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Final Writing For Syntax Course - Team 3
Final Writing For Syntax Course - Team 3
Supervised by
September 2022
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Group members and ID In charge of Part
Ha Kieu Anh - 20193473 Part II. THEORY
Vu Thi Thao - 20193595 Part III. ANALYSIS
Luu Thao Chi - 20193495 Part IV. IMPLICATION
Table of Contents
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LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................................................4
I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................5
II. THEORY........................................................................................................................................6
1. Definition of Ellipsis.....................................................................................................................6
2. Classification................................................................................................................................7
III. ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................................12
IV. IMPLICATION.............................................................................................................................20
V. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................24
References............................................................................................................................................25
Appendix..............................................................................................................................................27
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Distribution and Percentage of Ellipsis in the drama text "Death of a Salesman"
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I. INTRODUCTION
In a study of ellipsis by Fadhil and Mohammed in 2018, they state that the use
of ellipsis has been one of the important areas of language and that ellipsis largely
contributes to the cohesion of texts. However, McShane (2005) wrote that current
ellipsis studies lack the depth of coverage partly due to its complexity. In the light
of that, we would like to make an analysis of ellipsis in the scope of syntax to gain
better insight into the phenomenon. In particular, the analysis will include three
main points with the aims of providing theoretical background of ellipsis,
clarifying how features of ellipsis mirrored in examples taken from the play –
Death of a Salesman and its functions as a cohesive device in dialogues. We will
start with knowledge about ellipsis and its subtypes, then move to the analysis of
ellipsis example and finally explain the use of ellipsis in dramatic text.
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II. THEORY (Ha Kieu Anh – 20193473)
1. Definition of Ellipsis
[1] “He has succeeded less, and his dreams are stronger and less acceptable
than Happy’s.”
(Miller, p.10)
Halliday and Hasan (1976, p. 143) state that ellipsis involves something left
unsaid but understood and is a cohesive device that gives a text the identity of
being a text. Besides, any place has an elliptical word, it also has a presupposition
that can be ‘understood’ in the structure.
Jamil and Mohammed (2018) believed that ellipsis is the most notable
linguistic strategy that plays a major role in the process of cohesion. Ellipsis is
applied to avoid annoying redundancies and achieve a consistent style. Its use is
valid and licensed so long as the abbreviation is understood by the readers or
listeners. It usually refers to the deliberate omission of words, phrases, or sections
from the text. This is because omitted elements have been referenced before and
often do not need to be mentioned again.
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2. Classification
2.1. Classification of Ellipsis by Stainton (2006)
According to Stainton (2006), there are three types of ellipsis known as
syntactic, semantic, pragmatic ellipsis (as cited in Merchant, 2007). However, the
scope of his research is beyond syntax, so it is not suitable for analyzing in this
essay.
Classification of Sub-types
ellipsis
Specific deictics
Non-specific deictics
Post-specific deictics
Indefinite Quantifiers
Superlative Adjectives
Epithet
Comparative Adjective
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Operator Ellipsis
Modal Ellipsis
Clausal Ellipsis
Propositional Ellipsis
It can be seen from two different tables of classifications, the way that Halliday
and Hasan (1976) categorized ellipsis is much more detailed and more persuasive
than Stainton (2006).
In analyzing different types of ellipsis appearing in a dramatic text, Halliday
and Hasan’s theory with a broad category of ellipsis will provide a suitable scope
for the analysis of ellipsis in which textual antecedents containing noun phrases,
verb phrases, and so forth, and clauses with omitted elements can be interpreted
from the co-text. Therefore, in the next part, Halliday and Hasan’s theory will be
frequently present as the foundation of the analysis.
On the other hand, due to the limit of word counts, this essay will concentrate
on some noticeable sub-types.
[2] “He has succeeded less, and his dreams are stronger and less acceptable
than Happy’s.”
(Miller, p.10)
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The head noun “dream” following “Happy’s” is omitted but the readers still
can understand. This was explained by Halliday and Hasan (1976) that there is a
double cohesive tie that presupposes a person and thing owned.
Regarding numeratives, it is often expressed by numerals with three
subcategories: ordinals, cardinals, and indefinite quantifiers (Halliday and Hasan,
1976).
In addition, according to Halliday and Hasan (1976), Epithets will take the
forms of superlative adjectives or comparatives.
“An elliptical verbal group presupposes one or more words from a previous
verbal group. Technically, it is defined as a verbal group whose structure does not
fully express it system features” (Halliday and Hasan 1976, p.167). Verbal ellipsis
is separated into two sub-types that are lexical and operator ellipsis.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), any missing lexical in any verbal group
is called lexical ellipsis. Moreover, if a verbal group contains only a modal or an
operator, it is elliptical. For instance:
[3] “I’m just wondering if Oliver will remember him. You think he might?”
(p.47)
It is evident that the lexical verb “remember” is elliptical from the verbal group
and only “remember” can modifier “might” that makes sense.
On the other hand, operator ellipsis is defined as the omission of operators
meanwhile the lexical verb keeps intact. In addition, the ellipsis of subject always
happens and thus must be presupposed.
[4] “Charley: Hey; you’re going to miss that train. (He waves the bottle.)
Bernard: Yeah, I’m going. (He takes the bottle.) Thanks, Pop. (He picks
up his rackets and bag.) Good-by, Willy, and don’t worry about it. You
know, »If at first you don’t succeed...”
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(p. 68)
In this example, the lexical is the answer to "what to do" in a sequence such as
question and answer, or in some cases, repudiates the verb in the question.
The third type of ellipsis is clausal ellipsis which has two sub-types including
modal and proposition. A clause in English contains a two-part structure that is a
modal element and a propositional element, for example:
[5]
(p. 10)
Halliday and Hasan (1976) assumed that modal ellipsis occurs in response to WH-
questions asking what, while propositional ellipsis answers yes/no questions in
which a reference item presupposes the subject.
Modal/ operator ellipsis is the omission of subject and tensed/finite element in the
verbal group. For example:
[6] “Willy (after a long pause, astonished, elevated): Isn’t that — isn’t that
remarkable? Biff —he likes me!
Linda: He loves you, Willy!
Happy (deeply moved): Always did, Pop.”
(p. 99)
In this example, the modal element “He loves” is elliptical since the full form
should be “He always loves (does love you), Pop.”.
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In contrast, the propositional element consists of the remainder of the verbal
group and any complement and adjunction.
The instance shows that in the utterance “I did.”, clearly, the propositional
element is omitted because the complement sentence must be “I went (did go) up
there.” while the operator element containing the subject and the tensed word
remains.
It can be seen from two different tables of classifications, the way that Halliday
and Hasan (1976) categorized ellipsis is much more detailed and more persuasive
than Stainton (2006).
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III. ANALYSIS (Vu Thi Thao – 20193595)
In this part, we would like to make a detailed analysis of elliptical
phenomena appearing in the 1949 play – Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller to
illustrate the characteristic features of its types presented above. The analysis
focuses on clarifying elided elements and providing possible interpretations of
these ellipses.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) together with Fadhil and Mohammed (2018)
subdivided clause elements into modal and propositional elements. The examples
below illustrate the former:
[8] “Bernard: They are, very nice. Dad tells me Biffs in town.
Willy (with a big smile): Yeah, Biffs in. Working on a very big deal,
Bernard.”
(Miller, 1949, p.66)
[9] “Willy: … they’ll get married and come for a weekend.”
(p.51)
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Given the utterance “Working on a very big deal” in [8], the subject and the
finite operator had obviously been omitted, which according to Halliday and
Hasan allows ellipsis to happen (1976). In that case, the elliptical elements will be
presupposed from the initial clause. Hence, the omitted subject of the utterance
can be referred to Biffs and the modal auxiliary that precedes the lexical verb will
be ‘is’ in this case. The complete utterance is “Biffs is working on a very big
deal.”
Next, it should be noted that example [9] is a special instance of ellipsis where
the sentence with elliptical elements is connected with another sentence by the co-
ordinate word and (Quirk et al, 1985, as cited in Arezou & Hossein, 2012). In this
case, the omitted elements can be inferred from the antecedent.
As with modal ellipsis, propositional ellipsis also figures in dialogues.
According to Fadhil and Mohammed (2018), propositional element consists of a
lexical verb, a complement, or adjunct. Utterances with the lack of these elements
will be considered as propositional ellipsis. Let us consider these examples:
[10] Bernard: How am I going to get in the locker room?
Linda: Let him carry the shoulder guards. (She puts her coat and hat
on in the kitchen).
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Bernard: Can I, Biff? ‘Cause I told everybody I’m going to be in the
locker room.
(p.62-63)
In this part, the subtypes of nominal ellipsis will receive their analysis as
below. Let us consider the examples:
[12] Linda: …because we’ve got the insurance premium.
Willy: That’s a hundred…?
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Linda: A hundred and eight, sixty-eight
(p.51)
Based on Halliday & Hasan ‘s theory (1976) this example shows the
occurrence of numerative ellipsis phenomenon with the head noun removed. In
particular, the two phrases “hundred” and “hundred and eight, sixty-eight” take
the category of adjective but function as the heads of the two noun phrases. From
the dialogue, the two utterances will be interpreted as “that’s a hundred-dollar
insurance premium” and “A hundred and eight, sixty-eight dollar insurance
premium.”
[13] Willy: Here- here’s a dollar.
Stanley: Oh, your son paid me. It’s all right.
…
Willy: here – here’s some more, …
(p. 89-90)
[14] Willy (to Linda): Will you stop! (To Biff.) … Everybody likes a
kidder, but nobody lends him money.
Happy: I’ll try to get some myself, Biff.
(p. 45-46)
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Halliday and Hasan (1976) considered “some” as one of the non-specific
Deictic words, for example, each, every, all, and both that have the function of a
noun in an elliptical clause. In this case, the omitted noun is “money” which can
be inferred from the presupposition “here’s a dollar.” Therefore, the elliptical
utterance will be interpreted as “here- here some more money.”
On the other hand, Halliday and Hasan (1976) divided words that are
possessives, demonstratives, and the article the into the group of non-specific
deictics. For examples:
[15] Willy: The street is lined with cars… The grass don’t grow any
more, ...Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung
the swing between them?
Linda: Yeah, like being a million miles from the city.
Willy: They should’ve arrested the builder for cutting those down.
(p.8-9)
Obviously, the head noun in the noun phrase those is omitted and the
demonstrative word those is used to represent the whole noun phrase those two
beautiful elm trees.
Besides, in this example, the -Ing participle clause ‘for cutting those down’ is
the complement of the verb arrested. Nevertheless, since this knowledge is not the
focus of the course, the phrase marker will not be provided.
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Another subtype of nominal ellipsis is epithets which has its function fulfilled
by an adjective (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). Usually, epithets will take the form of
superlative and comparative adjectives. For superlatives, let us consider the
example below:
[16] Linda: Willy, darling, you’re the handsomest man in the world...
Willy: Oh, no, Linda.
Linda: To me you are (Slight pause.) The handsomest.
(p.24)
The utterance “to me, you are the handsomest” might raise the inquiry ‘the
handsomest whom?’ Evidently, the head noun is removed from the phrase,
leaving the superlative adjective preceded by ‘the’ functions as a noun. Halliday
and Hasan (1976) noted that the specialty of superlative ellipsis is that the
presupposed group occurs within the same clause. Therefore, it can be understood
that the handsomest refers to Willy with the possible interpretation of “to me you
are the handsomest man.”
Similarly, comparatives also take the form of a superlative adjective with
deictic the. Since examples for comparative ellipsis are not spotted in the play, we
would like to use an internal example to illustrate the point:
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[17] Mary is the cleverer (person).
(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:165)
In general, the analysis of abovementioned nominal ellipsis reveals the author’s
purpose of use is to avoid repetition of noun.
3. Analysis of Verbal Ellipsis Examples
Consider example [18], would appears with no other function except for being
a modal verb with finiteness, it cannot replace the lexical verb. Therefore, there is
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a lexical ellipsis in the utterance “I would.” The complete interpretation will be “I
would come home.” The same explanation is applied for example [19]. However,
in example [20], this is a question tag which Fadhil and Mohammed (2018)
consider as a good and common example of lexical verbs.
In operator ellipsis, both the subject and the operator (finite element) of the
verbal group are omitted except for the main verb phrase (Fadhil and Mohammed,
2018). The examples below illustrate the point:
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in examples [19] and to indicate familiar conversation between characters (Arhire,
2018), as in example [22] between Willy and his wife.
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IV. IMPLICATION (Luu Thao Chi – 20193495)
1. Frequency of Ellipsis in the Drama – Death of a Salesman
The following table will display the frequency of each type of ellipsis and its
percentage in the dramatic text “Death of a Salesman.”
Table 1
Distribution and Percentage of Ellipsis in the drama text "Death of a Salesman"
N 57 21.67%
V 78 29.65%
C 128 48.66%
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of the sentence. The part using ellipsis will be denoted by the blob and the part
not using ellipsis will be highlighted (Burton, 2016).
[23] "Linda: Why don't you tell those things to Howard, dear?
Willy (encouraged): I will .I definitely will . Is there any cheese?"
(p.7)
[24] "Linda: Why don't you tell those things to Howard, dear?
Willy (encouraged): I will tell those things to Howard; I definitely will tell
those things to Howard. Is there any cheese?"
Example [23] is taken from the drama text which used ellipsis and example
[24] is a complete sentence (without using ellipsis). Example [23] strengthens the
link between the question and the answer because you have to read the first
sentence to understand the second. In addition, the use of ellipsis in these
sentences reduces unnecessary repetition. In example [24], there is no connection
between the previous sentence and the following sentence because if the ellipsis is
not used, it is a complete sentence with complete information and can stand alone.
Moreover, it is difficult for the listener to pay attention to the answer because it is
too long and rambling.
Example [25] is taken from the drama text which used ellipsis and example
[26] is a complete sentence (without using ellipsis). In example [25], we can see
the connection between the question and the answer and among the answers. The
use of ellipsis in the two sentences "just stopped by to see Pop" and "get off my
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feet till my train leaves" makes the listener pay more attention to the next answer
which is "I'm going to Washington in a few minutes". It expresses a sequence of
actions that are happening and will happen clearly. And it fits the context when
the character is in a hurry to prepare to move to another place, so the answer tends
to be shortened. Readers can understand the situation at the time even if they are
not mentioned the context before. For example [26], we feel the information is
distorted when repeating words unnecessarily, it does not show the haste of the
character in the situation at that time, and we don't feel the character's haste when
preparing to go somewhere else. Therefore, example [26] is not suitable to
represent the situation at that time and we cannot understand it without being
mentioned the situation before.
From the examples [23], [24], [25], [26], there are two ways for the ellipsis to
function as a cohesive device. Firstly, ellipsis plays a role in coherence in the text
and in this case the drama text. The omission in the clauses shows that the
sentences in the conversation are related to each other. To understand the meaning
of the omitted parts, it is necessary to rely on the previous sentences. The ellipsis
in the drama text "Death of a Salesman" as a cohesive device creates a coherent
dialogue by avoiding unnecessary repetition and presenting the dialogue
sparingly. Secondly, the ellipsis plays the role of making the dialogue appropriate
for the context. This means that the dialogues that occur in the drama play an
important role in making the viewer understand the context of the dialogue. For
example, when a person is in a hurry, they tend to shorten their speech in
conversation. In this case, just looking at the context of the dialogue can make
people understand the meaning even without being mentioned the context before.
As a result, it makes the conversation coherent. In summary, the ellipsis clause
makes the dialogue coherent in two different ways. It acts as a cohesive device, so
it increases coherence in the drama text. Besides, dialogues are coherent by
considering the context in which the dialogue is created (Sapitri, 2017). That is
the reason for the dialogue in drama to have meaning, external factors such as
context have a close relationship with the linguistic features of dialogue. The
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combination of the two makes the dialogue in the drama coherent and easy to
understand.
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V. CONCLUSION
Through the writing, we have made a detailed analysis the characteristics of
ellipsis in terms of its sub-categories and use of ellipsis examples appearing in the
drama– the Death of a Salesman. In which, the ellipsis can occur with a word, a
phrase, or a sentence, and the deleted elements are usually presupposed from
preceding material. By that, we have explained the key role of ellipsis in dramatic
texts as a technique to enhance the cohesion of the text and avoid the repetition of
one element in the conversational context.
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References
Arhire, M. (2018). The Translation of Ellipsis as Identity Marker in the Literary
https://doi.org/110.2478/ausp-2018-0025
ed).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327230792_A_Linguistic_Study_of
_Ellipsis_in_Drama_and_Novel
Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English (1st ed). Long Man.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315836010
ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228890865_Three_kinds_of_ellipsis
_Syntactic_semantic_pragmatic
Miller, A., Morehouse, W., & Gibbs, W. (1973). Death of a Salesman. 1949.
Hemingway’s the Old Man and the Sea and its Persian Translations. Journal
Neliti
Sapitri, D. (2017). Substitution and Ellipsis as Cohesive Devices in the Little Prince
http://repository.umsu.ac.id/bitstream/handle/123456789/4064/DELI
%20SAPITRI.pdf?sequence=1
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Appendix
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