Ellipsis

Consider the examples in (17)

Example (17a) contains two separate clauses. In (17b), the clauses are conjoined by and; this gives a single sentence consisting of two clauses, each beginning with the terrier. Example (17c) is produced by deleting the second occurrence of the terrier. The square brackets in (17c) mark the site of the missing words, which are said to have been ellipted. Example (17c) is an example of ellipsis. The important point about this type of ellipsis is that it applies only to complete phrases. Sentences such as *The fierce terrier attacked the burglar and terrier savaged the burglar’s ankles are incorrect, because terrier must be preceded by the. Example (17b) is peculiar because speakers and writers of English do not repeat phrases in this manner but either ellipt the second occurrence of the phrase as in (17c) or use a substitute such as he, she or it. The burglar occurs twice, once as the phrase at the beginning of (17b) and again in the bigger phrase the burglar’s ankles. In the latter phrase the burglar, or rather the burglar plus the possessive suffix ’s, is replaced by his: The terrier attacked the burglar and she savaged his ankles.