Definition & Bedeutung von "gap"

What is a "gap"?

In linguistics, a gap refers to the absence of a word or phrase that is expected in a sentence, usually because it has been omitted for clarity or efficiency. Gaps often occur in constructions like gapping, where repeated elements are left out, or in relative clauses, where the missing element is understood from the context. For example, in the sentence "I want to go hiking, and she does too," there is a gap after "does" where the phrase "want to go hiking" would typically be expected. Understanding gaps is important for analyzing sentence structure and how meaning is conveyed in language without unnecessary repetition.