Ellipsis

Peter Wilson
Table of contents

In the syntagmatic chain of language not every element needs to be expressed. Indeed, the expression of omissible elements is quickly perceived as ponderous overarticulacy or, in some types of language use, as deliberate stylistic artifice. Unlike the effect of omitting links in a metal chain, the omission of elements in the chain of language does not cause things to fall apart. Rather, the resulting gaps are more likely to have a cohesive effect, both at the level of local syntax and across more global stretches of discourse.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Abe, J. & H. Hoshi
1999 Directionality of movement in ellipsis resolution in English and Japanese. In S. Lappin & E. Benmamoun (eds.): 193–226.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Allerton, D.J.
1975 Deletion and proform reduction. Journal of linguistics 11: 213–237. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aoun, J. & E. Benmamoun
1999 Gapping, PF merger, and patterns of partial agreement. In S. Lappin & E. Benmamoun (eds.): 175–192.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bavin, E.L.
2000 Introduction: a functional approach to ellipsis. Linguistics 38(3): 449–455.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benes, E.
1975 Elliptical sentences in German technical and scientific style. In H. Ringbom (ed.) Style and text: 175–189. Skriptor.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blakemore, D.
1992 Understanding utterances: an introduction to pragmatics. Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blevins, J.P.
1994 Derived constituent order in unbounded dependency constructions. Journal of linguistics 30(2): 349–409. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloomfield, L.
1935 Language. George Allen & Unwin.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carter, R. & M. Mccarthy
1995 Grammar and the spoken language. Applied linguistics 16(2): 141–58.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, W.
1988 On ellipsis. Garland Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N.
1965 Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fabb, N.
1997 Linguistics and literature. Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson, C.A.
1983 Sports announcer talk: syntactic aspects of register variation. Language in society 12: 153–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garnham, A.
1987 Effects of antecedent distance and intervening text structure in the interpretation of ellipsis. Language and speech 30(1): 59–68.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gazdar, G.
1981 Unbounded dependencies and coordinate structure. Linguistic inquiry 12(2): 155–184.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenbaum, S. & G. Nelson
1998 Elliptical clauses in spoken and written English. In P. Collins & D. Lee (eds.) The clause in English: 111–125. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H.P.
1975 Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds.) Syntax and semantics 3: speech acts: 41–58. Academic Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gunter, R.
1963 Elliptical sentences in American English. Lingua 12: 137–150.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, L. & T. Ihsane
1999 Subject ellipsis in embedded clauses in English. English language and linguistics 3(1): 117–145. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K.
1994 Spoken and written modes of meaning. In D. Graddol & O. Boyd-Barret (eds.) Media texts: authors and readers: 51–73. Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & R. Hasan
1976 Cohesion in English. Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harries-Delisle, H.
1978 Coordination reduction. In J.H. Greenberg (ed.) Universals in human language, vol. 4: 515–583. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holzman, M.S.
1971 Ellipsis in discourse. Language and speech 14(1): 86–98.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Householder, F.W.
1972 Syntactic theory 1: structuralist. Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huddleston, R.
1984 Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1988 English grammar: an outline. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hudson, R.A.
1976 Conjunction reduction, gapping and right node raising. Language 52: 535–562. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hutchinson, L.G.
1982 Sentential and subsentential coordination in linguistics and logic. Papers of the 18th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 209–217.
Jake, J.
1977 Gapping, pragmatics and factivity. Papers of the 13th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 165–172.  BoP
Jespersen, O.
1949 A modern English grammar: Part 7 syntax. Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, K.
2001 What VP ellipsis can do, and what it can’t, but not why. In M. Baltin & C. Collins (eds.) The handbook of contemporary syntactic theory: 439–479. Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasher, A.
(ed.) 1991 The Chomskyan turn. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kato, K.
1986 Another look at ellipsis. Journal of pragmatics 10: 415–434.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kempson, R., W. Meyer-Viol & D. Gabbay
1999 VP ellipsis: towards a dynamic structural account. In S. Lappin & E. Benmamoun (eds.): 227–289.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, E. & K. Stainton-Ellis
1989 A note on multiple VP ellipsis. Linguistics 27: 1119–1124.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuno, S.
1975 Conditions for verb phrase deletion. Foundations of language 13: 161–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambrecht, K.
1990 ‘What, me worry?’ Mad Magazine sentences revisited. Proceedings of the 16th annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society : 215–228.
Lappin, S. & E. Benmamoun
(eds.) 1999 Fragments: studies in ellipsis and gapping. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lasnik, H.
1998 A gap in an ellipsis paradigm: some theoretical implications. Linguistic analysis 166–185 27(3–4): 3–4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1999 Pseudogapping puzzles. In S. Lappin & E. Benmamoun (eds.): 141–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, N.S.
1978 Some identity of sense deletions puzzle me. Do they you? Papers of the 14th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 229–240.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lobeck, A.
1991 Phrase structure of ellipsis in English. In S.D. Rothstein (ed.): Syntax and semantics, vol. 25: perspectives on phrase structure: 81–103. Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1995 Ellipsis. Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lopez, L.
2000 Ellipsis and discourse-linking. Lingua 110(3): 183–213. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lundy, R.
1980 English elliptical sentences and coordinate conjunction. Studies in language 4(1): 87–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, J.
1968 Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthews, P.H.
1981 Syntax. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
May, R.
1991 Syntax, semantics, and logical form. In A. Kasher (ed.): 334–359.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mcshane, M.J.
2000 Verbal ellipsis in Russian, Polish and Czech. Slavic and East European Journal 44(2): 195–233. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer, C.F.
1995 Coordination ellipsis in spoken and written American English. Language sciences 17(3): 241–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, J.L.
1973 Sentence fragments and the notion ‘sentence’. In B.J. Kachru et al. (eds.) Issues in linguistics: 719–751. University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neijt, A.
1978 Constraints on gapping. Papers of the 14th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 307–315.
Oostdijk, N.
1986 Coordination and gapping in corpus analysis. In J. Aarts & W. Meijs (eds.) Corpus linguistics II: new studies in the analysis and exploitation of computer corpora: 177–201. Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Placencia, M.E.
1995 Explicitness and ellipsis as features of conversational style in British English and Ecuadorian Spanish. IRAL 23(2): 129–141.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinkham, J.
1982 The rule of comparative ellipsis in French and English. Papers of the 18th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 440–452.
Quirk, R. et al.
1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Radford, A.
1997 Syntactic theory and the structure of English. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinhart, T.
1991 Elliptic conjunctions – non-quantificational LF. In A. Kasher (ed.): 360–384. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, J.R.
1967 Gapping and the order of constituents. In M. Bierwisch & K.E. Heidolph (eds.) Progress in linguistics: 249–259. Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rozik, E.
1998 Ellipsis and the surface structure of verbal and nonverbal metaphor. Semiotica 199(1/2): 77–103.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sadock, J.M.
1974 Read at your own risk: syntactic and semantic horrors you can find in your medicine chest. Papers of the 10th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 599–607.
Sanders, G.A.
1977 A functional typology of elliptical coordinations. In F.R. Eckman (ed.) Current themes in linguistics: 241–270. Hemisphere Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, P.
1977 Constraints on coordination. Language 53(1): 86–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmitt, B.M.
1997 Lexical access in the production of ellipsis and pronouns. MPI Series in Psycholinguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selders, D.
1995 Artwork: discourse processing in machine translation of dialog. New Mexico State University: http://​crl​.nmsu​.edu​/Research​/Projects​/artwork.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shopen, T.
1973 Ellipsis as grammatical indeterminacy. Foundations of language 10: 65–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sinclair, J.
1988 Compressed English. In M. Ghadessy (ed.) Registers of Written English: 130–5. Pinter Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stainton, R.J.
1994 Using non-sentences: an application of relevance theory. Pragmatics and cognition 2(2): 269–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000 The meaning of “sentences”. Nous 34(3): 441–454. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steinberg, D.D.
1993 An introduction to psycholinguistics. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stillings, J.
1975 The formulation of gapping in English as evidence for variable types in syntactic transformations. Linguistic analysis 1(3): 247–273.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, A.L.
1979 Ellipsis: the interplay of sentence structure and content. Lingua 47(1): 43–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1987 The use and interpretation of verbally determinate verb group ellipsis in English. International review of applied linguistics 25(1): 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uziel-Karl, S. & R.A. Berman
2000 Where’s ellipsis? Whether and why there are missing arguments in Hebrew child language. Linguistics 38(3): 457–482.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Oirsouw, R.
1983 Coordinate deletion and n-ary branching nodes. Journal of linguistics 19: 305–319. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weinreich, U.
1966 On the semantic structure of language. In J.H. Greenberg (ed.) Universals of language: 142–216. MIT Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wentz, J. & E. Mcclure
1976 Ellipsis in bilingual discourse. Papers from the twelfth regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society : 656–665.
Wilder, C.
1994 Coordination, ATB and ellipsis. Groninger arbeiten zur Germanistischen linguistik 37: 291–329.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, E.
1977 Discourse and logical form. Linguistic inquiry 8: 101–139.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, P.
2000 Mind the gap: ellipsis and stylistic variation in spoken and written English. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue