In some languages we can remove the subject (and sometimes a verb too) from a sentence. In Toy Story 3, the kid says "Coming!" instead of "I am coming!" to her mother.
My questions are:
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1.) Can I say "Coming!" instead of "I am coming!" in English?
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2.) If I can, when can I remove the subject and verb?
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3.) And would this be considered standard English?
(NOTE: The OP is asking about "ellipsis of subject pronoun + auxiliary", which is a topic that comes up often on grammar and linguistics forums/sites. It is a good question. — F.E.)
Best Answer
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Your question is asking about "ellipsis of subject pronoun + auxiliary", which is a topic that comes up often on grammar and linguistics forums/sites. It is a good question.
So, instead of saying:
we often simply say:
What has happened is that the pronoun "I" and the auxiliary verb "am" has been ellipted out. This kind of ellipsis, where the subject pronoun and an auxiliary is omitted, is part of the bigger topic of ellipsis.
Instead of having me bumble about and perhaps mis-speak here and there, allow me to type in here some related excerpts from a reputable grammar source, such as the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL), pages 1540-1.
CGEL, section "7.8 Further cases of ellipsis", subsection "7.8.1 Ellipsis of grammaticised words at the beginning of a main clause", page 1540:
That section had good info, but allow me to skip ahead to the part that is related to your specific example. On page 1541:
And so, you can see that your example fits into that above category ([74.i]), where the subject pronoun and auxiliary is ellipted: "I am coming!" ==> "Coming!"