Deletion and proform reduction

Abstract

The law of least effort is of course constantly at play in language use. Redundant linguistic items are consistently reduced in size, replaced with a proform or simply left out. These phenomena are dealt with within the framework of a transformational-generative grammar through transformations involving reduction and deletion. In other grammars they may be handled differently; for example the ‘reduced’ sentences may be regarded as full sentences that may optionally be ‘completed’. But I am not concerned here to give a precise specification of the rules involved, but only to raise the more fundamental questions: what is the nature of the processes involved? And, under what conditions do they operate? In this discussion I shall use the term DELETION throughout although a more neutral term like OMISSION, or even NON-INCLUSION, might be preferred.