THE ellipse is the figure of speech that omits a term, word or expression in the utterance, and the omitted term can easily be implied by the context. This type of linguistic resource is very common in literary and advertising language.
Read too: Asyndeton - figure of speech consisting of the suppression of connectives in a sentence
What is an ellipse?
The ellipse is a figure of speech characterized by omit a linguistic term (word or expression) in the utterance. Although omitted, this term is often easily understood by context. Thus, its omission does not make the statement incomprehensible.
As this figure of speech explores and changes the structure of the utterance, it is a construction figure (also called the figure of syntax).
Ellipse Examples
Note, in the examples below, how some elements were omitted without this causing damage to the understanding of the statement. The omission can even make the reading more fluid or poetic.
House blacksmith,skewer of stick.
He was about to interrupt me again, but me: "He arrives!".
At clothes in clothes line, Oincreasing wind...
We will finish paying off the every month next.
she looked at me silently, that one look full of meaning.
In specific cases, it is common for an ellipse to occur with prepositions, verbs or conjunctions, especially in colloquial and spoken language. See, now, the same statements with some filling possibilities that would serve to make the statement more accurate:
[In] blacksmith's house, [O] spit [é] of stick.
He was about to interrupt me again, but I [I exclaimed]: "He arrives!"
The clothes [They were] on the clothesline, [and] the wind [was] increasing...
We will finish paying off the house [at the] next month.
She looked at me silently, [with] that look full of meaning.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Difference between ellipse and zeugma
Zeugma, like the ellipse, is also a figure of syntax characterized by the omission of a term.
However, in the ellipse, the omitted element is implied by the context. At the zeugma, this omission is specifically with an element that already appeared explicitly in a previous moment in the statement. Therefore, the omitted element is implied because it is a repetition in the discourse.
"Me I adore horror movies. My boyfriend, the comedy ones.”
In the case above, the zeugma occurs when the verb “to adore” is omitted, which, due to its repeated structure, can be easily understood in the utterance. Note the presence of punctuation (in that case, comma) to mark the omission.
See too: Hyperbate - figure of speech that concerns the syntactic inversion of the utterance
Curiosities about the ellipse
The term "ellipse" comes from the Greek ellipsis, which means “omission”, “insufficiency”, “lack”.
In Mathematics, there is also the term “Ellipse”, but referring to something quite different from the ellipse we know as a stylistic resource of language.
solved exercises
Question 1 - (UFF)
TEXT
There is no death. The meeting of two expansions, or the expansion of two forms, can determine the suppression of two forms, it can determine the suppression of one of them; but, strictly speaking, there is no death, there is life, because the suppression of the one is the condition for the survival of the other, and destruction does not reach the universal and common principle. Hence the conservative and beneficial character of the war.
Suppose you a field of potatoes and two hungry tribes. Potatoes only come to feed one of the tribes, which thus acquires the strength to cross the mountain and go to the other side, where there are plenty of potatoes; but if the two tribes peacefully share the potatoes of the field, they do not get enough nourishment and starve to death.
Peace, in this case, is destruction; war is conservation. One of the tribes exterminates the other and collects the spoils. Hence the joy of victory, the hymns, acclamations, public rewards and all the other effects of warlike actions.
If the war were not for that, such demonstrations would not happen, for the real reason that man only celebrates and loves the that it is pleasurable or advantageous, and for the rational reason that no person canonizes an action that virtually destroys. To the defeated, hate or compassion; to the winner, the potatoes.
(ASSIS, Ax of. Quincas Borba. Rio de Janeiro, Civilização Brasileira/INL, 1976.)
Mark one of the alternatives below the one in which the use of the comma marks the suppression (ellipse) of the verb:
A) To the loser, hate or compassion, to the winner, potatoes.
B) Peace, in this case, is destruction (…)
C) Hence the joy of victory, the hymns, the acclamations, public rewards and all the other effects of warlike actions.
D) (...) but, strictly speaking, there is no death (...)
E) If the war were not for that, such demonstrations would not have taken place (…)
Resolution
Alternative A. In the expression, the comma indicates the omission of the verb “to give”, in the passive voice.
Question 2 - (Quadrix) To answer the question, read the text below.
Project takes homeless people to the public library in Icoaraci
In an attempt to change the reality of homeless residents, the Avertano Rocha Library, in the district of Icoaraci, in Belém, developed the project "Make the Invisibles Visible". The action has a partnership between the City of Belém and Centro Pop.
“I was walking down the street and they always approached me asking for money. I would say let's go to the library, let's go to the library”, says the coordinator of the library, Terezinha Lima.
In one year, the project has already brought more than 60 people to the library. In an environment totally different from the streets, they start to think about a different future. It's the stories in the books that inspire them to make a different story for them too.
The project was so successful that it won the eighth edition of the Vivaleitura Award, from the Ministry of Education, an initiative that recognizes experiences that promote the habit of reading.
Reading is slow and full of difficulties. It is the consequence of the short time they spent at school. At the age of 31, Wellisson Almeida entered a library for the first time. “I imagined it was a small room, few books,” she says.
And full of new plans, at the age of 40, Hernan Costa wants to go back to school and has already chosen the profession he wants to pursue. "There are people who finish college at 60, right? I have time. I want to be a good lawyer, I intend to be," she says.
(g1.globo.com)
The construction of a clear and concise text can take place through several mechanisms, such as the ellipse, for example. In which of the following excerpts does the subject's ellipse occur?
A) The project was so successful that it won the eighth edition of the Vivaleitura Award [...].
B) There are people who finish college at 60, right?.
C) I was walking down the street and they always approached me asking for money.
D) In one year, the project has already brought more than 60 people to the library.
E) I want to be a good lawyer, I intend to be.
Resolution
Alternative E. There is an omission of the “I” element in both clauses.
By Guilherme Viana
grammar teacher
