A question about く adverbs and する omission

Japanese
#1

Hi everyone,

My understanding is that, in some cases, a verb like する may be omitted or implied, leaving a standalone adverb (e.g., 早く！). Are there any guidelines on which adverbs frequently appear alone, or how common this is used with poetic license?

I was looking at the lyrics for the song [未練] and had trouble determining if 深く below was an example of an implied する, an adverb for one of the other verbs, or formal conjunctive. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

繰り返すほど色深く
宙に浮いたこの想いを
今宵も刻みこむ

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#2

Great question!
In this case, it’s not specifically する verbs that will be omitted, but really any verb!

なになにを〜 is a construction that you will see very often in Japanese. In songs, on street signs (and very often on political posters). In 9/10 cases, the interpretation is up to the reader.

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#4

Thanks Asher, this is helpful! I will browse company slogans and advertisements for additional examples.

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#5

This was a pretty famous one from a couple of years ago.

image
image720×1019 61.7 KB

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#6

One additional example from Panasonic slogan: 「幸せの、チカラに。」

Omission of subjects/particles seems to have more coverage in English web resources, so I have included a summary of common verb omissions (Previously deleted, but confirmed source paper is open access on J-Stage).

MASAKI MURATA, MAKOTO NAGAO
Resolution of Verb Phrase Ellipsis in Japanese Sentences using Surface Expressions and Examples, Journal of Natural Language Processing, 1998, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 119-133, Released on J-STAGE March 01, 2011, Online ISSN 2185-8314, Print ISSN 1340-7619, https://doi.org/10.5715/jnlp.5.119, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jnlp1994/5/1/5_1_119/_article/-char/en,

文末に動詞が欠けている文の分類
Classification of Sentences Missing Verbs at the End
1. 補完される動詞がテキスト内 The verb to be supplemented is within the text
    • 同一文（Same sentence） 
        ◦ 倒置文（Inverted sentence） 
            ▪ 「誰ですか、来たのは」"Who is it that came?" 
    • 前方の文（Previous sentence） 
        ◦ 疑問応答（Question response） 
            ▪ 「何を壊したの」 "What did you break?" 
            ▪ 「これを」 "This." 
        ◦ 理由・逆接・仮定（Reason, contrast, hypothesis） 
            ▪ 「明るいね。電気をつけたから」 "It's bright. Because I turned on the light." 
        ◦ 補足（Supplement） 
            ▪ 「なくしものをした。鍵を」 "I lost something. The key." 

2. 補完される動詞がテキスト外 The verb to be supplemented is outside the text
    • 疑問文（Question） 
        ◦ 「名前は」"Name?" 
    • ダの省略（Omission of 'da'） 
        ◦ 「わたしは学生」"I am a student." 
    • スルの省略（Omission of 'suru'） 
        ◦ 「コーヒーをお願い」"Coffee, please." 
    • その他（常識による補完）(Other)
        ◦ 「そううまくいくとは」"That it would go so well..."
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#7

rofl as soon as I read “political poster” this was instantly the first thing that popped into my mind

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