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What do those who comment on sentence construction really mean by "not a full thought"?

What on earth is a "a full thought"?

In the field of conversation analysis we often talk about the syntactic, prosodic, and pragmatic (possible) completion of a turn-at-talk. Here "pragmatically complete" (which is vaguely similar to a "complete thought") describes a bit of talk that accomplished an action.

In the following invented example (a definitely NO-NO in CA but what the heck it's just an illustration), B's turn might be syntactically and prosodically complete but it hasn't yet performed the sequentially relevant action of "answering a question" and it this sense it is pragmatically incomplete.

A: What time is the party?
B: My friend and I were going to go.

"A full thought" might be taken to mean the (purported) sentence lacks either a subject or a verb.

For example, "Beach very fun place to go in the summer" to me is a full thought, but if a student wrote it I'd mark it as "needs a verb". In terms of communication, it's understandable, but in terms of grammar it lacks an essential sentence part.

Could it be the case that "incomplete thoughts" are only produced by half-wits?

abufletcher wrote:In the field of conversation analysis we often talk about the syntactic, prosodic, and pragmatic (possible) completion of a turn-at-talk. Here "pragmatically complete" (which is vaguely similar to a "complete thought") describes a bit of talk that accomplished an action.

In the following invented example (a definitely NO-NO in CA but what the heck it's just an illustration), B's turn might be syntactically and prosodically complete but it hasn't yet performed the sequentially relevant action of "answering a question" and it this sense it is pragmatically incomplete.

A: What time is the party?
B: My friend and I were going to go.

So because it hasn't answered the question it's not a full thought, right?

BTW, where did you study CA?

sbourque wrote:"A full thought" might be taken to mean the (purported) sentence lacks either a subject or a verb.

For example, "Beach very fun place to go in the summer" to me is a full thought, but if a student wrote it I'd mark it as "needs a verb". In terms of communication, it's understandable, but in terms of grammar it lacks an essential sentence part.

But is has a got verb.

abufletcher wrote:Could it be the case that "incomplete thoughts" are only produced by half-wits?

Have you ever had an incomplete thought?

metal56 wrote:

abufletcher wrote:Could it be the case that "incomplete thoughts" are only produced by half-wits?

Have you ever had an incomplete thought?

Lots and LOTS of them!!! Mostly it seems to happen in class!

metal56 wrote:BTW, where did you study CA?

Officially my Ph.D. was at the University of York with Paul Drew, Tony Wootton, and John Local. But I also spent my sabbatical at UCLA taking courses with Schegloff and (C.) Goodwin. I was also lucky enough to get into a 6-week CA practicum taught be Schegloff, Lerner, Heritage, and Zimmerman.

metal56 wrote: So because it hasn't answered the question it's not a full thought, right?

That's right. The pragmatic incompletion would likely signal to possible next speakers that the current speaker isn't yet finished with some multiple unit ("TCU") rhetorical project and thus these possible next speakers would likely withhold participation (by not taking a turn) at a point in talk that might otherwise seem to be "transition relevant."

abufletcher wrote:

metal56 wrote:BTW, where did you study CA?

Officially my Ph.D. was at the University of York with Paul Drew, Tony Wootton, and John Local. But I also spent my sabbatical at UCLA taking courses with Schegloff and (C.) Goodwin. I was also lucky enough to get into a 6-week CA practicum taught be Schegloff, Lerner, Heritage, and Zimmerman.

Lucky you.

Well, I have to admit that I moved heaven and earth to make sure I was in a position to "get lucky!"