Dear Readers,
In my blog posted May 2015, I wrote about sentences with missing verbs. This month I am going to focus on other examples of missing words, including verbs. Got time? Read on...
Example: In an episode of the now defunct TV show "Touch," a woman says to a gentleman guest arriving at her house for dinner, "Hey, didn't know you had a car." *Where's the "I" in that statement?
Example: Harvard educated street cop Jamie Reagan, on the TV show "Blue Bloods," was not happy with his partner's less than "by the book" tactics. He tells his partner, "I come from a family of cops. Good cops, great cops. Proud of that." He continues, "Now on, you make a move, you check with me first." *He left out two words that I can see. "I'm proud of that" and "From now on." OK, he's a street cop, but he has a college education from Harvard. He should speak better than that.
Example: I saw this on a billboard asking, "IRS after you?" *Again, two words are missing. It should read, "Is the IRS after you?"
Example: While watching "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," I came across two different instances where people left out words. (1) Head investigator D.B. Russell comes into the office of lab rat Hodges and asks, "You text me?" *Where's the "did" in that question? (2) CSI Nick Stokes is questioning a man who has been living in an underground bunker. Nick tells him he doesn't like the way the man treats trespassers. Trying to find out if there is a link between this guy and a murdered camper, Nick asks, "Is that what happened with Carl Abrams? He trespass?" *Here again, the missing word is "did." As a language investigator, I am curious to find these missing words.
I am quite aware that in spoken language, we often take shortcuts to save time. I just thought I'd point out these obvious ones. Okay with you?
