What Is a Minor Sentence in English

A fragmented, elliptical, or incomplete sentence or clause that still conveys meaning. Also called a minor clause, an abbreviated clause, or a sentence fragment. There are several types of minor sentences and clauses in English. These include exclamations and interjections (for example, Wow and What the hell), aphoristic expressions (Like father, like son), answers to questions (Not right now), self-identification (Mary here), imperatives (Go!), and vocatives (You over there!). As shown below, minor sentences are used more often in speech and tweets than in formal written English. The use of the term minor to describe this sentence pattern in English has been attributed to both Leonard Bloomfield (Language, 1933) and Eugene Nida (dissertation, 1943; Synopsis of English Syntax, 1966). Examples and Observations: Thats the grub signal. All out for breakfast. First come, first served.One of his sons suddenly turned his head and exclaimed, Hullo! What is that? He dived through the door and I heard him shout. Fire! Fire! We crowded after him pushing our way past the buffaloes.Minor Sentences at the Market[O]ften purchases may be made entirely with the use of minor sentence types: How much for these? Fifty cents a dozen. Too much. How about these over here? Well, how much for them? Forty cents per. All right. A few sprigs of parsley too, then? Okay. Thanks. Good-bye.Stylistic AdviceNot all sentences contain verbs; completeness is not dependent on the presence of a finite verb. Grammarians do, however, put sentences without finite verbs in a special category of their own. They call them minor sentences. To return to the matter in hand and What an absolutely perfect day! are, like Yes! and Really? minor sentences.Minor Sentences and Illocutionary Force[M]inor clauses which function independently ma y have illocutionary force, . . . as can be seen from the following two examples of minor clauses from the dialogue, to which we add an example of a moodless -ing clause:Simon here. (minor clause)Fantastic! (minor clause)Minor Sentences in TweetsA decision also has to be made about how to handle minor sentences (yeah, wow, hey, haha, etc.), which are a noticeable feature of Twitter data. Presumably elements such as lol, omg, btw, smh, and emoticons should be classed as minor sentences, even though some etymologically represent something more complex (laughing out loud, scratching my head). These appear in 25 tweets (17 percent) and are a major feature of the style of some tweeters, who can introduce three or four in a single message:haha yea thats the best language to speak lolIn all, 36 tweets (25 percent) incorporate minor sentences of one kind or another. Sources Samuel Hopkins Adams,  The Harvey Girls. Random House, 1942 Wilfred Thesiger,  The Marsh Arabs. Longmans, 1964 Eugene A. Nida,  A Synopsis of English Syntax. Walter de Gruyter, 1973 Angela Downing and Philip Locke,  English Grammar: A University Course. Routledge, 2006 David Crystal,  Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide. Routledge, 2011