Ellipsis in English

What is ellipsis?
SOMETHING UNDERSTOOD, ‘understood’ in the special sense of ‘going without saying’ (obvious). We are referring to clauses and sentences, etc. whose structure is such as to presuppose some preceding item, which then serves as the source of the missing information. An elliptical item is one which leaves specific structural slots to be filled from elsewhere.
Example: Joan brought some carnations, and Cathrine (E) some sweet peas.

Ellipsis, Substitution, and Reference
Halliday& Hassan define ellipses in relation to another important cohesive device, i.e. substitution, since they embody
the same fundamental relation between parts of the text. Ellipsis is substitution by zero.
a.  You have a fine hall here. I’m proud to be lecturing in it (R).
b. You have a fine hall here.  I’ve never lectured in a finer one (S).
c. You have a fine hall here.   I’ve never lectured in a finer (E).

Types of Ellipsis

1– Nominal Ellipsis
2– Verbal Ellipsis
3– Clausal Ellipsis

Nominal Ellipsis 1
Nominal ellipsis means “the omission of a noun head“ in a nominal group. He bought a red car, but I like the blue.

Nominal Ellipsis 2
A nominal ellipsis is when the Head is omitted and its function is taken on by one of these modifiers. Therefore, it involves the upgrading of a word function not Head from the status of Modifier to the status of Head.

Which hat will you wear?
a– the best (E)
b– the best hat (no E)
c– the best of the hats (no E)
d– the best of the three (E)
e– the best you have (E)

Nominal Ellipsis: Deictics
There are three types of Deictics: Specific deictics Non-specific deictics Post-deictics

Nominal Ellipsis: Specific Deictics
1– Possessives (Smith’s, my father’s, my, your, mine, hers,…)
Just ask Janet how to polish the brassware. Hers sparkles.
2– Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)
3– The
The itself does not operate elliptically, since its function is to signal that the thing designated is fully defined, but by something other than the itself, it normally requires another item with it as in the two, the small, etc.
– Take these pills three times daily. And you’d better have some more of those too.
– The one that got away.
– Which one is your father?—the taller one.

Nominal Ellipsis: Non-Specific Deictics

Each, every, any, either, no, neither, a, some, all, and both Of these, all occur as Head of an elliptical nominal except every, but a, and no have to be represented by the forms one and none, respectively.
a. I hope no bones are broken
?-None to speak of.
b. I won’t be introduced to the pudding, please. May I give you some?
c. Have some milk.- I don’t see any milk- There isn’t any.
d. Write an essay on the Stuart kings. Two pages about each will do.
e. His sons went into business. Neither succeeded.

Nominal Ellipsis: Post-Deictics

Post-deictics are not determiners but adjectives. These are some thirty to forty adjectives used commonly in deictic function: other, same, different, identical, usual, regular, certain, odd, famous, well-known, typical, obvious, etc.
I‘ve used up these three folders you gave me. Can I use the other?
I‘ll have the usual, please. A group of well-dressed young men suddenly appeared on the stage. One of them bowed to the
audience; the others stood motionless.

Nominal Ellipsis: Numeratives
The Numerative element in the nominal group is expressed by numerals or other quantifying words, which form three subcategories:
1-ordinals (first, next, last, second, fourth,…)
2– cardinals (the three, these three, any three, all three, the usual three, the same three,…)
3– indefinite quantifiers (much, many, more, most, few, several, a little, lots, a bit, hundreds,..)Have another chocolate?- No thanks; that was my third. Have another chocolate?- No thanks; I’ve had my three. Can all cats climb trees?- They all can, and most do.

‘You ought to have a wooden horse on wheels., that you ought !. – ‘ I’ll get one’: the Knight said thoughtfully to himself. ‘One or two – several.’ ‘One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.’ ‘One side of what? The other side of what? Thought Alice to herself. ‘Of the mushroom,’ said the caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud.

Nominal Ellipsis: Epithets

The function of an Epithet is typically fulfilled by an adjective. It is not common to find adjectives occurring as Head in ellipsis:
1– Color adjectives
Green suits you very well.
2-Opposites
I like strong tea. I suppose weak is better for you.
3-Attribute
The rich, the poor, the honest
4-comparative
I’ll buy you some prettier. Mary is the cleverer.
5-Superlative
They are fine actors. Jones always gets hold of the finest.
Verbal Ellipsis
An elliptical verbal group presupposes one or more words from a previous verbal group. Technically, it is defined as a verbal group whose structure does not fully express its systemic features:
1– finiteness (finite or non-finite)
2– polarity: positive or negative
3– voice: active or passive
4– tense: past present or future
a-Have you been swimming? – Yes, I have.
b– What have you been doing?- swimming
The elliptical swimming has the features of finite, positive, active, present in past, and past in present but none of these
selections are shown in its structure. They have to be recovered by presupposition. A verb group (have been swimming) whose structure fully represents all its systematic features is not elliptical.

Verbal Ellipsis: Lexical Ellipsis
Lexical ellipsis is the type in which the lexical verb is missing from the verbal group. Thus, any verbal group not containing a lexical verb is elliptical. Any verbal group consisting of a modal or an operator only can immediately be recognized as elliptical:
– Is John going to come?- He might. He was to, but he may not, – He should, if he wants his name to be considered.
Be, have, and do can be elliptical and substitutes (non-elliptical):
-Did Jane know?-No, but Mary did (no E).
– Did Jane know?- Yes, she did (E).
Here, the distinction between elliptical and non-elliptical forms has to be recovered from the presupposed clause, since did is a
lexical verb replaced by knew in the first sentence, while an operator in the latter.

Verbal Ellipsis: Operator Ellipsis
It involves only the omission of operators; the lexical verb always remains intact, and the subject is always omitted from the clause; it must therefore be presupposed:
a. What have you been doing?
b. swimming.
This constitutes the first type of operator ellipsis: sequences such as questions and answers, in which the lexical verb either supplies the answer to ‘do what?’ as in the above example, or repudiates the verb in the question:
Has she been crying?- No, laughing.
The other type is in coordination:
– Some were laughing and others crying.

Clausal Ellipsis

The clause has a two-part structure consisting of a modal and a proposition:

The Duke was going to plant a row of poplars in the park
Modal                          Proposition
In the park, the Duke was going to plant a row of poplars. A row of poplars the Duke was going to plant in the park. The bold elements are the Modals.

Clausal Ellipsis

A clausal ellipsis represents the omission of a part of the clause or all of it. For example, the subject pronoun element is frequently omitted especially in spoken texts. Such ellipsis is often associated with questions and responses in dialogues. It is similar to the verbal ellipsis except that the clausal ellipsis is external to the verb itself, affecting other elements in the structure of the clause. Typically, modal ellipsis occurs in responses to a Wh- questions ‘what (did, does, do):
a. What were they doing?-
Holding hands.
The usual type of non-finite dependent clause is simply a clause with modal ellipsis. Typically, propositional ellipsis occurs in responses to statements and yes/no questions, where the subject is presupposed by a reference item:
a. The plane has landed.—Has it?
b. Has the plane landed?—Yes, it has.
Clausal Ellipsis: No ellipsis of single elements.
It is not possible in English to say:
*Has she taken her medicine?-She has taken.
Either we must reply with a full, nonelliptical clause, or we must omit both ‘her medicine’ and the lexical verb ‘take’, or ‘do’
as substitution:
She has taken her medicine.
Or She has. Or She has done (S).
Clausal Ellipsis: Question Answer
The ‘question-answer’ sequence is a standard pattern in language, and the cohesive relation between them has its own
characteristic grammatical properties. An observation by a speaker may be followed by an observation by another speaker that is related to it in a cohesive tie. This is called a rejoinder. A rejoinder can be a direct response or an indirect response.
A direct response as in yes/no questions and wh questions. Has John arrived? –Yes, he has.
When did John arrive?- Yesterday.

Clausal Ellipsis: Question Answer
An indirect response can be:
1– one which comments on the question (commentary):
– How did they break in? –I’ll show you how.
– Is it Tuesday today? – I don’t know.
2– one which denies its relevance (disclaimer):
– Why didn’t you tell John? – I did.
– When did they cancel the booking?- Did they?
3one which gives supplementary information implying but not actually expressing an answer (supplementary):
–Did you tell John?- He wasn’t there.
–Are you coming back today?- This evening?
This type is found in indirect wh questions, indirect yes/no questions, and indirect statements:
– The jewels are missing.– I wonder what else.
– Who could have broken those tiles?- I can’t think who.
– John was disappointed by the response.—You can ask him.
– She might be better off living away from home. –I’m not sure.
– I wonder if it’ll rain on the day of the picnic.- Probably.
– England won the cup. –Who told you?
– I think the cheque is still valid.—The bank can tell them.