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In the grammar of a sentence, an ellipsis (from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") or 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.
[edit] OverviewVarieties 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).
In each case, the second clause can be understood as in (4)-(6).
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’:
John can play the guitar better than Mary.
John can play the guitar better than Mary the violin.
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). In the grammar of a sentence, an elliptical clause (a form of elliptical construction) is a clause 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. Some examples of elliptical clauses are as follows:
Elliptical clauses can often be used in dialog to shorten what is being said. [edit] See also
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