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.
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English
In English, contractions are commonly used in speech and informal writing.
They are almost always either negations with ''not'' or combinations of
pronouns with
auxiliary verbs, and in these cases always include an apostrophe in the written form.
The first category of contractions is those formed by an auxiliary verb or form of ''be'' plus the word ''not'', with the ''o'' replaced by an apostrophe, e.g. don't, can't, wouldn't, haven't. Notable exceptions include ''won't'', ''shan't'' and ''
ain't''.
Although these were historically contractions, there are good reasons in current English to analyze them as
inflectional suffixes rather than contractions.
[Zwicky, Arnold M., & Geoffrey K. Pullum (1983) ‘Cliticization vs. inflection: English n’t’. Language 59, 502–513 ]
The second category is generally in the form of a
pronoun (or occasionally a
noun) plus an auxiliary verb or a form of ''to be'', with the apostrophe replacing as few as one letter, as in ''it's'' for ''it is'', or four letters, as in ''I'd'' for ''I would''. One of the largest such contraction is ''I'd've'' for ''I would have''. Auxiliary verbs which can be contracted include will, would, shall, have/has, and had. It should be noted that in
British English it is acceptable to form a contraction with the verb ''have'' even when it is used as 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, or combining auxiliary verbs with nouns, e.g. ''John'd fix your TV if you asked him.'' Although these can look awkward in print, they are natural and frequently heard colloquialisms. It should be noted that contractions in English are not mandatory as in some other languages, with the exception of ''let's'' (see below) and "o'clock." It is always acceptable to write out (or say) all of the words of a contraction, though native speakers of English may find a person not using contractions to sound overly formal.
The only commonly used English contraction of two words 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.
Other single-word contractions include: ''ma'am'' for ''madam'' and ''fo'c'sle'' for ''
forecastle''.
Contractions like ''gov't'' for ''government'' and ''int'l'' for ''international'' differ from the types of contractions mentioned so far in that they are used in written form only, and are never actually contracted when spoken.
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.
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 mandatory: one would never say (or write) ''
ce est'' or ''*que elle''.
Certain prepositions can also be merged with masculine and plural direct articles, such as ''au'' for ''à le'', ''aux'' for ''à les'', ''du'' for ''de le'', and ''des'' for ''de les''. As with other contractions, these are mandatory.
Italian
In Italian, prepositions merge with direct articles in predictable ways. The prepositions ''a'', ''da'', ''di'', ''in'', ''su'', ''con'' and ''per'' combine with the various forms of the direct article, namely ''il'', ''lo'', ''la'', ''l','' ''i'', ''gli'', ''gl','' and ''le''.
|+
! !! il !! lo !! la !! l' !! i !! gli !! (gl') !! le
|-
! a
| al || allo || alla || all' || ai || agli || (agl') || alle
|-
! da
| dal || dallo || dalla || dall' || dai || dagli || (dagl') || dalle
|-
! di
| del || dello || della || dell' || dei || degli || (degl') || delle
|-
! in
| nel || nello || nella || nell' || nei || negli || (negl') || nelle
|-
! su
| sul || sullo || sulla || sull' || sui || sugli || (sugl') || sulle
|-
! con
| col || (collo) || (colla) || (coll') || coi || (cogli) || || (colle)
|-
! per
| (pel) || (pello) || (pella) || (pell') || (pei) || (pegli) || || (pelle)
|
Contractions with a, da, di, in, and su are mandatory, but those with con and per are optional.
Words in parentheses are no longer commonly used, but some still exist in common expressions such as ''colla voce''.
Formerly, gl' was used before words beginning with ''i'', however it is no longer in common use.
The words ''ce'' and ''è'' (form of ''essere'', to be) is contracted into '''c'è''', there is.
''C'è'' un problema - There is a problem
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!»
[Internet Movie Database ] ("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
|
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.
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.
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.
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). Simlarly there were the forms "malo/malumus/malunt" for "magis volo", which meant "I want more", i. e. "I prefer".
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)
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
|-
||''-te iru'' / ''-te ita'' / ''-te imasu'' / etc.
||''-te ru'' / ''-te ta'' / ''-te masu'' / etc.
|-
||''-te oku'' / ''-te oita'' / ''-te okimasu'' / etc.
||''-toku'' / ''-toita'' / ''-tokimasu'' / etc.
|-
||''-te shimau'' / ''-te shimatta'' / ''-te shimaimasu'' / etc.
||''-chau'' / ''-chatta'' / ''-chaimasu'' / etc.
|-
||''-de shimau'' / ''-de shimatta'' / ''-de shimaimasu'' / etc.
||''-jau'' / ''-jatta'' / ''-jaimasu'' / etc.
|-
||''-te wa''
||''-cha''
|-
||''-de wa''
||''-ja''
|-
||''-nakute wa''
||''-nakucha''
|
The ending ～なければ (''-nakereba'') can be contracted to ～なきゃ (''-nakya'') when it is used to indicate obligation. It is often used without an auxiliary, 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 as a filler word 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, e.g. もういいってば！ (''mō ii tte ba!'') "I already told you I don't want to talk about it anymore!"
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.
Various
dialects of Japanese also use their own specific contractions which are often unintelligible to speakers of other dialects.
References