the ones on this page and listed in the
pages linked to from here are typical of North American
English. Other dialects, such as Standard British English, may
have their own distinctive sets of informal contractions. Here
are some RP examples of informal contractions
exhibiting voicing assimilation, with sound
files. Use of informal contractions also varies from individual
to individual and according to the situation. If English is not
your native language, you should learn these forms as an aid to
listening comprehension, but you should avoid using them
yourself, unless you are very close to native level in your
English speaking ability. Don't try to run before you can walk!
Using
contractions
Make sure you only use
contractions you have heard a large number of native speakers
use. Making up your own contractions will not only make your
speech sound sloppier, but you may not be understood at all, and
your listener may form a lower opinion of your English ability
because of it! Although contractions are due to a kind of
'sloppiness' of speech – which in fact saves effort in places
where complete clarity is not required – they are highly
rule-governed and they follow established convention.
Historical
contractions
Contracted
forms can change over time, for example, it
is used to be contracted as 'tis, but today we
say it's; 'tis is used only in literature or
jokingly. It was used to be contracted as 'twas,
but in modern English there is no contracted form for it was;
you must use the full form.
Here is a page with lots of
excellent information on English contractions, both current and
historical:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/apostrophe/contractions
The
relationship between contractions and their corresponding full
forms
You may have been told that
contracted forms mean the same thing as their corresponding full
forms, e.g. that don't means the same as do not.
The basic, literal meaning of the two expressions is of course
the same, but think about what differences there may be between
the two forms pragmatically. Think of how you feel when
someone says Don't go. and then how you would feel if
they said Do not go; or how about I don't want to do
it. as opposed to I do not want to do it. What
different effects do the two forms have on you as a listener? Of
course, the tone of voice used with each form will make a big
difference in the interpretation of the message as a whole. For
example, a non-contracted form with a neutral tone of voice may
sound simply childish or slow-witted, but one combined with a
stern tone of voice may sound angry, controlling, or
threatening. In any case, however, the contracted form and its
corresponding full form are used in different situations to
convey different metamessages (i.e. what is implied by
the message rather than stated outright; 弦外之音), and you as both
a listener and speaker need to become sensitive to this.
Note that in most cases, the contracted
form is the unmarked form. That means that it is the most
appropriate form for most situations, and does not usually
carry an additional message with it such as impatience, anger,
or limited IQ. So in contrast to the advice just given regarding
the informal contractions, you should make a real effort
to use the dictionary-recognized contracted forms in
your own speech as much as possible to avoid misinterpretation
by others of what you say.
Contractions
in Mandarin and Southern Min
Contracted
forms appear in many languages, including Mandarin and Southern
Min. Think of how in casual conversation you pronounce
expressions like: 我馬上來 wo3
ma3shang4 lai2 'I'll be there right away'; or 腳踏車 jiao3ta4che1
'bicycle' in Mandarin; and 不要 跟人講
mai2 ka7 lang5 (kang5) kong2 in Southern
Min. Can you think of other examples?
Contractions
in French, German and Spanish
Have you learned some
contractions in your second foreign language(s)? Here is a very
brief and clear outline of the rules for contraction in
French, with lots of examples. Some common French
examples are: ce est = c'est 'this is', ne
ont = n'ont 'they don't have'. Examples from German: zu
der = zur 'to the'; ist es = ist's 'is
it'; so etwas = sowas 'something like that'.
Here is a video on German
contractions. Spanish has
only two formal contractions: a el = al 'to
the'; de el = del 'of the'.
Which
words tend to become contracted
Note how it is usually function
words, which carry a low information load,
that have the strongest tendency to be contracted. In Mandarin,
it is often the second element of a three-syllable
phrase or intonation unit that is elided (省略, 縮讀). All
kinds of contraction affect the information density and
rhythm of a language by compressing more information into
fewer syllables. Use of contractions thus shortens the length of
the utterance as a whole while increasing its relative semantic
weight.
The more common kind of phonetic
assimilation in English is anticipatory assimilation, in
which a sound(s) is (are) affected by a sound or sounds which
come(s) after it. An example of this is the nasalization
of vowels that occur before nasal consonants, as in jam,
man and sing. In contraction, however, we have
encountered perseverative assimilation, in which a sound
is influenced by a sound which occurs before it, for
example, the voiced final consonant in is becomes
devoiced when followed by the voiceless stop in it's.
Perseverative assimilation also operates in the rules for
forming regular plurals, possessives and third
person singular verb forms in English. Do you remember
what these rules are? The following page offers a quick review.
Next: Phonological rules for English
plurals and more
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