This document shares details about Ellipsis and their use and how to use ellipsis for Stylistic Analysis. There are also example analysis of two texts.

1. Topic: ELLIPSIS
Presented By: Group 3

2. Group
Members
• Ghaza Ejaz
• Fatima Bint e Mazhar
• Zarmeen Umer
Write Up Done By
• Zia Ur Rehman
• Raiha Haider
Presentation:

3. Definition:
 Ellipses is a cohesive device involving the absence of an item which the reader or listener
must supply. The cohesive link is set up by the process of referring to recover the missing
item (as in pronominal reference):
How was Spain? I didn’t go ˍˍˍˍˍ
(where “to Spain” is ellipted).
 Ellipses can also be used to set up coherent links.
 Ellipsis is common in speech as a device for economy, but it’s use in writing treads a fine
line between economy and incoherence (where too little information undermines
understanding).

4. Sources of
the Absent
Words or
Phrases
While there is a cohesive link, the
information comes from actual
text or context of the text.
However, a coherent link can also
be formed where the absent phrase
or word resides in common sense
or general knowledge.

5. TASK:
Note the ellipses in text 1 & 2.
To what extent are they a product
of the type of language being
represented, and to what extent do
they constitute a deliberate
stylistic effort by the writer?

6. TEXT 1 (The Analyzed Part)
‘Sheila isn’t here,’ he said without waiting for Charles to say anything, and without
any greeting.
‘Do You Mind if I come in all the same? I have Come some distance,’ muttered Charles.
‘There’s only Edith and me here,’ said Robert, as if warning Charles that by coming in he
was exposing himself to an unpleasant ordeal; which was true.
Without answering, Charles levered himself past Robert and went into the hall. Edith
came out of the kitchen and confronted him. ‘Sheila isn’t here,’ she said. ‘I Know,’ said
Charles, speaking too quickly to be fully intelligible. ‘Robert told me about it. Do you
mind if come in perhaps I could have a cup of tea? Or tell me when Sheila will be back, I
wanted to see her if I could.’
Attribution:
Text 2 John Wain, Hurry on Down, pp. 15˗ 16.

7. Solution
‘[Do you] Mind if I come in all the same? [I have] Come some distance,’ muttered
Charles.
‘[I] Know,’ said Charles, speaking too quickly to be fully intelligible.
‘Robert told me [she wasn’t here]. [Do you] mind if [I] come in perhaps [I could
have a] cup of tea? Or [Could you tell me] when Sheila [will] be back [I] wanted
to see her if I could.’

8. Verdict
The ellipses come here wholly within the speech of
one character ˗˗˗˗˗ where it represents his perturbance and
mood. Note that almost all of this ellipsis involves the
omission of auxiliary verbs and subject pronouns ˗˗˗˗
which suggests that it is rule˗ governed in some way.
Subject pronouns and auxiliaries are deleted in spoken
English quite frequently, but this usage is particularly
associated with upper˗ middle˗ class spoken English. In
this text, it demonstrates both the hastiness of the character
Charles, and also his disinclination to engage with Edith
and Robert whilst he waits foe Sheila.

9. TEXT 2
‘I will ask you once more. It is the last time. Will you or will you not?’
‘I will not. It is also the last time. It must be the last.’
‘you will not give me your reasons?’
‘I will give you one. You have too much. Your house and your land. Your parents and your sister.
Your sister who is also your friend. Your work and your growing name. I like things to be on a
moderate scale. To have them in my hands and not be held by them.’
‘this is not the only reason. There must be a deeper one.’
‘There is. And it may be deep. I do not want to marry. I seldom say so, to be disbelieved.’
You don’t feel that marriage would mean a fuller life?
‘I don’t want the things it would be full of. Light words are sometimes true.’
‘Then there must be a change. I do want to marry. I want to have descendants. I want to hand down
my name. I could not keep up our relation under a wife’s eyes. It has escaped my parents.’
‘your father I daresay. What about your mother?’
‘I am not sure. It is hard to know.’
‘it has not escaped her, or you would know. Silence has its use.’

10. The speaker’s indifference to convention appeared in her clothes, her cottage, and her habit of looking
full at her companion and voicing her thought. She was a short, fair woman of about thirty, with a deep voice,
a strongly cut face, and calm eyes that were said to see more than other people’s, and sometimes did. Her
companion was a large, dark man, with solid, shapely features, heavy, gentle, nervous hands, strong, sudden
movements and a look of smouldering force. He ignored convention in another way, and in one that was his
own. A consciousness of being a known and regarded figured showed in his dress and his bearing, and was
almost disguised. The breach of family tradition involved in his leading a writer’s life in addition to a
landowner's, enhanced him in his own eyes and supported his conception of himself.
‘well, this is a last occasion. It becomes one. It is what you choose.’
‘And what you do. I think you will be happy. And I hope she will. That is where the question lies.’
‘if I marry her, she should be. I will do my part.’
‘it will be easier than hers. I wonder if you know it.’

11. ‘hers cannot be what yours would be. I am helpless there.’
‘so am I. I am not fitted for ordinary domestic life.’
‘so I must live with someone who is. And I shall not see the life as ordinary. None is so to me.’
‘How do you see your own life? It is even less so to you?’
‘it is as it is. As I am what I am. I know I am a man of full nature. I know I am built on a large scale.
I am not afraid to say it.’
‘it is true that most people would be. If I thought it of myself, I should. So you can’t know if I think
it. But do you know anyone who thinks he is built on a small scale?’
‘I know many people who are. It is part of their interest to me.’
‘but not of their interest to themselves. Do they know on what scale they are?;
‘I am to marry someone who is on a moderate one, and who knows it.’
‘then I guess who it is. There is someone of whom it is true. And there would not be anyone else.’
‘my father perhaps?’
‘But you can hardly marry him, Hereward.’
Attribution:
Ivy Compton˗ Burnett, A God and His Gifts, pp. 5˗7

12. Solution
• I will only mention a few random here.
Will you [marry] or will you not [marry].
I will not [marry].
There is [another reason].’
[It has escaped] your father I daresay.
‘If I marry her, she should be [happy]

13. Verdict
There are so much ellipsis in this passage that it borders on the incoherent. Amazingly, this
is the opening of a novel (the main ellipsis are numbered):
‘I will ask you (1) once more. It is the last time (2). Will you or will you not (3)?’
1. Not recoverable from context for several lines: ‘to marry me’;
2. ‘I will ask you’;
3. Not recoverable for several lines: ‘marry me’;
4. Not recoverable for several lines: ‘marry you’;
5. ‘I will tell you’;
6. ‘time’.
Note that in this passage, as in John Wain, Hurry on Down, ellipsis is most frequent in
speech . Here though, two characters, rather than one are employing it, and the range
of things ellipted is much wider.

14. Verdict (Continued)
Even though ellipsis is more common in actual speech than in writing, it is difficult to
imagine a real conversation using it this much, and in this way. Conversation is usually
much more wordy!
This highly ellipted style would seem to be a deliberate choice on the part of Compton˗
Burnett˗˗˗˗ as will be confirmed by reading any of her other novels. The effect is to
involve the reader as much as possible in creating the meaning of the text˗˗˗ hence the use
of dialogue rather than omniscient narration, the high frequency of ellipsis, and even the
higher frequency of pronoun replacement˗˗˗˗ another feature of cohesion which relies on
the reader to supply the referent. Note the pronouns in this section:

15. Verdict (Continued)
well, this is a last occasion. It becomes one. It is what you choose.’
‘And what you do. I think you will be happy. And I hope she will. That is where the
question lies.’
‘if I marry her, she should be. I will do my part.’
‘it will be easier than hers. I wonder if you know it.’
‘hers cannot be what yours would be. I am helpless there.’
Particularly the shifting reference of it. Some readers will find this style alienating, as it
requires considerable effort to read; whilst other readers will relish the logical,
unflappable, pedantic trait of the speakers. One of the most unusual features of
Compton˗ Burnett’s writing is that she does not attempt to differentiate between her
characters in terms of their spoken styles. Usually, authors try to create caracters with
identifiable personalities through slight differences in their idiolects.
In Compton˗ Burnett’s writing, however, characterization is subordinated

16. Verdict (Continued)
to a fascination with logic; and, delightfully, all the characters speak in this
way, from the lord and lady of the manor to the children and the servants.
When considering the writing of Raymond Chandler, we remarked that this
distinctive stylistic trait was his terse handling of the verb phrase; Compton˗
Burnett’s style lies in her manipulation of ellipsis.

17. THANK YOU!