Author:
Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation:
3 August 2021
Update Date:
10 May 2024
Content
The Ellipse It is a rhetorical figure that consists of the suppression of certain terms with the aim of constructing shorter sentences. For example: "Gold makes the proud and pride, [make] fools. ".
The terms that are most often elided (suppressed by ellipsis) are personal pronouns, possessives, and articles, nouns, and verbs.
It is a resource widely used in everyday language, since it allows us not to be so repetitive and to make our communication more efficient and agile.
For example: Good morning, a kilo please. This dialogue in an ice cream parlor lets us know that it is about a kilo of ice cream, and it is not necessary to mention the noun "ice cream".
- It can help you: Emphasis
Examples of ellipsis
In the following ellipsis examples, the term elided is indicated in brackets.
- The work of men today is exhausting, but the [job] of women is even higher.
- [I] I kept quiet until I couldn't take it anymore.
- They all highlighted their imagination and [its] innovative spirit.
- Bird in hand is better than hundreds [hundred birds] flying.
- [The] He wants to be pampered.
- In fact, [put] chest.
- That was the most powerful and [the more] expected argument throughout the trial.
- I have lunch at twelve, he [have lunch] at one.
- Your effort is always recognized, mine [my effort] no one notices.
- Here's your coat, take it [your coat] and leave for a good time.
- What year were you born? [I was born] In 1979.
- Daniel keeps carrying gossip from here to there. I can not stand [to Daniel].
- The probability of doing wrong is found a hundred times a day; that of [probability] do well once a year.
- Gold makes the proud, and pride, [make] fools.
- Maite likes peceto milanesas, Gastón likes [Milanese] buttock.
- Your perseverance and [you] commitment to study will pay off.
- A good listener, [are enough] few words.
- Damien worked two years in Canada and [work] five [years] in the U.S.
- [I] I really value your opinion.
- The money is over, I want to make it clear to you [the money ran out].
Characteristics of the ellipsis
- When a verb is deleted, that ellipsis must be marked with a comma; the other elements removed do not require graphic marking.
- Ellipsis is a linguistic resource that contributes greatly to textual cohesion, since it allows the referred to be perceived as something unitary.
- It may happen that the interpretation of a statement uses an extratextual situation, only in those cases is the ellipsis exophoric and not cohesive. This happens when the element is elided because it is implicit in the universe of the speakers, even without being named.
- The word "ellipsis" (like others in the world of linguistics or literature, such as "parable" or "hyperbole") is also a concept of geometry.
- Continue with: Rhetorical or literary figures
