Posted: Sep 15, 2010 11:26 am
logical bob wrote:katja z wrote: Still, even in formal English, some incomplete sentences are possible (note that incomplete is a technical term and doesn't mean ungrammatical or incorrect or anything like that):
"Goodbye!"
"Yours sincerely"
But these are abbreviations too, from "God be with you" and "I am yours."
Yes diachronically speaking they are derived from full sentences, but from the point of view of the modern language (synchrony), they are full verbless expressions in their own right.
I asked the question because I was thinking about signs without grammar - a middle finger, blowing a kiss, rolling eyes etc and wondering how the same function can be served by formal language. Even though it derives from a full sentence perhaps "goodbye" is now such a sign, like "ciao," (the etymology of which I don't know).
The gestural examples you give are closer to interjections, most of which are not abbreviations of "full" sentences, even diachronically, but independent vocalizations (think "Ouch!"). They are a close vocal analogue of (conventional) gestures - gestural and vocal communication do share a number of traits and are typically closely linked in face-to-face communication (not in writing though, which is why we use a number of punctuation signs to make up for the absence of gestures and intonation to organise and clarify linguistic utterances). These vocalisations ("vocal gestures"?) stand outside the morphosyntactic system, just like gestures, but unlike these, they can be pulled into syntax: "He ah'ed and hmm'd and finally said that he would think about it." As to the question whether they constitute a sentence, it depends on how you define a sentence, but they do constitute independent utterances and bear the conventional marks of a sentence in writing (capital letter at the beginning, end punctuation mark).
Oh, and "ciao" comes via Italian from a Venetian phrase meaning "(I'm) your slave".
