ABSTRACT
29.1. After considering those cases in which a kernel has been used unchanged, with internal change, and with additions either in the form of suffixes or of prefixes, our task is now to consider those cases in which a kernel is shortened in some way or other. The result cannot be considered an incomplete kernel, for to the speaker the expression of his thought is just as complete as if he had used a full kernel or a kernel + a suffix or a prefix: the outcome is rather to be considered a new kernel, even if from a historical point of view it can or must be looked upon as a shortened kernel. These shorter words are called clipped words, elliptical words, or curtailments: I have ventured to coin the name stump-words (Dan. stumpeord, rendered in the German translation of my Language as stutzwörter).
Literature. Karl Sundén, Ellipt. Words in Modern English. Uppsala 1904 (after a valuable introduction on ellipsis in word-structure and sentence-structure Sundén gives a full treatment of shortenings of proper names; the continuation promised in the preface never appeared).—H. Bradley, The Making of English p. 147 ff.—Elisabeth Wittmann, Clipped Words (Dial. Notes IV. 2. 1914: a wealth of material, but badly arranged, i. a. according to number of syllables in the original words, which is quite irrelevant).—Koziol pp. 218–229 with numerous references to further literature on the subject.—I myself have touched on the subject in various places, to begin with Subtraktionsdannelser in Festskrift til Vilhelm Thomsen 1894, in Language (— Die Sprache) VII § 7 and IX § 7, in Monosyllabism (Linguistica p. 387), and in Efficiency in Ling. Change 3.5.
