Mind the gap: Ellipsis in English

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Mind the gap Ellipsis in English

• Dr. Veronica Bonsignori
• A/A 2006-2007
• University of Pisa

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Some preliminary considerations 1

• Language is very gappy. We find gaps both in
  spoken and written texts.
• Especially in face-to-face conversation, we often
  do not bother to encode information that can be
  understood from the linguistic or situational
  context.
• A Wheres my book?
• B E On the sofa.

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Some preliminary considerations 2

• Ellipsis as a typical linguistic feature of
  spoken rather than written language

• Prototypical spoken text
• Face-to-face conversation

• Prototypical written text
• Academic prose

The distinction between spoken and written
texts is not a matter of MODE.
Personal letter a written genre with
relatively oral situational features Academic
lecture a spoken genre with relatively
literate situational features
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Task

• Define ellipsis
• Function
• Interpretation
• Classification of the various syntactic types

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What is ellipsis? 1

• It entails syntactic reduction, a form of
  inexplicitness consisting in the unspoken, the
  unexpressed, but understood.
• It entails the omission or deletion of some items
  of the surface text, which are recoverable in
  terms of relation with the text itself.
• Within the frame of Text Linguistics, ellipsis is
  considered a major cohesive device, contributing
  to the efficiency and compactness of a text
  (Beaugrande-Dressler, 1981 Halliday-Hasan, 1976)

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What is ellipsis? 2

• Halliday defines ellipsis 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
• The relation between these two linguistic
  phenomena is so tight that a relevant problem is
  trying to trace a border between them The
  question whether a given example is truly
  elliptical or not must be decided empirically
  (B-D, 1981)

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Ellipsis vs. Substitution

• Ellipsis
• An elliptical item is one which leaves specific
  structural slots to be filled from elsewhere
• A What is the capital of England?
• B London E.

• Substitution
• An explicit counter is used as a place-marker for
  what is presupposed (use of pro-forms as one, do,
  so)
• A Mark has a crush on Lucy.
• B Do you really think so?

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Function

• On the basis of the Economy Principle (Be quick
  and easy), the use of ellipsis reduces the
  amount of time and effort in both encoding and
  decoding, avoiding redundancy and repetition, BUT
  only when it does not lead to ambiguity.
• Constraint of RECOVERABILITY
• The ellipted parts of the sentence must be
  unambiguously specifiable.

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Interpretation

• Communication is verbal and non-verbal, so
  utterances have both linguistic and
  non-linguistic properties
• Ellipted items are recoverable from
• 1) the linguistic context
• or
• 2) the situational context

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1) Linguistic Context

• The actual language surrounding an utterance or
  sentence
• CONTEXTUAL ELLIPSIS
• It is endophoric referring to elements within
  the text
• It can be anaphoric
• Brian wont do the dishes, so Ill have to E.
• Or cataphoric
• Since Brian wont E, Ill do the dishes.

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2) Situational Context

• The variety of extra-linguistic factors that may
  contribute to our understanding of a language
  event
• Setting
• Participants (role and relation)
• Shared knowledge
• Paralanguage (gestures, facial expressions,
  eye-contact)
• The more explicit context of situation
• SITUATIONAL ELLIPSIS

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Situational Ellipsis

• The recovery of omitted items is based on
  non-verbal context and cognitive process
• It is exophoric the elements of reference
  being outside the text
• This type of ellipsis is not exclusive of
  oral communication, in fact it is very common
  in writing, too

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Some examples

• Face-to-face conversation
• E Want some coffee?
• Hey, Stradlater said. E Wanna do me a big
  favour? (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• Written texts
• Push E. (sign on a door)
• Do not spray E on a naked flame. (on a spray
  can of air freshener)
• Situational ellipsis is a very specific way in
  which language interacts with its environment

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To sum up

• A I think Ill go and see the Coldplay.
• B I would E, if I were you.
• A Dont E!

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Syntactic types of ellipsis

• Classification of the different types of ellipsis
  on the basis of the syntactic items that are
  omitted
• Examples for each type mainly referring to
  spoken texts, with some exceptions
• Novels
• Movie scripts
• Transcriptions of spontaneous conversations
• Diaries

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1. Ellipsis of the Subject

• It entails the omission of the pronoun or noun
  functioning as Subject within the Nominal group.
• Generally, English does not allow this kind of
  omission, since the Subject is obligatory in
  English syntax. BUT, due to its stable role and
  the fact that it generally conveys given and
  redundant information, it is possible to omit it,
  especially in face-to-face conversation
• Only when it does not lead to
  ambiguity!!

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Some examples from spoken texts

• Transcript (London Lund Corpus)
• A Well, Im sorry for the other day
• C Yes. Well, what what was so awful? I know, I
  spoke to Liz and she said that you you werent
  even doing anything else. You were just in
• A No, E completely forgot about it
• C It was I must have been unlucky in the time
  I phoned, you just seemed to be out
• B mmm
• A No, we were just out at the pub
• C E Got this enormous lump of meat, and I
  only finished it yesterday
• The interpretation of elliptical utterances is
  possible relying both on the linguistic and
  situational context, and it is more accessible
  to inside participants than to outside users,
  because of physical proximity, eye-contact,
  i.e. direct interaction (Merlini, 2003)

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• Post-cards, personal letters, e-mail
• E Wish you were here!
• Fiction Movie scripts (The Dead Poets Society)
• Neil I say we go tonight. Everybody in?
• Cameron E Sounds boring to me.
• Fiction Novel (The Great Gatsby)
• Neither of them cant stand the person theyre
  married to.
• Cant they?
• E Cant stand them.
• The language used in these texts reproduces the
  typical informal and familiar style of speech. In
  the case of fiction, the aim is obviously to
  render the dialogues more realistic.

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• The use of the ellipsis of the subject depends
  also on register and style, and is associated to
  a specialized register i.e. DIARY
• Bridget Joness Diary (H. Fielding)
• Tues 3 Jan, 9 a.m. Ugh. E Cannot face thought
  of going to work. Only thing which makes it
  tolerable is thought of seeing Daniel again, but
  even that is inadvisable since E am fat, E
  have spot on chin, and E desire only to sit on
  cushion eating chocolate and watching Xmas
  specials.
• The Diary of Virginia Woolf
• Can I describe Old Cot. Yesterday. L. looked at
  the telephone, thinking he was mad. E Had been
  ill. More solitude mania, I think. E Calmed
  down. E Gave us tea on hard chairs in basement.

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2. Nominal Ellipsis

• It entails the omission of elements within the
  nominal group.
• It varies according to the logical function of
  the modifier that is the Head in the elliptical
  group
• Deictics determiners
• Novel (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• I felt this hand on the back of my neck, and it
  was Janes E.
• Epithets adjectives
• Novel (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• I could see my mother going in Spauldings and
  asking the salesman a million dopey questions
  and here I was getting the ax again. It made me
  feel pretty sad. She bought me the wrong kind of
  skates I wanted racing skates and she bought
  hockey E.

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• Numeratives numerals and other quantifying
  words
• Novel (For whom the bell tools, E. Hemingway)
• How many men are there? He pointed at the mill.
• Perhaps four E and a corporal.
• And below?
• More E. Ill find out.
• And at the bridge?
• Always two E. One E at each end.
• Movie Script (Notting Hill)
• Martin Shall I go get a cappuccino? Ease the
  pain.
• Will Yes, better get me a half E. All I can
  afford.

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3. Verbal Ellipsis

• It entails cases of omission within the Verbal
  group
• It can be of two types

Lexical Ellipsis It involves the omission of the
lexical verb, so that the verbal group consists
only of the operator expressing modality (can,
will, would, may, might) or tense (be, have, do)
Operator Ellipsis It involves the omission of
the operator, so that the lexical verb is always
explicit. Generally, the Subject is also omitted
from the clause
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A) Lexical Ellipsis Examples

• Novel (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• Hey, I said, is it ok if I sleep in Elys bed
  tonight? He wont be back till tomorrow night,
  will he E? I knew I damn well he wouldnt E.
  Ely went home damn near every weekend. I dont
  know when the hell hes coming back, Ackley
  said. Boy, did that annoy me. What the hell do
  you mean you dont know when hes coming back? He
  never comes back till Sunday night, does he E?
  No, but for Chrissake, I cant just tell
  somebody they can sleep in his goddam bed if they
  want to E.
• TV series script (Friends)
• Monica Well honestly ever since we got engaged,
  I have been waiting for something to to flip you
  out.
• Chandler Honestly? Me too.
• Monica Really?
• Chandler Yeah. Yknow, I keep thinking that
  something stupid is gonna come up and Ill go
  all Chandler. But nothing has E.

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B) Operator Ellipsis Examples

• Novel (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• Hows your brother? Hes fine. Hes in
  Hollywood. In Hollywood! How marvellous! Whats
  he doing? I dont know. E Writing.
• Whatre ya gonna do E sleep in Elys bed?
  Ackley said. He was the perfect host, boy.
• Transcript (London Lund Corpus)
• B will you have a drink?
• C oh thats all right then its just as well
  (laughs) yes, E love one.
• Newspaper headline (The Times)
• Migrants E found dead on trailer.

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4. Ellipsis of Subj. Lexical Verb

• It entails the omission of the Subject and
  Lexical Verb.
• It generally relates to BE as a copular verb.
• Movie Script (Notting Hill)
• Max Well, I dont know. Look at William. E
  Very unsuccessful professionally. E Divorced.
  E Used to be handsome, now E kind of squidgy
  around the edges and E absolutely certain not
  to hear from Anna again after shes heard that
  his name at school was Floppy.
• Notice (on a container of curry powder)
• E Suitable for the preparation of aromatic
  dishes.
• TV series script (E.R.)
• Lucy Do you remember her?
• Carter E Not a clue. Its a nice card though.

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5. Clausal Ellipsis

• It entails the omission of other elements of the
  clause belonging to the verbal group.
• It is frequent in question-and-answer sequences
  and other rejoinder sequences, i.e. where more
  than one speaker is involved.
• This type of ellipsis allows to convey only the
  focus component of the response.
• Some examples

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• Novel (The great Gatsby, F.S. Fitzgerald)
• Shes a nice girl, said Tom after a moment.
  They oughtnt to let her run around the country
  this way. Who oughtnt to? inquired Daisy
  coldly. Her family E.
• Movie script (The Dead Poets Society)
• Nolan Your family moved into that new house, Mr.
  Overstreet?
• Knox Yes E, sir. E About one month ago.
• Movie script (Notting Hill)
• William Would you like a cup of tea before you
  go?
• Anna No E, thanks.
• William E Coffee?
• Anna E No.
• TV series script (E.R.)
• Lucy E Pacer pads?
• Carter E Third drawer on the left.

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6. Ellipsis of Predicate Nominal

• It entails the omission of the Subject Complement
  in a clause, so it always occurs when BE is
  present and functions as copula.
• Novel (The great Gatsby, F.S. Fitzgerald)
• This idea is that were Nordics. I am E, and
  you are E, and you are E.
• Novel (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)
• Id double-dated with that bastard a couple of
  times, and I know what Im talking about. He was
  unscrupulous. He really was E.
• Transcript (London Lund corpus)
• A Hello
• C Hello sorry Im late
• A Thats all right are you E?
• C Yes I said half past seven

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7. Ellipsis of the Object

• It entails the omission of the Object in the
  clause
• This type of ellipsis contributes to the
  identification of a specific text-type that
  belongs to the register of instructional writing
  i.e. the RECIPE
• Aunt Dots Brunswick Stew
• Bring water to boil in a saucepan add potatoes
  and boil E until tender (about 15 minutes).
• Pour the potatoes and the water used to boil them
  into a large pot. Stir E in onion, peas, corn,
  tomatoes, ground turkey and bacon. Bring E to
  boil. Cover E, reduce heat to medium-low, and
  simmer E for 2 hours, stirring E
  occasionally.

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Other types of instructional writing

• Notices, signs, instructions on containers of
  household products and manufacturers labels on
  goods
• Sign on a door
• Push E
• Notice on a container of curry powder
• Store E out of direct sunlight.
• Instructions on a bottle of lavatory cleaner
• Spray E onto surface. Leave E for a few
  seconds. Wipe E away with a damp sponge.

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Conclusion

• Ellipsis is a linguistic phenomenon which mainly
  characterises spoken language and orality
• Ellipsis is very complex (7 syntactic types)
• So
• When you analyse a text, mind the gap!

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Thank you!