We have the following headline:
Trump Calls Quits On Paris Climate Deal
What part of speech is 'quits'? Is it a verb or noun?
What are the words left out and what is the grammar in general behind this?
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M-W and most other dictionaries list the word specifically.– Nathan TuggyJun 7, 2017 at 17:54
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It's "headlinese" (missing out the word it). Compare call it a day.– FumbleFingersJun 7, 2017 at 18:32
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It's a mistake; the idiom has to be calls it quits. They should have written: leaves– LambieJun 7, 2017 at 18:43
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1There is no grammar behind headlines other than using the fewest words to convey the barest sense of what the article is about to the target audience. Don't get hung up on headline grammar.– Rob KJun 7, 2017 at 20:06
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1@Lambie - It looks fine to me – for a headline. This is not the first time that this shortcut has been taken.– J.R. ♦Jun 7, 2017 at 22:23
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1 Answer
In your example of headlinese
Trump Calls Quits On Paris Climate Deal
"quits" is an adjective, and the missing bits are
Trump Calls (It) Quits On (The) Paris Climate Deal
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1Yes, and it really should be: call it quits or leaves. Calls quits is really not acceptable, even in a headline. It sounds awful.– LambieJun 7, 2017 at 18:31
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@Lambie, "quits" is more inflammatory than "leaves", which attracts more eyeballs. The objective is to sell papers or attract views--clickbait. Jun 7, 2017 at 20:23
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Note also that in headlinese, the past tense is written as simple present tense (this headline isn't saying that Trump is in the process of "calling it quits" but that he already did so). Even more bizarrely, future tense is written as a simple infinitive (i.e. "[subject] to [verb] [object]"). Overall, headline grammar is quite atypical of English.– KevinJun 7, 2017 at 20:37