Subject omission other than imperative

[57730]

Hello,
I noticed that sometimes, the subject of some sentences that are not enonciated in imperative misses.
I wonder why it does, and when it is acceptable to omit the subject.

Examples :

Just drank some iced tea.
Feeling good.

 

[GoesStation]

Hello,
I noticed that sometimes, the subject of some sentences that are not [STRIKE]enonciated[/STRIKE] in the imperative [STRIKE]misses[/STRIKE] is missing.
I wonder why [STRIKE]it does[/STRIKE], and when it is acceptable to omit the subject.

Examples :

Just drank some iced tea.
Feeling good.

You can omit first-person singular subject pronouns in casual speech when the context makes clear who the subject is.

 

[jutfrank]

I'll add that this is only the case in writing. We don't tend to do it when we're talking.

It is especially common in genres such as text messages and social media posts.

 

[GoesStation]

You can similarly omit the second-person subject pronoun in interrogative sentences in casual writing. Americans often do it in speech, too.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'll add that this is only the case in writing. We don't tend to do it when we're talking.

It is especially common in genres such as text messages and social media posts.

I would say it's equally common in spoken and written BrE, in casual contexts. If someone asked me how I was or what I was up to (in speech), I'd be quite likely to answer "Just finished tennis. Really need to get some lunch!"

 

[jutfrank]

I would say it's equally common in spoken and written BrE, in casual contexts. If someone asked me how I was or what I was up to (in speech), I'd be quite likely to answer "Just finished tennis. Really need to get some lunch!"

Perhaps I shouldn't have said "only the case in writing". I really don't want to tell people what they say but I'm pretty sure it's not very common in speech, relatively speaking. It's certainly far from being equally common.

I'll adjust my comment to say that it is a typical feature of casual written English (where it isn't typical of spoken English). If pushed, I'd guess that it is one of the rich features that mark spoken from written modes fairly reliably, precisely because it is so common in certain genres of written discourse. Song lyrics is another such genre.