ABSTRACT
We rarely speak or even write in the complete sentences that are often held to be the ideal form of linguistic communication. Language is, in fact, full of gaps, because speakers and writers operate in contexts which allow bits of language to be understood rather than expressed. This book systematically analyses this inherent gappiness of language, known as ellipsis, and provides an account of the different contexts, both linguistic and situational, which affect its use. Peter Wilson draws on a wide variety of examples of spoken and written English, and both literary and non-literary to present a comprehensive classification of elliptical language that ranges from the conversational fragment and the advertisement to the dialogue of Shakespeare and imagist poetry. Mind the Gap shows how ellipsis is a feature of major structural and stylistic importance to our understanding of spoken and written language, and will be of interest to undergraduate students of linguistics, literature, communication and the interrelations between them..
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |3 pages
Introduction
part |110 pages
The Forms of Ellipsis
chapter |15 pages
What is Ellipsis?
chapter |16 pages
What isn't Ellipsis
chapter |17 pages
The Linguistic Context
chapter |14 pages
The Situational Context
chapter |16 pages
Telegraphic Ellipsis
chapter |19 pages
Coordination Reduction
chapter |11 pages
The Rough Guide to Gaps
part |114 pages
The Stylistic Effects of Ellipsis