102 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse
appear to contravene the proposed chaining rules. They will be described
and coded using Brazil’s notation and an attempt will be made to suggest a
possible way of incorporating them into the grammar.
4.4.1 Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of lexical items or clauses which are recoverable from
the situation or preceding text (Biber et al. 1999: 156). It can occur at the
beginning, middle, or end of an utterance (McCarthy 1991: 43) though Biber
et al. (1999: 1104) state that in conversation ellipsis is usually either initial or
fi nal. Ellipsis is classifi ed as either textual or situational. Textual ellipsis is a
means of avoiding unnecessary and redundant repetition of previous items
which are predictable and recoverable from the preceding co-text. Situational
ellipsis is the non-realization of lexical elements which are obvious from the
situational context. Biber et al. (1999) present the following examples of
textual ellipsis which they divide into three categories: ellipsis, in co-ordinate
clauses, in questions and answers, and in comparative clauses.
(34) He squeezed her hand but <he> met with no response^19
N V d N &^20 V P d N
(35) Have you got an exam on Monday?
V N V' d N P N
<I’ve got> two exams <on Monday>
e N
(36) She looks older than my mother <does>
N V E P d NBrazil (1995) does not discuss textual ellipsis, although there are two
examples (37) and (38) in his corpus of clause initial textual ellipsis
printed below with Brazil’s original coding.^21
(37) She just happens to look across and sees her hands...
N V V' A Ø # & V d N Ø #
(38) and so she went and sat in the car
# & N V & V P d N #He (1995: 219) discusses example (38) and says:
... the speaker re-uses some earlier part of the chain and continues it in
a different way.