Contraction (grammar)
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In traditional grammar, a contraction is the formation of a new word from two or more individual words. This often is a result of a common sequence of words, or, as in French, to maintain a flowing sound. However, contraction has gained a broader meaning both in linguistics and other areas of language research. Based on the latest definitions, contraction is shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters. [ISO 4:1984]
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[edit] English
In English, contractions are usually but not always either negations or combinations of pronouns with auxiliary verbs, and in these cases always include an apostrophe. Negations are generally in the form of doesn't for does not, or wouldn't for would not, where the apostrophe stands for the missing "o" in not (this is not always the case, as in won't for will not). The second category is generally in the form of pronoun + to be, as in "It's cold today" or "We're going downtown," where the apostrophe again stands for a missing vowel, either "i" or "a". The second category also often uses a form of to have, as in "He's gone to bed" or "We've finally gotten there." In this case, the apostrophe stands for the missing "h" plus "a". It should be noted, though, that only British English allows to have to contract when it is the primary verb (as with the phrase "I've a date today"). Although uncommon in written English, people often use complex contractions such as wouldn't've for would not have. Although these can look awkward in print, they are not necessarily incorrect. It is not acceptable in formal written English to use contractions such as "I've" or "can't."[citation needed]
The only commonly-used English contraction that does not fall into any of the above categories is "let's", a contraction of "let us" that is used in forming the imperative mood in the first-person plural (e.g. "Let's go [someplace]"). Use of the uncontracted "let us" typically carries an entirely different meaning (e.g. "Let us go [free]"). "Let us" is rarely seen in the former sense and "let's" is never seen in the latter one.
Many people writing English confuse the possessive form of the pronoun it with its contractions. The possessive form has no apostrophe (its), while the contraction of it is or it has does have an apostrophe (it's). See List of frequently misused English words.
Outside the English contractions described above, contractions are virtually the same concept as portmanteaux.
[edit] French
The French language has contractions to facilitate ease of speech, similar to English, as in C'est la vie ("That's life"), where c'est stands for ce+est ("that is"). In general, any monosyllabic word-final, non-silent e will contract if the following word begins with a vowel. For example the common words que (qu'-), je (j'-), and de (d'-). Unlike in English, however, these contractions are standard and mandatory: one would never say (or write) *ce est or *que elle.
[edit] Italian
Both French and Italian use a form of contraction combining the article le (French masculine form of "the") or la (French and Italian feminine form of "the"). For instance, in French, there is the phrase L'état c'est moi (Louis XIV: "I am the state," or, literally, "The state is me").
[edit] Spanish
Spanish also has some contractions, such as the variant trecientos (three hundred) for tres cientos. Spanish also has two mandatory phonetic contractions: al (to the) for a el, and del (of the) for de el (not to be confused with a él, meaning to him, and de él, meaning his or, more literally, of him).
Common Spanish, yet distinctly vulgar, slang holds another contraction, pa'que, which is a shortened form of para que, or "so that" or "in order that" or "just so". It is used, among other places, in the title for a documentary by Rosie Perez, «Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tú lo sepas!»[1] ("I am Boricua, just so you know!", or less formally, "I'm a Boricua, just for your information!").
A related contraction in Spanish is pa for the word para (for, in order). It can be found most notably in the Tito Puente song Oye como va. The lyrics containing the contraction are as follows:
| Spanish | Literal English | Informal English |
|---|---|---|
| Oye como va | Listen to how goes | Check out |
| Mi ritmo | My rhythm | My rhythm |
| Bueno pa gozar | Good for enjoying | It's great to groove to |
| Mulata | Mulata | Girl |
[edit] Portuguese
In Portuguese, contractions are common. Several prepositions regularly contract with certain articles and pronouns. For instance, de (of) and por (by; formerly per) combine with the definite articles o and a (masculine and feminine forms of "the"), producing do, da (of the), pelo, pela (by the). The preposition de contracts with the pronouns ele and ela (he, she), producing dele, dela (his, her). In addition, some verb forms contract with enclitic object pronouns: e.g., the verb amar (to love) combines with the pronoun a (her), giving amá-la (to love her). See a list at Wikipedia in Portuguese: List of contracted prepositions.
[edit] German
In German prepositional phrases, one can often merge the preposition and the article; for example, von dem becomes vom, zu dem becomes zum, or an das becomes ans. Some of these are so common that they are mandatory. In informal speech, also aufm for auf dem, unterm for unter dem, etc. are used, but would be considered incorrect if written, except maybe in quoted direct speech, in appropriate context and style.
[edit] Local Languages in German speaking areas
Regional dialects of German, and various local languages which usually were already used long before today's Standard German was built, use contractions usually more frequently than German, but varying widely between different local languages. The informally spoken German contractions are observed almost everywhere, most often, accompanied by additional ones, such as in den becoming in'n (sometimes im) or haben wir becoming hamwer, hammor, hemmer, or hamma depending on local intonation preferences. Bavarian features several contractions like e.g. gesund sind wir becoming xund samma which are schematically applied to all word or combinations of similar sound. Features like that are found in all central and southern language regions. A sample from Berlin: Sagen [Sie] einmal, Meister, kann man hier einmal hinein? is spoken as Samma, Meesta, kamma hier ma rin?
Several local languages along the Rhine have, possibly under influx of French, build contraction patterns involving up to entire sentences. In speech, words are often concatenated, frequently liaison is used. So, [Dat] kriegst Du nicht may become Kressenit, or Lohß mer jonn, han ich jesaat becomes Lomejon haschjesaat.
Mostly, there are no binding orthographies for local languages and dialects of German, so writing is left to a great extent to authors and their publishers. Outside quotations, at least, they usually pay little attention to print more than the most commonly spoken contractions, so as not to posslbly degrade readability. The use of apostrophes to indicate omissions is varying, it is considerably less frequent than in English publications.
[edit] Latin
There are several contractions in the Latin language. For example, the Latin verb "volo" (meaning "I want") would originally be negated by the phrase "non volo" (I do not want), however after years of elision, the phrase became the new word "nolo" (I do not want). This is seen in other uses of the verb, e.g. "volunt" (they want) originally being negated "non volunt" (They do not want), but becoming the contraction "nolunt" (they do not want).
[edit] Ancient Greek
In Ancient Greek there are several types of contraction, for example in verbs with a stem in ε (epsilon) affect their conjugations. There are also α (alpha) and ο (omicron) contractions in verbs, but ε contractions also happen in nouns and verbs. Example: phil-e-o, I love (Latin transcription for clarity). To the verb stem, phil-, usually the endings -ō, -eīs, -eī, -omen, -ete, -ousin are added. But with the -e-, they go to philō, phileīs, phileī, philoumen, phileite, philousi (that is, I love, you love, he loves, we love, you love, they love)
[edit] Japanese
Some contractions in rapid speech include ～っす (-ssu) for です (desu) and すいません (suimasen) for すみません (sumimasen). では (dewa) is often contracted to じゃ (ja). In certain grammatical contexts the particle の (no) is contracted to simply ん (n).
When used after verbs ending in the conjunctive form ～て (-te), certain auxiliary verbs and their derivations are often abbreviated. Examples:
| Original Form | Transliteration | Contraction | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|---|
| ～ている／～ていた／～ています／etc. | -te iru / -te ita / -te imasu / etc. | ～てる／～てた／～てます／etc. | -te ru / -te ta / -te masu / etc. |
| ～ておく／～ておいた／～ておきます／etc. | -te oku / -te oita / -te okimasu / etc. | ～とく／～といた／～ときます／etc. | -toku / -toita / -tokimasu / etc. |
| ～てしまう／～てしまった／～てしまいます／etc. | -te shimau / -te shimatta / -te shimaimasu / etc. | ～ちゃう／～ちゃった／～ちゃいます／etc. | -chau / -chatta / -chaimasu / etc. |
| ～でしまう／～でしまった／～でしまいます／etc. | -de shimau / -de shimatta / -de shimaimasu / etc. | ～じゃう／～じゃった／～じゃいます／etc. | -jau / -jatta / -jaimasu / etc. |
The contracted form ～ちゃう/～じゃう (-chau/-jau) can itself be contracted in informal speech. The conjunctive form ～ちゃって/～じゃって (-chatte/-jatte) can be rendered as simply ～ちゃ/～じゃ (-cha/-ja), typically when telling people what not to do, e.g. 言っちゃダメ (yuccha dame) "You can't say that". Since the emphasis of this verb form is on the fact that something has been done and cannot be changed, there is typically no negative. However, for indicating obligation, which grammatically requires a negative form, the form ～なくちゃ (-nakucha) can be used, with or without an auxiliary e.g. 行かなくちゃ（いけない） (ikanakucha (ikenai)) "I have to go." This negative form can be further contracted to simply ～なきゃ (-nakya) e.g. 行かなきゃ（いけない） (ikanakya (ikenai)) "I have to go."
Other times, contractions are made to create new words or to give added or altered meaning:
- The word 何か (nanika) "something" is contracted to なんか (nanka) to make a colloquial word with a meaning along the lines of "sort of," but which can be used with almost no meaning. Its usage is similar to English "like."
- じゃない (ja nai) "is not" is contracted to じゃん (jan) which is used at the end of statements to show the speaker's belief or opinion, often when it is contrary to that of the listener, e.g. いいじゃん！ (ii jan!) "What, it's fine!"
- The commonly used particle-verb phrase という (to iu) is often contracted to ～って／～て (-tte/-te) to give a more informal or noncommittal feeling.
- といえば (to ieba), the conditional form of という (to iu) mentioned above, is contracted to ～ってば (-tte ba) to show the speaker's annoyance at the listener's failure to listen to, remember, or heed what the speaker has said.
- The common words だ (da) and です (desu) are older contractions that originate from である (de aru) and でございます (de gozaimasu). These are fully integrated into the language now, and are not generally thought of as contractions.
