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A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds.. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term ...
could not couldn’t’ve: could not have cuppa: cup of daren’t: dare not / dared not daresn’t: dare not dasn’t: dare not didn’t: did not doesn't: does not don’t: do not / does not [4] dunno (informal) do not know / don't know d’ye (informal) do you / did you d’ya (informal) do you / did you e’en (poetic) even e’er (poetic ...
A related ambiguity is questions with the form of yes–no questions but intended not to be. They are a class of questions that encompass indirect speech acts. The question "Can you reach the mustard?" is an example. In form and semantics, it is a straightforward yes–no question, which can be answered either "Yes, I can" or "No, I cannot".
In these cases it is difficult to know whether the resultant formation should be treated as a clipping or as a blend, for the border between the two types is not always clear. According to Bauer (1983), [ 6 ] the easiest way to draw the distinction is to say that those forms which retain compound stress are clipped compounds, whereas those that ...
As for whether y'all'dn't've is a real contraction, the closest thing I've heard to it is the slurring of "You wouldn't've" at the beginning of a sentence. I think y'all'dn't've would make no sense if spoken as it lacks the wou sound, and so ends up sounding like ya'll didn't've which is not a valid contraction. "Didn't have" works, but "didn't ...
Negative questions are formed similarly; however, if the verb undergoing inversion has a contraction with not, then it is possible to invert the subject with this contraction as a whole. For example: John is going. (affirmative) John is not going. / John isn't going. (negative, with and without contraction) Isn't John going? / Is John not going?
Contractions are certainly not used in academic writing, and I would never use contractions in a formal letter. The form cannot should always be used, however; and the distinction between cannot (negating can, used when can't would have been used in spoken or less formal language) and can not (negating the following verb [most of the time ...
The first English grammar, Bref Grammar for English by William Bullokar, published in 1586, does not use the term "auxiliary" but says: All other verbs are called verbs-neuters-un-perfect because they require the infinitive mood of another verb to express their signification of meaning perfectly: and be these, may, can, might or mought, could, would, should, must, ought, and sometimes, will ...