The so-called incomplete sentences, that is, those in which one of the members is omitted, are often found both in colloquial and in literary speech. Not only secondary, but also the main members of the sentence - subject or predicate - may be absent from them.
Their semantic load is easily restored both from the context (from the sentences preceding the given) and from the knowledge of the interlocutor or reader of the situation.
An example of an incomplete sentence:
- Where is your brother?
- He left.
Here "Left" is an incomplete sentence consisting of one word. It omits the subject, but it can be understood from the previous statement about who it is in question (about the brother).
A certain difficulty is the distinction between incomplete and single-component sentences, in which either the subject or the predicate is missing. Here you can use the following criteria. For example, from the sentence “Berries are picked in the forest” it is completely unclear who exactly performs the action. Take another example: “Where are your friends? “They pick berries in the forest.” The subject is missing here, but from the context it is easy to establish who exactly performs the specified action (girlfriends). This means that in the first case we are dealing with a one-part sentence, and in the second - with an incomplete two-part sentence, although the list of words in them is exactly the same.
It should be noted that a dialogue with incomplete sentences is the most frequent, characteristic situation of their use. Teacher, exploring such examples in educational practice, it is enough to simply create an idea among students about the incomplete sentence as a variety of the complete - in contrast to single-component sentences, where one of the (necessary!) Main members is not missed, but simply impossible. For this, you can also compare complete and incomplete sentences. In incomplete, all members retain the same grammatical forms and functions as in full. In turn, single-compound sentences can also be incomplete if the word that is missing in them can be easily restored from the context:
“How are you called, girl?”
- Mary.
Incomplete sentences (examples can be found below) can be of two types, depending on how their meaning is restored: contextual or situational. Inside the first emit:
1. Simple sentences in which their individual members are absent (possible options are subject, predicate, subject and predicate, predicate and complement, predicate and circumstance, finally, circumstance or addition with the definition in the sentence related to the missing member). This type also includes the so-called elliptical sentences, which many philologists distinguish as a hotel. Their characteristic feature is that the meaning of the sentence is revealed without its missing member (most often this is the predicate). Moreover, in many cases it is impossible to establish which word is missing, either from the context or from the situation. For instance:
Behind us is the river.
In this sentence, a dash can replace, for example, the word “located”, “lies”, “remained”, etc. Which one is not possible to establish.
2. Complicated sentences in which it “fell out,” that is, either the main or subordinate part remained unnamed.
3. Complicated sentences that are part of a complex one, in which a member is not called, which is available in another part of a compound, complex or non-union sentence. For instance:
In summer, the day is longer and shorter in winter (the sentence is complex).
Situational called incomplete sentences in which the meaning of the missing members is clear from the situation:
I will be in blue today.
From incomplete ones, one should distinguish sentences that have the so-called zero connective in the composite nominal predicate, which serves as an indicator of the present tense, indicative mood :
Knowledge is power.
As for punctuation marks in incomplete sentences, they often put a dash. His role in this case, as mentioned above, is the replacement of a missing word, usually a predicate.
I came early from class, and my sister - late.
In this example, a dash replaces the word “come”, avoiding incorrect, unnecessary repetitions.
On the table are bread and fruit.
In this example, a dash is used instead of the missing predicate (elliptic sentence).