Definition:

A fragmented, elliptical, or incomplete sentence or clause that still conveys meaning. Also called a minor clause, an abbreviated clause, or a sentence fragment.

There are several types of minor sentences and clauses in English. These include exclamations and interjections (for example, "Wow" and "What the hell"), aphoristic expressions ("Like father, like son"), answers to questions ("Not right now"), self-identification ("Mary here"), imperatives ("Go!"), and vocatives ("You over there!").

As shown below, minor sentences are used more often in speech and tweets than in formal written English.

The use of the term minor to describe this sentence pattern in English has been attributed to both Leonard Bloomfield (Language, 1933) and Eugene Nida (dissertation, 1943; Synopsis of English Syntax, 1966).

See Examples and Observations, below. Also see:

• The Rise of Minor Sentences in English: Got It?
• Block Language
• Conversation Analysis
• Ellipsis
• Fragment
• In Defense of Fragments, Crots, and Verbless Sentences
• Verbless Clause
• Verbless Sentence
• What Is a Sentence?
• You Understood

 

Examples and Observations:

• "That's the grub signal. All out for breakfast. First come, first served."
  (Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Harvey Girls. Random House, 1942)
• "One of his sons suddenly turned his head and exclaimed, 'Hullo! What is that?' He dived through the door and I heard him shout. 'Fire! Fire!' We crowded after him pushing our way past the buffaloes."
  (Wilfred Thesiger, The Marsh Arabs. Longmans, 1964)
• "Three words--not even words yet, but leaps and trembles in her blood--gave a new rhythm to her breathing.
  
  "Serves him right. Serves him right. Serves him right."
  (Lynn Freed, "William." The Curse of the Appropriate Man. Harvest, 2004)

• "'Have you heard the weather forecast?' Bassie growled at Jim as she approached. 'It's supposed to sleet.'
  
  "'Good morning,' he replied cheerfully, closing the book. 'We've got a full day before the sleet gets here, if it does. And I've got tarps, to cover things up if we have to. Good morning, Meg.'
  
  "Bassie settled herself onto a low ledge.
  
  "'How's the Texas weather?' Jim asked Meg.
  
  "'So far so good. No rain where it matters.'
  
  "'So you don't have to go home?'
  
  "'Not yet, anyway.'"
  (Elizabeth Crook, The Night Journal. Viking Penguin, 2006)
• "'Come home.'
  
  "'Now?' he asked irritably. 'My shift isn't over. What's so important that I have to come home now?'
  
  "'Come home,' she repeated. 'Now.'"
  (Mary Relindes Ellis, The Turtle Warrior. Viking Penguin, 2004)
   
• "There were the same wooden horses, the same brass rings, the same ice-cream stands, cotton candy vendors. And always the children. Short pants and Mickey Mouse shirts. Lollipops and ice-cream cones and laughter and giggling. The language of the young. The music--the symphony of summer. The sounds swirled around him. Calliope, laughter, children. Again the tight feeling in his throat. Bittersweet again. All of it he had left so far behind and now he was so close to it."
  (Rod Serling, "Walking Distance." Stories From the Twilight Zone. CreateSpace, 2013)
• Minor Sentences at the Market
  "[O]ften purchases may be made entirely with the use of minor sentence types: How much for these? Fifty cents a dozen. Too much. How about these over here? Well, how much for them? Forty cents per. All right. A few sprigs of parsley too, then? Okay. Thanks. Good-bye."
  (Eugene A. Nida, A Synopsis of English Syntax. Walter de Gruyter, 1973)
• Stylistic Advice
  "Not all sentences contain verbs; completeness is not dependent on the presence of a finite verb. Grammarians do, however, put sentences without finite verbs in a special category of their own. They call them 'minor sentences.' 'To return to the matter in hand' and 'What an absolutely perfect day!' are, like 'Yes!' and 'Really?' minor sentences.
  
  "Minor sentences are, on the whole, more at home in spoken than in written English. If you are writing dialogue, then you may be called upon to write minor sentences quite frequently. Ordinary continuous prose, especially in a neutral or more formal style, should not contain too many of them. . . . It is usually advisable to think about making any minor sentences that you write in a first draft into full sentences by combining them with other material."
  (Martin H. Manser, The Facts on File Guide to Style. Infobase, 2006)
• Minor Sentences and Illocutionary Force
  "[M]inor clauses which function independently may have illocutionary force, . . . as can be seen from the following two examples of minor clauses from the dialogue, to which we add an example of a moodless -ing clause:

  Simon here. (minor clause)
  Fantastic! (minor clause)
  Looking forward to seeing you. (moodless clause)

  In conversational exchanges in English, minor clauses and abbreviated clauses play an important part in their ability to realise initiations and responses to initiations."
  (Angela Downing and Philip Locke, English Grammar: A University Course. Routledge, 2006)
• Minor Sentences in Tweets
  "A decision also has to be made about how to handle minor sentences (yeah, wow, hey, haha, etc.), which are a noticeable feature of Twitter data. Presumably elements such as lol, omg, btw, smh, and emoticons should be classed as minor sentences, even though some etymologically represent something more complex (laughing out loud, scratching my head). These appear in 25 tweets (17 per cent) and are a major feature of the style of some tweeters, who can introduce three or four in a single message:

  ha ha yea thats the best language to speak lol

  In all, 36 tweets (25 per cent) incorporate minor sentences of one kind or another."
  (David Crystal, Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide. Routledge, 2011)