Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 October 20

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October 20

Dialog doubt in Serenity (2005 film)

The Operative speaks to Malcolm about the parliament:

• The Operative: Your broadwave about Miranda has weakened their regime.They are not gone and they are not forgiving.
• Malcolm: That don't bode especially well for you, giving the order to let us go, patching up our hurt.
• The Operative: I told them the Tams were no longer a threat, damage done.

Is "is" omitted before "done" here? Rizosome (talk) 06:19, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

In many languages, a copular verb may often be omitted. It is not quite as common in English, but it happens, mostly in oral communication: "true that" instead of "that is true", "enough said", etc. --T*U (talk) 06:46, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

A related but much more common idiom in English is "job done". Alansplodge (talk) 10:27, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

'Nuff said. DuncanHill (talk) 12:10, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Case closed. --T*U (talk) 14:16, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Y'all crazy. --Jayron32 16:14, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

I think this is much more common with a participle than with any other kind of adjective, and I suspect it is related to absolute constructions like "The job finished, he went home". "True that" is certainly an entirely different construction ("That true" doesn't work), and I'm dubious about "Y'all crazy" - I think there's a "'re" in there, even if it pretty well disappears. --ColinFine (talk) 20:57, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Y'all = you all. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:35, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

It should be noted that the dialogue in the film and Firefly (TV series) "... tended to be a bizarre purée of wisecracks, old-timey Western-paperback patois, and snatches of Chinese." as noted here. That is jut an additional part of the items the rest of you have mentioned. MarnetteD|Talk 21:20, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Yes. like the last time this was asked. It's more generally the way Joss Whedon writes genre fiction, stretching the language to make it sound futuristic, dated, or just off. I had a look at his article and found an interview on this in particular: Joss Whedon on Comic Books, Abusing Language and the Joys of Genre.--2A00:23C8:4583:9F01:DC9B:A2E8:5DDE:B202 (talk) 21:33, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

As for "Y'all crazy.", it sounds somewhat like ebonics to me, and if I remember correctly, there the copula could regularly be dropped if it's not emphasized. I.e. it could be dropped when it's contracted in regular English. (Cf. ecamples "I'm bigger than he is." "He's bigger than I am.") 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 02:15, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Going back to the original question, this 'method' may be used for effective communication, when the copula can be omitted without losing clarity: “Road closed”, “Message received”, “Door locked”, “Boarding completed”. In certain contexts, even the sentence subject may be omitted: “Understood”, “Finished”, “Done”. In a way it is the principle of Occam's razor used on language: Cut away all that is unnecessary. --T*U (talk) 08:25, 21 October 2021 (UTC)