Ellipsis(省略)

• A. Samples Study • (1)I'm happy if you are. • (2）If they are not ready by lunchtime，they ought to be （∮）． • (3) His father was at Oxford when Harold Wilson was （∮）． • (4) Tom will be praying，but I don't think Martin will(be) （∮）. • (5) When Shirley resigns from the committee，I'm sure that a number of other people will(（∮）too)． • (6) ----A.Who's cooking dinner today? • ----B.John is（∮）. • In the following examples，the only elements that remain in the elliptical clauses are the subjects George． • (7) Nigel finished the exam earlier than George（∮）． • (8)----A.Who finished the exam first? • ----B.George（∮）．
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• 3. Clausal ellipsis • In clausal ellipsis，the elements that can be omitted are : • the predication in finite clauses， • the predicate(only in certain constructions), • to -infinitive clauses， • wh-clauses， • and entire clauses． • The clause，according to Quirk，is divided into two parts：the subject and operator， and predication．The following are examples of ellipsis of predication in the clauses．
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• More examples, and check which part is omitted. • 1.I like the blue hat whereas Mary prefers the green. • 2.So far Bob has missed three classes of the history course, and I have four. • 3.The men got back at midnight. Both were tired out. • 4.Take these pills three times a day. And you‟d better have some more of those too. • 5.The clown is the finest I‟ve ever seen. • 6.Apples are the cheapest in autumn.
• C. Ellipsis of pre-modifier and head and postmodifer • (8)The second historical novel she wrote was very different from the first（∮）． • In this sentence，the pre-modifying adjective historical，the head novel and the post-modifier she wrote are ellipted． • D.Ellipsis of pre-modifier and head • (9) Liebknech's best pentathlon performance is well ahead of Lessing's（∮）． • In this sentence，the pre-modifying adjective best，the pre-modifying noun pentathlon and the noun head performance are omitted．
• 4. The ellipsis of to-infinitive clause • The elliptical to-infinitive clause consists of the single particle to ,which occurs not only after finite verbs but also after the marginal modal verbs “ ought to，used to ,be able to，be going to，have to and supposed to”．
• B. Ellipsis of post-modifier alone • Generally speaking，post-modifiers are optional， therefore，is not easy for us to tell whether ellipsis actually occurs sometimes．The readily ellipted post-modifier is the of-phrase，as in： • (6) If you need any of that firewood．they can give you plenty（∮）. • (7)----A.Would you like to take more of the apple pies? • -----B. Thanks, five （∮）enough, I think.
• 2. Ellipsis of Predicate Verb
• The ellipsis of predicate verbs means in a set of the grammatical structure,the repeated or the same verb structure and its operator can be entirely or partially omitted. And the omitted elements can be restored according to the original structure. 1.---What have you been doing these days? ---Swimming. 2.---What is he doing?---Taking photoes. 3.Mary can beat Ann easily and Phillips, too. 4.---Whon can Mary beat most easily?---Phillips. 5.---We still haven‟t beaten Japnese football team. But I believe we will someday. 6.Has he sold his furniture yet? No, he just has some paintings. 7.Is she suing the hospital? No, she is the doctore.
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Ellipsis development criteria Quirk et al. propose five criteria for ellipsis： (1) The ellipted words are precisely recoverable. (2)The ellipted construction is grammatically “defective”. (3)The insertion of the missing expression results in a grammatical sentence or original sentence with the same meaning as the elliptical sentence． • (4)The missing expression is recoverable from the neighboring text (rather than from the structural or situational context)． • (5) The missing expression is an exact copy of the antecedent. • As the samples prove in the following, (1) I'd like you to be here ten minutes earlier tomorrow, if you could（∮）. (2) John brought some carnations, and Catherine （∮） some roses.
• 1.Elements that can be ellipted in the nominal group： • A. Ellipsis of the head and post-modifier (if any) • Such as, • (1) He had to admit that Sarah's drawings were as good as his own（∮）(head word)． • (2) Although Helen is the oldest girl in the class，Julie is the tallest（∮）(head word and post-modifier). • (3) This previously unprotected species is now classified as an endangered（∮）(head word)． • (4) They've put some chocolate aside for you：six bars of plain（∮） and six of fruit and nut（∮）(head
• 2.3 Ellipsis • The Nature of Ellipsis, by definition, is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker／writer assumes are obvious from the context, and therefore need not be raised．Ellipsis and substitution are very close and ellipsis can be understood as substitution without a substitute．Like substitution．ellipsis is a relation within the text，and in most instances the omitted items are present in the preceding text，i．e．， such as, “I love Mary more than Tom.”ellipsis is normally an anaphoric relation. • Cataphoric ellipsis typically occurs in front of Placed subordinate clauses,such as, “Having not known what to do, he asked the teacher for help.”