The structure of this ppt

1.1.-1.3. Reduction: pro-forms and ellipsis

2.1.-2.4. Pro-forms
3.1.-3.2. Ellipsis

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1. Reduction: pro-forms & ellipsis

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 1.1. Reduction: pro-forms and ellipsis
MEANS OF STRUCTURE REDUCTION
(to avoid redundancy of
expression):
• pro-forms
1) John will write a letter on
Monday, and Mary will do
so on Tuesday.
• ellipsis
2) John will write a letter on
Monday, but Mary won’t.
MEANS OF STRUCTURE EXPANSION
(complex sentences consisting
of more than one clause):
• coordination
3) John will write a letter on
Monday, and Mary will help
him.
• subordination
4) John hopes that Mary will
help him.
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1.2. Reduction: pro-forms and ellipsis

• motivation for reduction – a maxim: reduce as much as possible

 if there is a choice, ellipsis is preferred to the use of pro-forms

1) She might sing tonight, but I don’t think she will sing tonight.
2) She might sing tonight, but I don’t think she will do so.

• reduction is syntactic structure based

3) The girls swam faster than it was expected that the girls would swim.
4) The girls swam faster than it was expected that they would swim.
5) The girls swam faster than it was expected that they would do.
6) The girls swam faster than it was expected that they would.
7) The girls swam faster than it was expected they would.
8) The girls swam faster than was expected.
9) The girls swam faster than expected.
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1.3. Reduction: pro-forms and ellipsis
• a key aspect of reduction: the reduced part is usually recoverable from
the (linguistic and/or situational) context

• situational recoverability: the full form is recoverable from the

extralinguistic situtation
1) Is she badly hurt? (when a girl has been struck by a car)

• textual recoverability: the full form is recoverable from a neighbouring

part of the text
2) The poor girl didn’t complain, although she was badly hurt. (anaphoric)
3) Although she was badly hurt, the poor girl didn’t complain. (cataphoric)
poor girl: antecedent & she: pro-form (in both cases!)
a) She might sing tonight but I don’t think that she will (sing tonight).
b) If you want (me to (buy the tickets)), I’ll buy the tickets.

• structural recoverability: the full form is recoverable through

knowledge of grammatical structure
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4) It is strange (that) nobody heard the noise.
2. Pro-forms

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2.1. Pro-forms

• substitution: the pro-form “replaces” a repeated occurrence of the

antecedent
1) Bill got a first prize this year, and I got one/a first prize last year.
2) Bill bought a blue car yesterday, and I bought a green one/car today.
(= two distinct prizes/cars)

• coreference: “cross-reference” between the pro-form and the

antecedent (they refer to the same entity/entities)
3) Two players injured themselves during the match.
(= the same two players)
4) Two players injured two players during the match.
(= distinct two players)

cf. Two playersi injured themselvesi ( two playersj) during the match.

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 2.2. Pro-forms

• a substitute pro-form can be either definite or indefinite (e.g. that on

the chair, one/some of the books)  a coreferential pro-form is
always definite (e.g. he, her, themselves)

• coreferential pro-forms are always pronouns (they are pro-NPs,

because only full NPs are referential!) (e.g. he, her, themselves) or
pronoun-related adverbs (e.g. then, there) --- they are pro-XPs

• that and those can be coreferential pro-NPs or substitute pro-forms

with restrictive postmodification
3) How about John’s book? - OK, give me that.
4) the book on the table and that on the chair

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2.3. Pro-forms

pro-forms used for coreference

personal pronouns she, they, I; him, them, us

reflexive pronouns myself, himself, themselves
possessive pronouns my, his, her; mine, hers, theirs
demonstrative pronouns this, that; these, those
definite adverbs of time & place then; here, there

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2.4. Pro-forms

pro-forms used for substitution

indefinite pronouns one(s), some, none, each, half,

another, several, enough
demonstrative pronouns that, those
pro-predicate/pro-predication do so
pro-complement, pro-clause so

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3. Ellipsis

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3.1. Ellipsis

definition: “grammatical omission” – the actual word(s) whose meaning is

understood or implied must be recoverable
two major criteria
• the ellipted words are precisely recoverable (the exact forms may not
be fully identical)
1) She can’t sing tonight, so she won’t. (sing tonight)
2) If he works hard, I won’t have to. (work hard)
• the insertion of the missing words results in a grammatical sentence
(with the same meaning as the original sentence)
3) He always wakes up earlier than I. (wake up) <formal>
4) He always wakes up earlier than me. (*wake up) <informal>
 3) is a more straightforward example of ellipsis

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3.2. Ellipsis

types of ellipsis

strict 1) I’m happy if you are. (happy)

standard 2) She sings better than I can. (sing)
quasi 3) She works harder than him. (*works)
situational 4) (I am) Glad to see you.
structural 5) I believe (that) you are wrong.
textually anaphoric 1)-3) & 6)
cataphoric 7)

6) She might sing tonight, but I don’t think that she will (sing tonight).
7) If you want (me to (buy the tickets)), I’ll buy the tickets.
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