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"You try breaking that window yet?"

I can't guess the exact tense of this sentence, because of 'yet'. Is it a question for someone who is trying to break the window or have tried to break it?

Seulgi So
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  • It's a non-standard but fairly common partaphrase of "Have you tried to break that window yet?" – Edwin Ashworth Jun 05 '20 at 14:38
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    The past tense Did at the beginning of Did you try breaking that window yet? has been deleted by Conversational Deletion because it's predictable from the construction you try breaking, which can only occur after inversion and Do-support in a question. It has nothing to do with the yet, which just helps justify the past tense of the deleted did. – John Lawler Jun 05 '20 at 16:56
  • @JohnLawler: But could we delete the 'did' if 'yet' wasn't present? It sounds really quite off to me -- "[You] try breaking that window?" doesn't seem to completely convey the meaning of "Did you try breaking that window?". Which I don't find to be the case with "[You] try breaking that window yet?". / (I do have a guess for why one of the two forms, "Try breaking that window?", doesn't seem to convey the intended meaning completely to me: I think it's because "Try breaking that window?" can also be used as a tentative, underconfident suggestion to someone (which the two latter ellipted.... – HeWhoMustBeNamed Oct 12 '20 at 18:36
  • ... forms, because of the 'yet', cannot), and so its association with the unellipted question is weaker than that of the latter ellipted forms.) – HeWhoMustBeNamed Oct 12 '20 at 18:37
  • As you point out, the presence of yet changes the context and thus the predictability of various markers. – John Lawler Oct 12 '20 at 18:39
  • @JohnLawler, another thing: Apart from the dissertation reference in the link, do you know of any other good references to study Conversational Deletion, which are more easily available to buy or read online? Thanks! – HeWhoMustBeNamed Oct 12 '20 at 18:47

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