Understanding What Is Left Unsaid
The question supplies the issue; a short reply supplies the requested information.
How It Works
A short answer can identify a requested person, item or time using a phrase followed by ni. After a question about what someone wants, Ẹran ni, “Meat,” supplies the answer without repeating the wanting predicate. This identifying fragment need not be analysed as a full focus clause with all following words deleted.
Retained words still obey ordinary pronoun and tone patterns. There is no special agreement ending for a short answer. In bargaining, Rárá, kò gbà rejects the offered price while leaving the named item understood. The item is the understood subject of the price judgment. Ordinary third-person singular negative syntax also lacks a separate ó here, so that absence is not evidence of unrestricted conversational subject deletion. Repeat the item or event when competing referents would make the intended answer unclear.
Examples (3)
- Kí ni o fẹ́? — Ẹran ni.
What do you want? — Meat.
The reply identifies the desired item without repeating the predicate.
- Ta ni ó wá? — Títí ni.
Who came? — Títí.
The preceding question supplies the event.
- Ṣé bàtà náà gba ogún náírà? — Rárá, kò gbà.
Can I get those shoes for twenty naira? — No, you cannot.
The reply rejects the price; the shoes remain the understood subject of gbà.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Recover a short reply's unstated meaning from the preceding exchange.
- kí / kí niAsking What
Provides item questions for contextual answers.
Level 1 - kòNegating a Statement
Explains ordinary kò negative syntax retained in the bargaining reply, including the absence of a separate short ó.
Level 1 - ta / ta niAsking Who
Supplies the actor-question frame that makes the event recoverable in Ta ni ó wá? — Títí ni.
Level 1
Related Patterns
Practice Understanding What Is Left Unsaid in Bubblegum
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