In terms of completeness of the structure, sentences are divided into full And incomplete.

Full sentences that contain all the members necessary to express a thought are called.

Incomplete are called sentences in which any member of the sentence that is necessary in meaning and structure (main or secondary) is missing.

Two-part and one-part, common and non-common sentences can be incomplete.

The possibility of omitting members of a sentence is explained by the fact that they are clear from the context, from the situation of speech or from the structure of the sentence itself. Thus, the meaning of incomplete sentences is perceived based on the situation or context.

Here is an example of incomplete sentences in which the missing subject is restored from context .

She walked and walked. And suddenly in front of him from the hill the master sees a house, a village, a grove under the hill and a garden above the bright river.(A.S. Pushkin.) (Context - previous sentence: In a clear field, in the silvery light of the moon, immersed in her dreams, Tatyana walked alone for a long time.)

Examples of incomplete sentences, the missing members of which are restored from the situation.

He knocked down his husband and wanted to look at the widow’s tears. Unscrupulous!(A.S. Pushkin) - Leporello’s words, a response to the desire expressed by his master, Don Guan, to meet Dona Anna. It is clear that the missing subject is He or Don Guan.

- Oh my God! And here, next to this tomb!(A.S. Pushkin.) This is an incomplete sentence - Dona Anna’s reaction to the words of the protagonist of “The Stone Guest”: Don Guan admitted that he was not a monk, but “an unfortunate victim of a hopeless passion.” In his remark there is not a single word that could take the place of the missing members of the sentence, but based on the situation they can be approximately restored as follows: “You dare to say this here, in front of this coffin!».

May be missed:

  • subject: How firmly she stepped into her role!(A.S. Pushkin) (The subject is restored from the subject from the previous sentence: How Tatyana has changed!);

He would have disappeared like a blister on the water, without any trace, leaving no descendants, without providing future children with either a fortune or an honest name!(N.V. Gogol) (The subject I is restored using the addition from the previous sentence: Whatever you say,” he said to himself, “if the police captain had not arrived, I might not have been able to look at the light of God again!”) (N.V. Gogol);

  • addition: And I took it in my arms! And I was pulling my ears so hard! And I fed him gingerbread!(A.S. Pushkin) (Previous sentences: How Tanya has grown! How long ago, it seems, did I baptize you?);
  • predicate: Just not on the street, but from here, through the back door, and there through the courtyards.(M.A. Bulgakov) (Previous sentence: Run!);
  • several members of a sentence at once , including grammatical basis: How long ago?(A.S. Pushkin) (Previous sentence: Are you composing Requiem?)

Incomplete sentences are common as part of complex sentences : He is happy if she puts a fluffy boa on her shoulder...(A.S. Pushkin) You Don Guana reminded me of how you scolded me and clenched your teeth with gnashing.(A.S. Pushkin) In both sentences, the missing subject in the subordinate clause is restored from the main sentence.

Incomplete sentences are very common in spoken language., in particular, in dialogue, where usually the initial sentence is developed, grammatically complete, and subsequent remarks, as a rule, are incomplete sentences, since they do not repeat already named words.


- I'm angry with my son.
- For what?
- For an evil crime.(A.S. Pushkin)

Among dialogical sentences, a distinction is made between sentences that are replicas and sentences that are answers to questions.

1. Reply sentences represent links in a common chain of replicas replacing each other. In a dialogue remark, as a rule, those members of the sentence are used that add something new to the message, and members of the sentence already mentioned by the speaker are not repeated. Replies that begin a dialogue are usually more complete in composition and independent than subsequent ones, which are lexically and grammatically based on the first replicas.

For example:

- Go get a bandage.
- Will kill.
- Crawling.
- You won’t be saved anyway (Nov.-Pr.).


2. Suggestions-answers vary depending on the nature of the question or remark.

They can be answers to a question in which one or another member of the sentence is highlighted:

- Who are you?
- Passing... wandering...
- Are you spending the night or living?
- I'll take a look there...(M.G.);

- What do you have in your bundle, eagles?
“Crayfish,” the tall one answered reluctantly.
- Wow! Where did you get them?
- Near the dam(Shol.);

Can be answers to a question that requires only confirmation or denial of what was said:

- Were these your poems published in Pionerka yesterday?
- My(S. Bar.);

- Did Nikolai show it to Stepanych? - asked the father.
- Showed(S. Bar.);

- Maybe we need to get something? Bring it?
- Do not need anything(Pan.).

Could be answers to a question with suggested answers:

- Do you like it or not? - he asked abruptly.
“I like it,” he said. a (Pan.).

And finally, answers in the form of a counter question with the meaning of the statement:


- How will you live?
- What about the head, and what about the hands?(M.G.)

and answers and questions:


- I came here to propose to you.
- Offer? To me?(Ch.).

Questions and answers are lexically and structurally so closely related to each other that they often form something like a single complex sentence, where the question clause resembles a conditional clause.

For example:

- What if they break during sowing?
- Then, as a last resort, we’ll make homemade ones(G. Nik.).

Dialogical speech, regardless of what structural types of sentences make up it, has its own patterns of construction, caused by the conditions of its formation and purpose: each replica is created in the process of direct communication and therefore has a two-way communicative orientation. Many syntactic features of dialogue are associated specifically with the phenomenon of speaking, interspersed exchange of statements: this is laconicism, formal incompleteness, semantic and grammatical originality of the compatibility of replicas with each other, structural interdependence.

Elliptical sentences

In Russian there are sentences called elliptical(from the Greek word ellipsis, which means “omission”, “lack”). They omit the predicate, but retain the word that depends on it, and no context is needed to understand such sentences. These can be sentences with the meaning of movement, movement ( I'm going to the Tauride Garden(K.I. Chukovsky); speeches - thoughts ( And his wife: for rudeness, for your words(A.T. Tvardovsky), etc.

Such sentences are usually found in colloquial speech and in works of art, but are not used in book styles (scientific and official business).
Some scientists consider elliptical sentences to be a type of incomplete sentences, others consider them to be a special type of sentences that is adjacent to incomplete ones and is similar to them.

Punctuation in an incomplete sentence

In an incomplete sentence that forms part of a complex sentence, in place of the missing member (usually predicate) a dash is added , if the missing member is restored from the previous part of the sentence or from the text and a pause is made at the place of the omission.

For example:

They stood opposite each other: he, confused and embarrassed, she, with an expression of challenge on her face.
However, if there is no pause, there is no dash. For example: Alyosha looked at them, and they looked at him. Below him is a stream of lighter azure, above him is a golden ray of sun.

The dash is placed:

1. A dash is placed in place of the zero predicate in elliptical sentences divided by a pause into two components - the adverbial and the subjects.

For example:

They stick together at home. Behind them are vegetable gardens. Above the yellow straw fields, above the stubble - blue sky and white clouds(Sol.); Behind the highway there is a birch forest(Boon.); In a large room on the second floor of a wooden house there are long tables, above which hang kerosene lightning lamps with pot-bellied glass.(Kav.).

This punctuation mark is especially stable when the parts of a sentence are structurally parallel: There are eleven horses in the yard, and in the stall there is a gray stallion, angry, heavy, busty(Boon.); A wide ravine, on one side there are huts, on the other there is a manor(Boon.); Ahead is a deserted September day. Ahead - lost in this huge world of fragrant foliage, grass, autumn withering, calm waters, clouds, low sky(Paust.).

2. A dash is placed in incomplete sentences at the place where members of the sentence or their parts are missing. These omissions are common in parts of a complex sentence with a parallel structure, when the missing member is restored from the context of the first part of the sentence.

For example:

It was getting dark, and the clouds were either parting or setting in from three sides: on the left - almost black, with blue gaps, on the right - gray, rumbling with continuous thunder, and from the west, from behind the Khvoshchina estate, from behind the slopes above the river valley , - dull blue, in dusty streaks of rain, through which the mountains of distant clouds glowed pink(Boon.).

Compare the possibility of skipping a dash in everyday speech: They both started talking at once, one about cows, the other about sheep, but the words did not reach Kuzemkin’s consciousness(White).

3. A dash is placed when members of a sentence are omitted, restored in the context of dialogue lines or adjacent sentences.


For example: Do you like green onion pies? I am like passion!(M.G.); In another room, a jeweler's workshop has been recreated. In the third there is a shepherd's hut, with all the shepherd's utensils. In the fourth there is an ordinary water mill. The fifth shows the setting of a hut where shepherds make cheese. In the sixth there is simply the setting of a peasant hut. In the seventh there is the setting of a hut where these same chergs and halishte were woven. All this has been skillfully recreated(Sol.).

4. A dash is placed in sentences consisting of two word forms with the meaning of subject, object, circumstance and constructed according to the following schemes: who - what, who - where, what - to whom, what - where, what - how, what - where, etc.

For example: All wells are operational; The microphone has a heart!; Book - by mail; Grades are for knowledge; You have the key to the university; Following the record - an accident; Trains – “green”!; First of all, efficiency.

Incomplete sentences are divided into contextual And situational.

Contextual called incomplete sentences with unnamed members of the sentence that were mentioned in the context: in nearby sentences or in the same sentence, if it is complex : On one side of the gap, with his arms crossed, in a woman’s crimson beret, is a figure with blue eyes and a small black mustache above thin, serpentine lips curled into a Mephistophelian smile. On the other side stood the boss, and everyone knew that the boss now stood for the truth and would not waver for a single minute (Prishvin). In 1 sentence the predicate is omitted stood(it is in sentence 2 ) , and in 2 – part of the circumstance side(in 1 sentence the same type of circumstance is given in full - on one side).

Among the contextual proposals stand out:

Simple sentences with unnamed main or minor members(individually or in groups).

Lack of subject: –Wait, who are you? –Kurov was surprised. –Rostislav Sokolov,– the boy introduced himself and even bowed at the same time (B. Pol.). (I – Rostislav Sokolov).

Lack of predicate:

– Did you leave your wife, Mikola?– No, she me (Shol.).(No, she megave up ).

Absence of both subject and predicate:

– Does the baker Konovalov work here?– Here!–I answered her (M. G.)Baker Konovalov works Here).

Absence of predicate and circumstances: Kalinich stood closer to nature. Khor - to people, to society(T.).( Ferretstood closer to people, to society)

Lack of predicate and object: Who was waiting for him? Empty, uncomfortable room(B. Pol.) (Was waiting for him empty, uncomfortable room).

Absence of a secondary member of the sentence(additions, circumstances) in the presence of a definition relating to the absent member: The mother slipped the carrots to the father, but forgot to give him gloves. I handed mine to my father(S. Bar.) (I handed my father mygloves ).

Complex sentences with an unnamed main or subordinate clause.

– Well, where are your Near Mills?– What is this to you? You say, not mills? – Where?– What do you mean "where"? Here.– Where is it?– Where are we going(Cat.). The last sentence does not name the main part.

Incomplete sentences forming part of a complex sentence with an unnamed member present in another part of the complex sentence.

In a compound sentence: In one hand he held a fishing rod, and in the other– Kukan with fish(Sol.). In the second part of a complex sentence, the main members present in the first part are not named (in the other hand ).

In a complex sentence: Lopakhin jumped into the trench and, when he raised his head, he saw how the leading plane, absurdly falling onto the wing, became covered in black smoke and began to fall obliquely(Shol.). In the subordinate clause of a sentence When raised his head the subject common to the main part is not named (Lopakhin ).

In a non-union complex sentence: So we go: on level ground–on a cart, uphill– on foot, and downhill–like jogging(Sol.). In the explanatory part of a complex sentence, the predicate mentioned in the explanatory part ( let's go ).

Situational called incomplete sentences with unnamed members that are clear from the situation, prompted by the situation.

For example: offer It's coming! d filled in with the subject-actor depending on the context of speech (train, teacher, bus, etc.)

– Vania! – came faintly from the stage.– Give me yellow(the situation of speech suggests that yellow light is meant).

– I'm going to the shop - I need flour and salt. - No need for flour, no need for salt,–he said,–It's damp and slushy outside. “I put on rubber ones,” said the young woman(meaning boots).

It should be noted that the division of sentences into situational and contextual is to a certain extent arbitrary, since the word context often denotes the situation of speech. In addition, in written speech, situational sentences acquire some properties of contextual sentences, since the situation of speech is described and receives verbal expression, for example: – How sweet! - said Countess Marya, looking at the child and playing with him (L. Tolstoy)

Depending on the type of speech, incomplete dialogical and monological sentences are distinguished, which can be in both oral and written speech.

Incomplete sentences in dialogic speech

Incomplete sentences are especially typical for dialogical speech, which is a combination of remarks or a unity of questions and answers. The peculiarity of dialogic sentences is determined by the fact that in oral speech, along with words, extra-linguistic factors also appear as additional components: gestures, facial expressions, situation. In such sentences, only those words are named, without which the thought becomes incomprehensible.

Among dialogical sentences, a distinction is made between sentences that are replicas and sentences that are answers to questions.

1. Reply sentences represent links in a common chain of replicas replacing each other. In a dialogue remark, as a rule, those members of the sentence are used that add something new to the message, and members of the sentence already mentioned by the speaker are not repeated. Replies that begin a dialogue are usually more complete in composition and independent than subsequent ones, which are lexically and grammatically based on the first replicas.

For example:

Go get a bandage.

Crawling.

- You won't be saved anyway(New.-Pr.).

2. Suggestions-answers vary depending on the nature of the question or remark.

They can be answers to a question in which one or another member of the sentence is highlighted:

You who it?

- Passing... wandering...

Are you spending the night or living?

I'll take a look there... (M. G.);

- What's in your bundle, eagles?

“Crayfish,” the tall one answered reluctantly.

Wow! Where did you get them?

- Near the dam(Shol.);

My share made me promise that I would come to the lake in the summer, when I could cross by boat to the other side.

And what's in there?

Flowers .

But only?

- Is this not enough? Flowers!(Sol.).

Can be answers to a question that requires only confirmation or denial of what was said:

- Were these your poems published in Pionerka yesterday?

- My(S. Bar.);

- Did Nikolai show it to Stepanych? - asked the father.

- Showed(S. Bar.);

- Maybe we need to get something? Bring it?

- Do not need anything(Pan.).

Could be answers to a question with suggested answers:

- Like it or don't like it? - he asked abruptly.

- I like it, she said(Pan.).

And finally, answers in the form of a counter question with the meaning of the statement:

- How will you live?

- What about the head and what about the hands?(M.G.)

and answers and questions:

- I came here to propose to you.

- Offer? To me?(Ch.).

Questions and answers are lexically and structurally so closely related to each other that they often form something like a single complex sentence, where the question clause resembles a conditional clause. For example:

- What if they break during sowing?

- Then, as a last resort, we’ll make homemade ones(G. Nik.).

Dialogical speech, regardless of what structural types of sentences make up it, has its own patterns of construction, caused by the conditions of its formation and purpose: each replica is created in the process of direct communication and therefore has a two-way communicative orientation. Many syntactic features of dialogue are associated specifically with the phenomenon of speaking, interspersed exchange of statements: this is laconicism, formal incompleteness, semantic and grammatical originality of the compatibility of replicas with each other, structural interdependence.

From the point of view of structural and grammatical cues, they are not homogeneous: some of them are relatively independent in their forms, others are interdependent; such a close combination of replicas, which represents a structural and grammatical union, some linguists propose to call dialogical unity - a term that clearly echoes “interphrase unity” (see § 128). This connection also determines the essence of these syntactic phenomena.

Elliptical sentences

(gr: élleipsis - omission, lack) - a speech phenomenon consisting in a communicatively significant omission of the structural elements of a sentence.

Elliptical are self-used sentences of a special type, the specific structure of which is the absence of a verbal predicate, and a predicate not mentioned in the context, i.e. semantically not necessary for the transmission of this message. This is a sentence with a zero predicate. The predicate, which is absent and does not need to be restored, however, participates in the formation of the structure of these sentences, since they contain secondary members of the predicate composition. In this respect, elliptical sentences are closer to incomplete ones.

These sentences require neither context nor situation in order to form an idea of ​​an action or state. It is expressed by the entire construction as a whole, the purpose of which is to communicate about the place, time, method characterizing an action or state, or to indicate the object of the action, the direction of the action: In the blue, dazzling blue sky - the July sun blazing with fire and rare, wind-scattered clouds of incredible whiteness. On the road there are wide tracks of tank tracks, clearly imprinted in the gray dust and crossed out by car tracks. And on the sides - like a steppe extinct from the heat(Shol.); Behind the house there is a sun-filled garden(B. Pol.); Terkin - next, the author - next(Tward.).

Some of these sentences have become popular as a result of frequent use: What's wrong with you, Mr. Anton?(New.-Pr.).

Among elliptical sentences, incentive sentences stand out. For example: All the way up! (New-Pr.); Hurry here to the owner, misfortune!(Tren.); Germanov came out of the mansion, plopped down heavily next to the driver, and lordly ordered: “To Sokolniki!”(And you.).

Elliptical sentences are usually correlated with complete ones, in which the predicates are expressed by verbs of being, presence, detection, perception: There are pale circles around the month(A.N.T.); Low hanging dust over the square(Shol.), verbs with the meaning of speech: Marya follows him, quietly: - Did you eat all the bread and tea?(A.N.T.), as well as some verbs of motion: He was at the gate, but his mother’s voice was heard from the window(Gonch.); I follow him (M.G.) and verbs with the meaning of energetic action ( grab, push, hit, throw etc.): - Into their fire!.. - flashed through the crowd(M.-Sib.).

The lexical limitation of the missing predicate verbs is manifested in the uniformity of the construction of elliptical sentences: the members, their components, are few. The secondary members in them are either circumstances of place and, less often, time or reasons ( Steppe everywhere; I'm going to the shop. Check at five o'clock; That's why there's sadness), or an addition with the value of the item being replaced ( Silence instead of an answer), destination ( Expensive gifts for you), attribution to a person (Father has a meeting) - and some others.

Elliptic sentences are sometimes classified as incomplete or as a special type of incomplete. However, some linguists consider such sentences to be incomplete only in historical terms and do not classify them as incomplete in the modern Russian language. Such sentences really cannot be qualified as incomplete, since their incompleteness is a structural norm, and comparing them with complete constructions is just a conditional technique for identifying their constructive specificity. These are completely typified constructions that do not need to restore the members of the sentence, they are quite complete (even out of context) from the point of view of their communicative task, as for their grammatical construction, its specificity lies in the presence of subordinate word forms that reveal verb dependency. However, this “dependence” is very relative: these word forms are characterized by increasingly free functioning. This dependence is still clearly felt in constructions like To the left is the door to the hallway; Around the corner is a bookshop and is lost in sentences like Road in the forest; Meeting at the obelisk, where the substantive influence is so great that it defeats the former verb and functionally transforms dependent word forms, and ellipsis in these cases is no longer felt: such sentences are perceived as nominative with a attributive member, and their former ellipticity is one of the stages of development of this type of sentence. It is no coincidence that some linguists consider it possible to classify even constructions with a prepositive adverbial clause as nominative sentences on the grounds that such a circumstance (determinant) does not necessarily imply dependence on the verb ( There is wind in the field; There's silence in the air) and refers to the entire sentence as a whole. There is no doubt that the substitution of a predicate verb here looks at least artificial, since in modern Russian such sentences, of course, are created without the participation of a verb, all the more difficult it is to detect the constructive role of the verb in sentences like Outside the window there is a quiet whistle of a watchman(M.G.) and Today is Sunday. V.V. Vinogradov calls such adverbial constructions “free”, since there is no direct dependence on any specific part of speech. Moreover: “The corresponding forms of indirect cases with a preposition depend not so much on the verbs that do not control them, but on the prepositions themselves of concrete spatial meaning: above, for, in, etc.” “At the same time,” continues V.V. Vinogradov, “there is no doubt that in the process of the historical development of language, the range of syntactic phenomena associated with the so-called weak control, with the more or less independent use of prepositional constructions, is expanding and acquiring an increasingly significant role in the construction of various types of modern common sentences.” Consequently, historically such forms still lead to weak governance. Thus, disagreements in the qualification of sentences with prepositive adverbial words ultimately come down to taking into account or not taking into account their historical path. Therefore, at this stage of development of this type of sentences, it seems more justified to classify them as elliptical rather than as nominative one-component ones: firstly, because in modern language the difference in constructions like At the obelisk - meeting and Meeting at the obelisk and even like There's a quiet whistle outside the window and Whistling outside the window and, secondly, because the relatively free position of some word forms with adverbial meaning in a modern Russian sentence indicates not only the absence of direct verbal dependence, but also at the same time - a nominal dependence, and in a nominative sentence one can see just such addiction.

Stylistic differentiation of incomplete and elliptical sentences

Incomplete and elliptical sentences are used mainly in the field of conversational styles. As a sign of colloquialism, they are widely used in fiction both when conveying dialogue and in descriptions. However, different types of incomplete and elliptical sentences also have a specific stylistic fixation. It is natural, for example, that the dialogue is entirely dominated by incomplete situational and elliptical sentences with an object extender. For example:

In the morning Yegor came to the hut.

Hello, Mikheich!

The old man looked at the guy for a long time.

I don’t recognize something... Whose will you be?

Lyubavin.

Emelyan Spiridonych?

- Young... You can’t remember them all. For ducks?(Shuksh.);

- ...They began to administer justice: some by the hair, some by the ears(Gonch.).

Descriptions are more characterized by elliptical sentences with prepositive adverbials. They are especially typical for stage directions in dramatic works. Here, for example, is how A.M. constructs a description-remark. Bitter. The description contains a brief description of the setting of the action: In the left corner there is a large Russian stove; in the left - stone wall - there is a door to the kitchen where Kvashnya, Baron, Nastya live. Between the stove and the door against the wall is a wide bed covered with a dirty chintz curtain. Everywhere along the walls there are bunks. In the foreground, against the left wall, is a piece of wood with a vice and a small anvil attached to it, and another, lower than the first. On the last one, in front of the anvil, sits Tick, trying on keys to old locks. At his feet are two large bunches of different keys, mounted on wire rings, a damaged samovar made of tin, a hammer, and filings. In the middle of the shelter there is a large table, two benches, a stool, everything is unpainted and dirty.(“At the Bottom”, act one).

Incomplete situational sentences can only be used when reproducing the speech of characters, both in dialogue and in the remarks of one character: Fekla, get the doctor!(M.G.).

Different types of contextual incomplete sentences are used in different ways: despite the fact that they are all characteristic of conversational style, some of them can be reproduced in scientific speech. These are, for example, incomplete sentences - parts of compound and complex sentences; the incompleteness of such constructions is their natural quality, dictated by the semantic and stylistic features of the construction of complex sentences, in which the very fact of non-repetition of a word (or a series of words), “performing the function of a common member for two or more parts of a complex sentence, is an indicator of their structural unification.” Examples: It was believed that geometry studies complex quantities(continuous), and arithmetic - discrete numbers(journal); External circumstances could include, for example, the negative influence of Platonic idealism, which expelled the idea of ​​motion from mathematics, and internal circumstances could include an overly narrow concept of number, the lack of developed symbolism, etc.(journal); To create a consistent control system, he had to admit the existence of a displacement current, the magnitude of which was so small that it was not detected in Faraday's experiments(magazine). In scientific presentation, simple contextual incomplete sentences are also possible, associated with the desire to omit repeating links of similar structures: Based on their shape, there are circular and elliptical orbits. In the first case, the shape of the orbit is close to a circle, i.e. The satellite's flight altitude above the Earth's surface is almost constant, and the center of the orbit coincides with the center of the Earth. In the second, the satellite’s flight altitude varies over a relatively wide range from the lowest value - perigee, to the highest - apogee(magazine).

Various types of incomplete and elliptical sentences, as a fact of living conversational speech, have been widely used in newspaper language in recent years. These designs provide rich material for developing the structure of headings; numerous ellipses here are already a kind of standard. The language of the newspaper tends to be dynamic and catchy. This is facilitated, in particular, by extremely short sentences with the omission of informationally redundant words. Here are examples of newspaper headlines: Universities - the national economy; Mountain farming - scientific foundations; Grain transportation - speed and rhythm; Scientists - to their homeland; Radio - for schoolchildren; Peace to Earth. Such ellipses are extremely economical in terms of means of expression. The title names only those members of the sentence that are the target in a given statement; everything else is logically filled in by the text and the speech situation, eliminating the need to name all the links of the grammatical structure. In incomplete heading sentences, the absence of one or more members of the structure in most cases is a syntactic norm that creates a stylistic and expressive coloring of the heading sentences. Newspaper headlines, replete with such constructions, express the idea in the most concise form. It is interesting that among the heading sentences specific structures are formed that are acceptable only in the field of titles and impossible in the text of the article, note, etc., for example: Briefly about the important; For fishing - by plane; Bread for the Motherland. The development of such structures is caused by the need to legitimize, in relation to the specifics of the title, special sentence models, which, despite the reduction of linguistic material, give the maximum effect in attracting the reader’s attention. Heading sentences are often built on the basis of a combination of only oblique forms. This tendency to save means of expression in headlines contributes to the accumulation of thoughts. However, with excessive enthusiasm for such designs, there is a danger of a negative stylistic effect.

Incomplete sentences- these are sentences in which a member of the sentence is missing that is necessary for the completeness of the structure and meaning of the given sentence.

Missed sentence members can be restored by communication participants from knowledge of the situation or context.

For example, if in the subway one of the passengers, looking at the track, says: “It’s coming!”, all other passengers will easily restore the missing subject: the train is coming.

Missing sentence members can be restored from the previous context. Such contextually incomplete sentences are very often observed in dialogues.

For example: – Is your westra performing a song tomorrow? - Alyosha asked Maxim Petrovich. - My. Maxim Petrovich's answer is an incomplete sentence in which the subject, predicate, adverbial place and adverbial time are missing (For example: My sister is performing a song tomorrow).

Incomplete constructions are common in complex sentences:

Everyone is available to her, but she is accessible to no one. The second part of a complex non-union sentence (aka - to no one) is an incomplete sentence in which the predicate is missing (For example: She is not available to anyone).

Incomplete sentences and one-part sentences are different phenomena.

In one-part sentences there is no one of the main members of the sentence, but the meaning of the sentence is clear to us even without this member. Moreover, the structure of the sentence itself has a certain meaning.

For example, the plural form of the predicate verb in an indefinite-personal sentence conveys the following content: the subject of the action is unknown (There was a knock on the window), unimportant (He was killed near Moscow) or is hiding (They told me a lot about her recently).
In an incomplete sentence, any member of the sentence (one or more) may be omitted. If we consider such a sentence outside the situation or context, then its meaning will remain incomprehensible to us (For example, out of context: Mine; She is to no one).

In the Russian language there is one type of incomplete sentences in which the missing member is not restored and is not prompted by the situation, the previous context. Moreover, the “missing” members are not required to reveal the meaning of the sentence. Such sentences are understandable even without context or situation:

Behind is a field. To the left and right are swamps.

Such sentences are called "elliptic sentences". They usually contain a subject and a secondary member - adverbial or complement. The predicate is missing, and often we cannot say which predicate is missing.

For example: There is/is/is a swamp behind you.

Most scientists consider such sentences to be structurally incomplete, since the secondary member of the sentence (adverbial or complement) refers to the predicate, and the predicate is not represented in the sentence.

Elliptical incomplete sentences should be distinguished: a) from one-component nominals (swamp) and b) from two-part ones - with a compound nominal predicate, expressed indirect case of a noun or adverb with a zero connective (All the trees are in gold). To distinguish between these structures, the following must be taken into account:

1) one-part denominative sentences cannot contain adverbials, because the adverbial circumstance is always associated with the predicate. Among the minor members in denominative sentences, the most common are agreed upon and inconsistent definitions.

Winter forest; Entrance to the office;

2) The nominal part of a compound nominal predicate - a noun or adverb in a two-part complete sentence indicates a sign-state.

For example: All trees are in gold. - All trees are golden.

The omission of a member within a sentence in oral speech is marked by a pause, in place of which a dash is placed in the letter:

Behind is a field. To the left and right are swamps;

Most regularly, a dash is placed in the following cases:

In an elliptical sentence containing a subject and adverbial place, an object, only if there is a pause in oral speech:

Behind the high hill is a forest;

In an elliptical sentence - with parallelism, i.e. the same type of sentence members, word order, forms of expression, etc. structures or parts thereof:

In incomplete sentences constructed according to the scheme: nouns in the accusative and dative cases (with the omission of the subject and predicate) with a clear intonation division of the sentence into parts:

For skiers - a good track; For young people - jobs, for young families - benefits;

In an incomplete sentence forming part of a complex sentence, when a member is missing, usually this predicate is restored from the previous part of the phrase - only if there is a pause:

The nights have become longer, the days shorter (in the second part the bundle of steel is restored).

Plan for parsing an incomplete sentence

A) Indicate the type of proposal (complete – incomplete).
b) Name the missing part of the sentence.

Sample parsing

Warriors are for weapons.

The sentence is incomplete; missing predicate grabbed.

1. The concept of an incomplete sentence.

2. Types of incomplete sentences.

3. Incomplete sentences in dialogic speech.

4. Elliptical sentences.

5. Use of incomplete and elliptical sentences.

In the Russian language, taking into account the structure of sentences, there are incomplete sentences.

Incomplete is a sentence characterized by incomplete grammatical structure. Certain formally organizing members (main or secondary) are clear from the context or speech situation without being named.

The functioning of incomplete sentences is associated with the laws of text construction.

For example, in the sentence: The linden tree needs this juice, the lily of the valley needs this juice, the pine tree needs this juice, and the fern or wild raspberry needs this juice. (Kuprin).

Only the 1st part is characterized by the completeness of the grammatical structure, and all the rest are incomplete, the omission of the main members in them is constricted - determined by the context, i.e. their presence in the 1st part of the sentence.

The incompleteness of the grammatical structure of these sentences is manifested in the use of words as dependent members: form of definition That(m.r., singular, i.p.) is determined by the form of the unnamed juice, form of additions lily of the valley, pine, fern, raspberry(D. p.) - unnamed controlling predicate needed.

Thus, despite their absence, these members participate in the formation of incomplete sentences. The incompleteness of the grammatical structure of such sentences does not prevent them from serving the purposes of communication, because the omission of certain members does not violate the semantic completeness and definiteness of these sentences.

In their structure, incomplete sentences belong to the same types as complete ones. They can be common and uncommon, two-part and, as some linguists believe, one-part. But we take as a basis the point of view of linguists who believe that all one-part sentences are complete.

Uniformity and incompleteness of a sentence are completely different concepts. Incomplete sentences have missing members in their structure, single-component sentences do not have any one main member at all. In incomplete ones, missing members are, as a rule, restored. This cannot happen in single-component ones. In addition, in incomplete sentences, not only the main members, but also the secondary ones can be omitted. Several members can be skipped at once, for example:

1) Here roads first time divided:

2) one went up the river,

3) another - somewhere right. (The 3rd sentence is incomplete, the subject and predicate are missing.)

Incomplete sentences are divided into contextual And situational.

Contextual incomplete sentences with unnamed members of the sentence that were mentioned in the context are called: in nearby sentences or in the same sentence, if it is complex.

Ex: On one side of the gap, with his arms crossed, in a woman’s crimson beret, is a figure with blue eyes and a small black mustache above thin, serpentine lips curved into a Mephistophelian smile. On the other side stood the boss, and everyone knew that the boss now stood for the truth and would not waver for a single minute (Prishvin).

In 1 sentence the predicate is omitted stood(in sentence 2 it is present), and in sentence 2 - part of the circumstance side(in sentence 1, the same type of circumstance is given entirely on one side).

Situational called incomplete sentences with unnamed members that are clear from the situation, prompted by the situation.

For example: offer It's coming! supplemented by the subject-actor depending on the situation of speech (train, teacher, bus, etc.)

-Vania! - came faintly from the stage.

-Give me yellow(the situation of speech suggests that yellow light is meant).

- I'm going to the shop - I need flour and salt. “No need for flour, no need for salt,” he said, “it’s damp and slushy outside.”

- I put on rubber ones, - said the young woman(meaning boots).

It should be noted that the division of sentences into situational and contextual is to a certain extent arbitrary, since the word context often denotes the situation of speech. In addition, in written speech, situational sentences acquire some properties of contextual sentences, since the situation of speech is described and receives verbal expression, for example:

-How sweet! - said Countess Marya, looking at the child and playing with him (L. Tolstoy)

Depending on the type of speech, incomplete ones differ dialogical And monologue sentences, which can be both oral and written.

Dialogical incomplete sentences are interconnected replicas of dialogue (dialogical unity).

For example:

-Go get a bandage.

-Will kill...

-Crawling…

- You won’t be saved anyway.

In a dialogue remark, as a rule, those parts of the sentence are used that add something new to the message and the parts of the sentence already mentioned by the speaker are not repeated.

In monologue speech, incomplete sentences can be distinguished, taking into account level differences in syntactic units:

a) incomplete sentences in which part of a complex word form or part of an entire phrase that makes up one member of a sentence is not repeated, for example:

I decided to take up songbird hunting; it seemed to me that this would feed me well: I I'll catch, A grandmaselling(M. Gorky).

b) incomplete sentences that are part of complex sentences of different types, for example:

Youth is rich in hopes, and old age is rich in experience.

Elliptical are called independently used sentences of a special type, the specific structure of which is the absence of a verbal predicate not mentioned in the context, i.e. semantically not necessary for the transmission of this message. The predicate, which is absent and does not need to be restored, however, participates in the formation of the structure of these sentences, because they contain secondary members of the predicate composition. In this respect, elliptical sentences are closer to incomplete ones.

It should be noted that these sentences require neither context nor situation in order to form an idea of ​​an action or state. It is expressed by the entire construction as a whole, the purpose of which is to communicate about the place, time, method that characterizes an action or state, or to indicate the object of the action.

Ex: Behind the house there is a garden filled with sun.

The native expanses are wide. In the depths of coal, gold and copper.

The lexical limitation of the missing predicate verbs is manifested in the uniformity of the construction of elliptical sentences: the members, their components, are few.

The secondary members in them are either circumstances of place and, less often, time or reason.

Ex: Steppe everywhere; Check in at five o'clock.

or an addition with the value of a replacement item:

Ex: Instead of an answer, silence.

Elliptical sentences are sometimes classified as incomplete. However, some linguists consider such sentences to be incomplete only in historical terms and do not classify them as incomplete in the modern Russian language (Gvozdev A.N.)

Such sentences cannot really qualify as incomplete, because their incompleteness is a structural norm. These are typified constructions that do not need to restore any members of the sentence; they are quite complete (even out of context) from the point of view of their communicative task.

Incomplete and elliptical sentences are used mainly in the field of conversational styles. They are widely used as a sign of colloquialism in fiction or when conveying dialogue, and in descriptions. Different types of incomplete and elliptical sentences also have a specific stylistic fixation.

For example, the dialogue is dominated by incomplete situational and elliptical sentences with an object extender:

They began to administer justice: some by the hair, some by the ears (G.).

Descriptions tend to be more elliptical sentences. Particularly characteristic of stage directions in dramatic works. You can give an example of how Gorky constructs a remark description: the description contains a brief description of the setting of the action:

Ex: In the left corner there is a large Russian stove, in the left - stone wall - the door to the kitchen where Kvashnya, Baron, Nastya live... There are couples everywhere on the walls. In the middle of the shelter there is a large table, two benches, a stool, everything is unpainted and dirty.

Some types of contextual incomplete sentences can be reproduced in scientific speech. Various types of incomplete and elliptical sentences, as a fact of living conversational speech, have been widely used in newspaper language in recent years. These designs provide rich material for developing the structure of headings; numerous ellipses here are already a kind of standard. The language of the newspaper tends to be dynamic and catchy. Ex: (examples from newspaper headlines) Scientists to the Motherland.

Peace to Earth.

Radio for schoolchildren.

Control questions

1. What sentences are called incomplete?