In linguistics, what is the differnce between elision, relaxed pronunciation and contractions?

Answer 1

Elision omits letters from words to shorten them, with the missing letters being replaced by an apostrophe, e.g. I'm, let's

Relaxed pronunciation is the result of words as they tend to be lazily or naturally pronounced in real life being back-transcribed into a new word form, e.g. gonna, wanna.

Contractions are the same as elisions but can also refer to portmanteau words, such as "God be with you" > "Goodbye".

Answer 2

I have a Master's degree in linguistics, and I work in a phonology lab, but I don't use any of these terms frequently, so I'm wondering if you are trying to figure out fine distinctions between terms that don't really matter.

Elision is simple enough. It means omitting sounds. I usually call this "deletion", though.

I have never heard the term "relaxed pronunciation" as far as I can remember, but I guess the previous answerer's answer is reasonable. It certainly is true that there is evidence that words like "gonna" are now single lexical units in many speakers' dialects, not shortened versions of phrases.

A contraction is a shortened form, typically of a phrase. For example "it's" is considered a contraction of "it is".

If you got these terms out of a textbook, I guess you can look them up in your text or ask your professor. Another possibility is that perhaps you are in the UK because I believe that linguists in different countries use different terms. (I'm an American.)

Answer 3

I'm not totally sure but if you are having contractions take deep breaths count the minutes between and phone the hospital -Tee-Hee