What is ellipsis?
Ellipsis is when words are omitted from a text in order to keep the text short and concise. This can only be done where the words that have been left out can be guessed from context or commonly known facts. Often the reason for leaving words out is that limited space is available and the text size needs to be large in order to attract attention. Ellipsis is very common in many different text types in English. Public signs are an example of a text type in which it is common to omit words. Let’s look at two examples of a label you might find on a household product:
WARNING: It would be very unwise to drink the contents of this bottle as they are poisonous. If you did drink them, you could become very ill and possibly even die.
This sign is not very effective. It is grammatically correct, but it is too long. It is ineffective because there is too much detail, which means the letters need to be very small to fit on the sign.
Poison! Do not drink.
This short sign is far more effective. It communicates the key message simply, in large letters which get the attention of the reader. This text might look ungrammatical because of the missing words, but this is acceptable in this text type.
Instructional texts
Tasty minced beef recipe
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon honey
1 kilo minced meat
3 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
2 teaspoons cumin seed
Fresh Coriander to taste
1 teaspoon. tamarind juice
Brown rice
Salt
1 tablespoon oil 1 Spanish Onion, diced
On the day before, fry meat in vegetable oil with a pinch of salt until tender. Separate minced beef into small pieces, crushing with a fork. Store overnight in refrigerator.
Next, mix together garlic, honey, coriander, tamarind juice and salt. Then add mixture to meat and stir well.
Following that, heat oil in heavy fry pan and fry meat and spice mix until deep brown. After this, fry onion until brown, then mix chopped tomatoes and cumin. Finally, mix with meat and serve with rice.
Exercise 1
In recipes, and other instructional texts such as set up manuals for electronic products, we try to write information is the shortest way possible. Therefore, recipes are another example of a text type in which many words are commonly omitted.
- Read the recipe above.
- What types of words have been left out in the recipe above? (Answers on Page 2)