Read the theoretical information about ellipsis in the textbook Essentials of Conversational English Grammar (p.p. 34-45). Do the exercises after it (p.p. 45-52). Find any fiction text you like which contains at least twenty cases of ellipsis and post it here as a comment. Underline or write in capital letters the parts of the text with ellipsis.
Here is some brief information about ellipsis:
Types of Ellipsis
Omitted elements:1) The subject expressed by:
a. 1st person pronoun
b. 2nd person pronoun
c. 3rd person pronoun
d. pronoun it
e. introductory subject there
2) Subject and part of the predicate:
a. I + auxiliary verb / link verb
b. he / she + auxiliary verb / link verb
c. in general questions part of the predicate (auxiliary verb / link verb)
d. in what-questions the subject and part of the predicate
e. introductory subject it and the link verb be
3) The subject and the whole predicate;
4) The whole predicate:
a. the entire predicate
b. in an adverbial clause of condition - pronouns anyone, no one, etc.
c. in comparative clauses
d. the semi-notional verb had.
Ellipsis takes place in different syntactic unities:
1) Statement and Question
2) Statement and Statement
Ellipsis in familiar style:
1) article
2) preposition
1. Ellipsis in Compound Sentences
2. Ellipsis in Complex Sentences
3. Ellipsis in Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses
4. Ellipsis in Comparative Clauses
5. Ellipsis Of the Infinitive Particle to
The One Who Waits. Ray Bradbury 1949
ReplyDeleteI live in a well. I live like smoke in the well. Like vapour in a stone throat. I don't move. I DON'T DO ANYTHING BUT WAIT. How can I tell you what I am WHEN I DON'T KNOW? I CANNOT. I am simply waiting.
Now it is morning. I hear a great thunder. I smell fire from a distance. I hear a metal crashing. I wait. I listen.
VOICES. FAR AWAY.
"All right!"
ONE VOICE. AN ALIEN VOICE. AN ALIEN TONGUE I CANNOT KNOW. No word is familiar. I listen.
"SEND THE MEN OUT!"
A CRUNCHING IN CRYSTAL SANDS.
"MARS! SO THIS IS IT!"
"WHERE'S THE FLAG?"
"HERE, SIR."
"GOOD, GOOD."
"What's over here?"
"A WELL!"
"NO!"
"COME ON. YES!"
THE APPROACH OF WARMTH. Three objects bend over the well mouth, and my coolness rises to the objects.
"GREAT!"
"THINK IT'S GOOD WATER?"
"WE'LL SEE."
"Someone get a lab test bottle and a dropline."
"I WILL!"
"Here we are. You want to test this water. REGENT?"
"Let's have it."
"WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WELL. Look at that construction. How old you think it is?"
"GOD KNOWS. When we landed in that other town yesterday Smith said there hasn't been life on Mars in ten thousand years."
"IMAGINE."
"HOW IS IT, REGENT? THE WATER."
"PURE AS SILVER. HAVE A GLASS."
THE SOUND OF WATER IN THE HOT SUNLIGHT. Now I hover like a dust, a cinnamon, upon the soft wind.
They walked slowly down the street at about ten in the evening, talking calmly. They were both about thirty-five. BOTH EMINENTLY SOBER.
ReplyDelete'BUT WHY SO EARLY?' said Smith.
'BECAUSE,' said Braling.
'YOUR FIRST NIGHT OUT IN YEARS and you go home at ten o'clock.'
'NERVES, I suppose.'
'What I wonder is how you ever managed it. I've been trying to get you out for ten years for a quiet drink. And now, on the one night, you insist on turning in early.'
'MUSTN'T CROWD MY LUCK,' said Braling.
'What did you do, put sleeping powder in your wife's coffee?'
'NO, that would be unethical. You'll see soon enough.'
They turned a corner. 'Honestly, Braling, I hate to say this, but you have been patient with her. You may not admit it to me, but marriage has been awful for you, hasn't it?'
'I wouldn't say that.'
'It's got around, anyway, here and there, how she got you to marry her. That time back in 1979 when you were going to Rio --
'DEAR RIO. I never did see it after all my plans.'
'And how she tore her clothes and rumpled her hair and threatened to call the police unless you married her.'
'She always was nervous, Smith, understand.'
'It was more than unfair. You didn't love her. YOU TOLD HER AS MUCH, didn't you.
'I recall that I was quite firm on the subject.'
'But you married her anyhow.'
'I had my business to think of, as well as my mother and father. A thing like that would have killed them.'
'And it's been ten years.
‘Yes, said Braling, HIS GRAY EYES STEADY. ‘But I think perhaps it might change now. I think what I’ve waited for has come about. Look here.’
He drew forth a long blue ticket.
‘WHY? it’s a ticket for Rio on the Thursday rocket!’
‘Yes, I’m finally going to make it.’
‘BUT HOW WONDERFUL! You do deserve it! BUT WON’T SHE OBJECT? CAUSE TROUBLE?’
Braling smiled nervously. ‘She won’t know I’m gone. I’ll be back in a month and NO ONE THE WISER, except you:’
***
The street door of the apartment opened spare gentleman with the mustache and the came out to meet them.
‘Hello, Braling,’ he said.
‘Hello, Braling,’ said Braling. They were identical.
Smith stared. ‘Is this your twin brother? I NEVER KNEW---
‘NO, NO,’ said Braling quietly. ‘BEND CLOSE. Put your ear Braling Two’s chest.’
Smith hesitated and then leaned forward to place his against the uncomplaining ribs.
Tick- tick- tick- tick- tick- tick- tick- tick.
‘OH NO! IT CAN’T BE!’ ‘IT IS.’
‘Let me listen again.’
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
Smith staggered back and fluttered his eyelids, appalled. reached out and touched the warm hands and the cheeks the thing.
‘Where’d you get him?’
‘Isn’t he excellently fashioned?’ ‘INCREDIBLE. WHERE?’
‘Give the man your card, Braling Two.’
Braling Two did a magic trick and produced a white card:
MARIONETTES, INC.
Duplicate self or friends; new humanoid plastic 1990 models, guaranteed against all physical wear. From $ 7,600 to our $ 15,000 de luxe model.
‘NO,’ said Smith.
‘YES,’ said Braling.
‘NATURALLY,’ said Braling Two.
JRR TOLKIEN
ReplyDeleteTHE HOBBIT
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. NOT A NASTY, dirty, wet hole...
They are inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); WEAR NO SHOES...
"VERY PRETTY" said Gandalf.
Good gracious me! NOT THE wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came
undone till ordered? NOT THE fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses andthe unexpected luck of widows' sons? NOT THE man that used to make such
particularly excellent fireworks!
NOT THE man that used to make such
particularly excellent fireworks! I REMEMBER THOSE.
BLESS ME, life used to be quite inter...
"SORRY! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning!
"LOTS!" Bilbo found himself answering...
"GANDALF FOR CERTAIN this time," he thought...
"Dwalin and Balin HERE already, I see,"
"SOME FOUR, I should say by the sound," said Fili.
"QUITE a merry gathering!'
"SEEMS to know as much about the inside of my larders as I do myself!"
"NOW FOR SOME MUSIC!"
"IN LOTS OF WAYS," said Gandalf.
"TRUE, TRUE," said Thorin.
"No TIME for it," said the wizard.
"MUTTON YESTERDAY, MUTTON TODAY, and blimey, if it don't look like MUTTON AGAIN TOMORROW," said one of the trolls.
"And can yer cook 'em?" said Tom.
"YER CAN TRY," said Bert, picking up a skewer.
Through the haze I had a vague vision of Holmes in his dressing-gown coiled up in an armchair with his black clay pipe between his lips. Several rolls of paper lay around him.
ReplyDelete“CAUGHT COLD, Watson?” said he.
“NO, it's this poisonous atmosphere.”
“I SUPPOSE IT IS PRETTY THICK, now that you mention it.”
“THICK! It is intolerable.”
“OPEN THE WINDOW, then! You have been at your club ALL DAY, I perceive.”
“My dear Holmes!”
“Am I right?”
“CERTAINLY, BUT HOW?”
He laughed at my bewildered expression.
“There is a delightful freshness about you, Watson, which makes it a pleasure to exercise any small powers which I possess at your expense. A gentleman goes forth on a showery and miry day. He returns immaculate in the evening with THE GLOSS STILL ON HIS HAT and his boots. He has been a fixture therefore ALL DAY. He is not a man with intimate friends. Where, then, could he have been? Is it not obvious?”
“WELL, it is rather obvious.”
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Where do you think that I have been?”
“A FIXTURE ALSO.”
“ON THE CONTRARY, I have been to Devonshire.”
“IN SPIRIT?”
“EXACTLY. My body has remained in this armchair and has, I regret to observe, consumed in my absence two large pots of coffee and an incredible amount of tobacco. After you left I sent down to Stamford's for the Ordnance map of this portion of the moor, and my spirit has hovered over it ALL DAY. I flatter myself that I could find my way about.”
“A LARGE-SCALE MAP, I presume?”
“VERY LARGE.” He unrolled one section and held it over his knee. “Here you have the particular district which concerns us. That is Baskerville Hall in the middle.”
“WITH A WOOD ROUND IT?”
“EXACTLY. I FANCY THE YEW ALLEY, though not marked under that name, must stretch along this line, with the moor, as you perceive, upon the right of it. This small clump of buildings here is the hamlet of Grimpen, where our friend Dr. Mortimer has his headquarters.
Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre
ReplyDeleteChapter 24
Extract 1
“This St. John, then, is your cousin?”
“YES.”
“You have spoken of him often: do you like him?”
“He was a very good man, sir; I could not help liking him.”
“A GOOD MAN. Does that mean a respectable well-conducted man of fifty? Or what does it mean?”
“St John was only twenty-nine, sir.”
“‘Jeune encore,’ as the French say. Is he a person of low stature, phlegmatic, and plain. A PERSOMWHOSE GOODNESS CONSISTS RATHER IN HISGUILTESSNESS OF VOICE, THAN IN HIS PROWESS IN VIRTUE.”
“He is untiringly active. Great and exalted deeds are what he lives to perform.”
“BUT HIS BRAIN? That is probably rather soft? He means well: but you shrug your shoulders to hear him talk?”
“He talks little, sir: what he does say is ever to the point. His brain is first-rate, I should think not impressible, but vigorous.”
“Is he an able man, then?”
“TRULY ABLE.”
“A THOROUGHLY EDUCATED MAN?”
“St. John is an accomplished and profound scholar.”
“His manners, I think, you said are not to your taste?—PRIGGISH AND PARSONIC?”
Extract 2 ( the same chapter)
Then followed this cross-examination.
“St. John made you schoolmistress of Morton before he knew you were his cousin?”
“YES.”
“You would often see him? He would visit the school sometimes?”
“DAILY.”
“He would approve of your plans, Jane? I know they would be clever, for you are a talented creature!”
“He approved of them—yes.”
“He would discover many things in you he could not have expected to find? Some of your accomplishments are not ordinary.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“You had a little cottage near the school, you say: did he ever come there to see you?”
“NOW AND THEN?”
“OF AN EVENING?”
“ONCE OR TWICE.”
A pause.
“How long did you reside with him and his sisters after the cousinship was discovered?”
“FIVE MONTHS.”
“Did Rivers spend much time with the ladies of his family?”
“YES; the back parlour was both his study and ours: he sat near the window, and we by the table.”
“Did he study much?”
“A GOOD DEAL.”
“WHAT?”
“HINDOSTANEE”
“And what did you do meantime?”
“I learnt German, at first.”
“Did he teach you?”
“He did not understand German.”
“Did he teach you nothing?”
“A LITTLE HINDOSTANEE.”
“RIVERS TAUGHT YOU HINDOSTANEE?”
“YES, SIR.”
“AND HIS SISTERS ALSO?”
“NO.”
“ONLY YOU?”
“ONLY ME.”
Thanks to my First Brave Followers! You are really the best!
ReplyDeleteEmily Jane Brontё “Wuthering Heights”
ReplyDelete“…Who’s given up the slip now, do you think?”
“WHO?” I asked in a flurry.
“WHY, guess!” he returned, dismounting, and slinging his bridle on a hook by the door.
“But what did you mean by teasing the creature in that manner, Cathy? You were not speaking the truth, were you?”
“I assure you I WAS,” she returned. “She has been dying for your sake SEVERAL WEEKS and raving about you this morning…”
“When have I been hash, tell me?”
“YESTERDAY,” sobbed Isabella, “AND NOW!”
“YESTERDAY!” said her sister-in-law. “ON WHAT OCCASION?”
“Oh, no,” wept the young lady; “you wished me AWAY, because you KNEW I LIKED to be there!”
“I HOPE I HAVE misunderstood you, Isabella?”
“No, YOU HAVE NOT,” said the infatuated girl.
“You THINK I SPEAK from wicked selfishness?”
“I’M CERTAIN YOU DO,” retorted Isabella; “and I shudder at you!”
“Ho, Miss Linton!” cried a deep voice (the rider’s), “I’m glad to meet you. Don’t be in haste to enter, for I have an explanation to ask and OBTAIN.”
“It has been revived,” muttered Cathy, sulkily.
“MUST NOT BE CONTINUED, then,” I said.
“I THOUGHT I HEARD my farther,” he gasped, glancing up to the frowning nab above us. “You are SURE NOBODY spoke?”
“QUITE SURE,” replied his cousin.
“How long will he last, do you think?” he asked.
“I DON’T KNOW,” I said.
He swerved aside, and attempted to pass.
“You must not go!” she exclaimed, energetically.
“I MUST AND I SHALL!” he replied in a subdued voice.
“Where’s Heathcliff?” she said, interrupting me.
“ABOUT HIS WORK IN THE TABLE,” was my answer.
“And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband.”
“WORST OF ALL. And now, say how you love him?”
“AS EVERYBODY LOVES – You’re silly, Nelly.”