Sentence Structure of Twitter Messages
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University of Pardubice Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Sentence Structure of Twitter Messages Lukáš Klika Bachelor Thesis 2017 Prohlašuji: Tuto práci jsem vypracoval samostatně. Veškeré literární prameny a informace, které jsem v práci využil, jsou uvedeny v seznamu použité literatury. Byl jsem seznámen s tím, že se na moji práci vztahují práva a povinnosti vyplývající ze zákona č. 121/2000 Sb., autorský zákon, zejména se skutečností, že Univerzita Pardubice má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití této práce jako školního díla podle § 60 odst. 1 autorského zákona, a s tím, že pokud dojde k užití této práce mnou nebo bude poskytnuta licence o užití jinému subjektu, je Univerzita Pardubice oprávněna ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, které na vytvoření díla vynaložila, a to podle okolností až do jejich skutečné výše. Souhlasím s prezenčním zpřístupněním své práce v Univerzitní knihovně. V Pardubicích dne 29. 6. 2017 Lukáš Klika Acknowledgment: I would like to express my sincere thanks to PhDr. Šárka Ježková, Ph.D., my supervisor, for the support and guidance she had provided. ANNOTATION This bachelor thesis focuses on the usage of ellipsis in twitter messages by native and non- native speakers of English. The paper presents ellipsis, its categories and criteria. It also introduces the terms of recoverability and position of ellipsis. Additionally, it covers the clausal elements which are commonly ellipted. The analysis of twitter messages focuses on the frequency of ellipsis in tweets of both native and non-native speakers of English in order to find differences in the usage of ellipsis. KEYWORDS Ellipsis, twitter, reduction, recoverability, situational recoverability, structural recoverability, anaphoric recoverability, cataphoric recoverability NÁZEV Struktura vět twitterových zpráv ANOTACE Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá užitím elipsy v twitterových zprávách rodilých i nerodilých mluvčích angličtiny. Práce popisuje elipsu, její kategorie a kritéria. Také představuje termíny návratnost a pozice elipsy. Následně pojednává o větných členech, které bývají obvykle vynechávány. Analýza twitterových zpráv se zaměřuje na četnost výskytu elipsy v tweetech rodilých i nerodilých mluvčí angličtiny, a to za účelem nalezení odlišností při použití elipsy. KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA Elipsa, twitter, redukce, návratnost, situační návratnost, strukturální návratnost, anaforická návratnost, kataforická návratnost Contents 0. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 10 1. Reduction .................................................................................................................. 11 2. Recoverability .......................................................................................................... 12 3. Ellipsis ...................................................................................................................... 13 3.1. Ellipsis vs. Substitution ..................................................................................... 14 3.2. Criteria of ellipsis .............................................................................................. 15 3.2.1. Recoverability of the ellipted words ....................................................... 15 3.2.2. Grammatically defective elliptical construction ..................................... 15 3.2.3. The insertion of ellipted words results in a grammatical sentence with unchanged meaning .............................................................................................. 16 3.2.4. The missing words are textually recoverable, and are present in the text in the exactly same form. ..................................................................................... 16 3.3. Types of Ellipsis ................................................................................................ 17 3.3.1. Strict ellipsis ........................................................................................... 17 3.3.2. Standard ellipsis ...................................................................................... 17 3.3.3. Quasi-ellipsis .......................................................................................... 18 3.3.4. Situational ellipsis ................................................................................... 18 3.3.5. Structural ellipsis .................................................................................... 18 3.3.6. Weak ellipsis ........................................................................................... 19 3.4. The classification of ellipsis .............................................................................. 19 3.4.1. Recoverability ............................................................................................ 19 3.4.1.1. Anaphoric and cataphoric ................................................................... 19 3.4.2. Situational ellipsis ...................................................................................... 20 3.4.2.1. Ellipsis in declarative sentences .......................................................... 21 3.4.2.2. Ellipsis in interrogative sentences ....................................................... 21 3.4.3. Functional type ........................................................................................... 22 3.4.4. Formal type ................................................................................................. 22 3.5. Ellipsis of clausal elements ................................................................................ 22 3.5.1. Nominal ellipsis .......................................................................................... 23 3.5.1.1. Specific deictics .................................................................................. 24 3.5.1.2. Non-specific deictics ........................................................................... 25 3.5.1.3. Post-deictics ........................................................................................ 27 3.5.1.4. Numeratives ........................................................................................ 28 3.5.1.5. Epithets ................................................................................................ 29 3.5.2. Verbal ellipsis ............................................................................................. 30 3.5.2.1. Ellipsis within a verbal group ............................................................. 30 3.5.2.2. Lexical ellipsis .................................................................................... 31 3.5.2.3. Operator ellipsis .................................................................................. 33 3.5.2.4. The consequences of verbal ellipsis .................................................... 33 3.5.3. Clausal ellipsis ............................................................................................ 34 3.5.3.1. Ellipsis in reported speech .................................................................. 34 4. Introduction to the analytical part ............................................................................ 35 4.1. Corpus description ............................................................................................. 35 4.2. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 35 5. Analytical part .......................................................................................................... 37 5.1. Analysis of the ellipted sentence elements ........................................................ 37 5.1.1. Ellipsis of subject + operator ...................................................................... 38 5.1.2. Ellipsis of determiner ................................................................................. 40 5.1.3. Ellipsis of subject alone .............................................................................. 40 5.1.4. Ellipsis of conjunction ................................................................................ 42 5.1.5. Ellipsis of preposition ................................................................................. 43 5.1.6. Ellipsis of Subject + Verb .......................................................................... 43 5.1.7. Ellipsis of Verb ........................................................................................... 44 5.1.8. Clausal ellipsis ............................................................................................ 44 5.1.9. Infinitive marker ellipsis ............................................................................ 45 5.1.10. Ellipsis of object ..................................................................................... 46 5.1.11. Marginal instances of ellipsis ................................................................. 46 5.2. Recoverability .................................................................................................... 47 5.3. Position of ellipsis .............................................................................................. 48 6. Summary of results ................................................................................................... 49 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 51 8. Resumé ....................................................................................................................