Topic 6: Pro-forms and ellipsis - Handout                                            

Pro-forms and ellipsis are syntactic means for abbreviating constructions to avoid redundancy. For example, instead of having the sentence No. 1 we have No. 2 or 3:

1.  He may come tonight, but I don’t think he will come tonight.

2.  He may come tonight, but I don’t think he will do so. (substitution)

3.  He may come tonight, but I don’t think he will O. (ellipsis)

Recoverability can be defined as the ability to interpret and recover the full form (FF) from constructions with pro-forms or ellipsis, e.g. sentence No. 1 from No. 2 or 3.

There are three types of recoverability:

1. textual recoverability: the FF is recoverable from a neighbouring part of the   

    text/context (John is late today. He usually comes late.)

2. situational recoverability: the FF is recoverable from the extralinguistic situation

    (Who is she? - pointing at someone, e.g. a young woman close to the speaker)

3. structural recoverability: the FF is recoverable from knowledge of grammatical   

     structure (e.g. optional conjunction that in I know (that) he is clever.)

Pro-forms and their antecedents can be linked by coreference, a linkage of ‘cross-reference’ between two expressions that refer to the same thing or things (see above the example with textual recoverability). If the relation between a pro-form and its antecedents is not that of coreference, the label reference is used (e.g. Jack got a first prize this year, and I got one last year.).

Pro-forms

1. Pro-forms for noun phrases and their constituents

   - 3^rd person pronouns and determiners (My parents and their dog are in the park.)

   - indefinite pronouns such as any, all, both, each, either, some, and none (When the

children arrived, each (of the children/child) was given a present.)

   - the same, implying in all its substitute uses similarity, not identity with the antecedent (I want my meat well done and David wants his the same.)

   - one, always unstressed, has two plural forms:     (1) some for indenfinite NPs (singular: I need a nail/one. plural: I need some nails/some.)

(2) ones for nominal expressions, noun phrase heads, not the whole NPs

(Have you any knives? I need a sharp one. - Take any of the ones on the table.)

2. Pro-forms for clauses and clause constituents

   - the dummy operator do is a pro-form for a predicate (Martin can drive a car, and his sister does, too.)

   - do so functions as a pro-form for a predicate or predication, used especially in formal style both for finite and nonfinite forms (As no one else has succeeded in solving the problem, I’ll try to do so myself. or As no one else has succeeded in doing so, I’ll try to solve the problem myself.)

   - do it, do that, do so substitute for transitive verbs and their objects (Are you still trying to solve the problem? - You should have done it by now.) The pro-form do that in contrast to do it gives more prominence to the object that, it is therefore connected especially with new or contrastive information.

3. Pro-forms for adverbials

For example, here and there can be used for place adverbials, whereas then for time adverbials (If you look in the drawer, you’ll find it there.)

4. Some notes on pro-forms for some other sentence elements

So and its negative equivalent not can be pro-forms for a that-clause functioning as a direct object (Will they help us? - I hope so. or I hope not.) This use of not is restricted mainly to verbs of belief or assumption. Verbs that commonly allow both so and not: believe, expect, guess, hope, imagine, presume, reckon, suppose, suspect, and think.

 

 

Ellipsis

is grammatical omission. It requires verbatim recoverability, that is, the actual word or words that are implied must be precisely recoverable.

Requirements for strict ellipsis:

1. when we insert the missing words we do not change the meaning of the original    

    sentence (The poor need more help. {generic reference} is not identical with

    The poor people need more help. {specific reference})

2. when we insert the missing words the sentence should remain grammatical:

    He always wakes up earlier than I (wake up). - formal

    He always wakes up earlier than me (wake up). - informal

There are three categories of ellipsis according to where the ellipsis occurs within a construction:        

1. initial - (I) hope you like it.

2. medial - Jill owns a family house and Peter (owns) a cottage.

3. final - I know I haven’t yet finished all my work, but I will (finish all my work).

Recoverability types of ellipsis

situational ellipsis - the interpretation may depend on knowledge of extralinguistic context (Get it? Want something? See you later. Television not working?)

structural ellipsis - the interpretation depends on knowledge of grammatical structure (We are staying there (for) another three weeks. - informal) - often confined to written language, e.g. omission of determiners, pronouns, operators, and other closed-class words in block language (headlines, book titles, notices, notes, diaries, telegrams)

textual ellipsis - the interpretation depends on what is said or written in the linguistic context; there are two kinds of ellipsis according to the relative position of the ellipsis and its antecedent: (1) anaphoric ellipsis - the interpretation depends on what comes

before: I’m happy if you are (happy).

       (2) cataphoric ellipsis - the interpretation depends on what comes

after: Those who prefer (to work) now, can work now.

Depending on the character of the construction in which the antecedent construction and elliptical construction participate, there are two types of ellipsis:

1. general ellipsis - where the functional relation between the elliptical and antecedent construction is irrelevant (see below)

2. special ellipsis - where the possibilities of omissions are determined by that relation (e.g. coordination, nonfinite and verbless clauses, comparative clauses)

General ellipsis (typically final and anaphoric)

1. elliptical noun phrases: result from final ellipsis, which means that heads and any postmodifiers tend to be ellipted: Although Helen is the oldest girl in the class, Mary is the tallest O
2. elliptical clauses: typically, the subject and operator (and perhaps other auxiliaries) remain, and the predication is ellipted: If I could have bought a ticket, I would have O. Ellipsis of the whole clause or the whole clause except for an introductory word: A: We’re about to leave soon. B: Yes, but when O?

Appended clause - a type of special ellipsis. It is an elliptical clause (usually parenthetical or an afterthought) for which the whole or part of the preceding or interrupted clause constitutes the antecedent: I caught the train - just.  It may be viewed as elliptical for: I caught the train - I just caught the train.