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My specific question is, why is not any auxiliary followed by coming?

I've seen a lot of sentences as following one, but this time it made me wonder if there was any grammar behind that like omission or participle clause, or it was just an informal spoken English.

You feel another one coming?

I thought it could stand for 'Do you feel that another one is coming' or '... that another one comes' or '... that another one is going to come' or '... that another one will come'.

In this sentence one refers to a bird, but I don't think this makes any difference.

Here is another example:

Doctor to a pregnant woman: "(Do) You feel another one coming?" (one refers to contraction)

How about this example:

(Do) You think he (or him) coming?

Afsane
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  • I believe some upvoted my question because they thought it was about conversational deletion, but it is not. So please, before any upvoting, read the questions thoroughly (or answer for that matter). P.S. Because of this reason, I needed to EDIT the question. – Afsane Dec 06 '16 at 11:12

1 Answers1

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There's two parts to this.

First, the omission of the auxiliary "Do". This is common in everyday speech for an immediate question. The auxiliary doesn't have to be 'do':

You feel it? [Do]

They coming? [Are]

Seen it? [Have you]

The second question is about the participle "coming". I think you may be misparsing. This doesn't stand for "You feel that another one is coming?" - that would be perfectly grammatical, but has a slightly different meaning.

This is more like "You feel another one that is coming?". "Another one coming" is a noun phrase, the object of "feel". "Feel" in this case means "sense" or "be aware of", rather than "believe", or "expect".

Community
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Colin Fine
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    This is an example of Conversational Deletion, which is very common in speech. Basic rule: any sequence of predictable function words at the beginning of the sentence may be deleted. – John Lawler Dec 05 '16 at 17:28
  • I found another example using exactly feel. Doctor to a pregnant woman: "(Do) You feel another one coming?" (one refers to contractions). And I cannot understand if it is actually Do you feel another one that is coming? Would you mind explaining? By the way, I added another example into my question, if it makes any deference. – Afsane Dec 05 '16 at 19:14
  • No, "You think he coming" is ungrammatical. "You hear him coming?" is fine. It's an object noun phrase, so it has to be 'him', not 'he'; and 'think' doesn't take a direct object like that (the only direct object it can take is a thought'. But verbs of perception - 'see', 'hear', 'feel' - do take a direct object of what is perceived. This emphasises how it is a completely different construction from "You think he is coming?" where the 'is' cannot be deleted. – Colin Fine Dec 05 '16 at 19:31
  • @JohnLawler Honestly, my question wasn't about the conversational deletion. – Afsane Dec 06 '16 at 10:09
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    The feel/sense/see/hear X V-ing sense verb construction is common, and alternates with the feel/sense/see/hear X V infinitive construction (without to). The gerund version is for events that are ongoing, while the infinitive is for reports of events: She saw him speaking and She saw him speak. There's not a great deal of difference. – John Lawler Dec 06 '16 at 15:37
  • @JohnLawler Thanks for the link. It was very helpful. I have to say again more than helpful. Wow! – Afsane Dec 06 '16 at 21:51
  • @JohnLawler & Colin Fine Just one thing. In my example (i.e. Do you feel another one coming?) what happens to coming, Is that a matter of grammar that is applied to participle clauses or sense verbs? – Afsane Dec 06 '16 at 22:10
  • Coming is part of the structure. That's what happens to it. I guess I don't understand the question. – John Lawler Dec 07 '16 at 00:40
  • I'm sorry, @Afsane; like John Lawler, I don't understand you further questions. – Colin Fine Dec 07 '16 at 13:49
  • The elided words are more like 'to be' than 'that be'. 'That' is restrictive. It's easier to see if the object is definite, such as "Do you hear Bob coming?" – AmI Sep 20 '18 at 09:26