single word requests - Is there a name for the practice of dropping pronouns in written speech?


I’m specifically thinking about emails I receive all day where someone will write:



Haven’t seen it yet. Will respond when received.



If it were spoken, we would certainly hear:



I haven’t seen it yet. I will respond when I receive it.



It’s mostly the dropping of I that I wonder about. Is there a name for this phenomenon?



Answer



It's not just pronouns that are getting dropped. It's whole chunks of sentences.



Will respond when received.



lacks not just its subject I, but also the subject it and the auxiliary verb is from when received. This is the written version of Conversational Deletion, a very common practice in speech, discussed here.


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