In the grammar of a sentence, an elliptical construction is a construction that lacks an element that is, nevertheless, recoverable or inferable from the context [1]. The elliptical construction is a sequence of words in which some words have been omitted. Because of the logic or pattern of the entire sentence, it is easy to infer what the missing words are.([2]). Example: Fire when ready. (In the sentence, "you are" is understood, as in "Fire when you are ready."). Elliptical constructions can often be used in dialog to shorten what is being said.
Ellipsis in Linguistics
Varieties of ellipsis have long formed a central explicandum for linguistic theory, since elliptical phenomena seem to be able to shed light on basic questions of form-meaning correspondence: in particular, the usual mechanisms of grasping a meaning from a form seem to be bypassed or supplanted in the interpretation of elliptical structures, ones in which there is meaning without form. In generative linguistics, the term ellipsis has been applied to a range of phenomena in which a perceived interpretation is fuller than that which would be expected based solely on the presence of linguistic forms. Central examples drawn from English include sluicing as in (1), verb phrase ellipsis (VP-ellipsis) as in (2), and noun phrase ellipsis (NP-ellipsis or N’-ellipsis) as in (3).
(1) John can play something, but I don’t know what. (2) John can play the guitar and Mary can, too. (3) John can play five instruments, and Mary can play six.
In each case, the second clause can be understood as in (4)-(6).
(4) John can play something, but I don’t know what John can play. (5) John can play the guitar and Mary can play the guitar, too. (6) John can play five instruments, and Mary can play six instruments.
These three kinds of ellipsis are distinguished as well by the fact that distributional facts lead us to expect to find structural elements corresponding to the perceived interpretations: wh-phrases as in (1) require clausal sources, modals like can in (2) take VP complements, and determiner-like elements such as six in (3) require NP complements. In other words, selectional and subcategorization properties of particular elements require us to posit elided structures in (1)-(3), if these properties are uniform across the grammar. Ellipsis has further been invoked in a range of other constructions, such as stripping (or bare argument ellipsis) in (7), gapping in (8), fragment answers in (9), as well as a host of other cases that fall under the general rubric of ‘conjunction reduction’:
(7) John can play the guitar, {and Mary, too/and Mary as well/but not Mary}. John can play the guitar better than Mary. (8) John can play the guitar, and Mary the violin. John can play the guitar better than Mary the violin. (9) Q: Who can play the guitar? A: (Not) John.
In addition to these structures, the term ‘ellipsis’ covers a potential multitude of distinct phenomena as it is used in general parlance, most of which are of little linguistic interest, or whose connection to the types seen above is oblique at best (such as ellipsis).
See also
- elliptical clause - about clauses in which words are omitted.
- Verb Phrase ellipsis - about the elliptical construction in which verb phrases are omitted.
- sluicing - about an elliptical construction in which the sentential part of a question is missing.
- ellipsis - about the orthographic usage rules for '...'.
