Ellipsis in Arabic and English

Abstract

The term ellipsis, broadly construed, applies to syntactic structures that seem to host obligatory positions not filled with overt lexical materiaL More narrowly construed, the term refers to a hypothetical grammatical process that deprives lexical material of its phonetic content. So, ellipsis is a grammatical omission in contrast to other kinds of omission such as phonological, morphological, or semantic (Quirk, 1985: 883). Ellipsis can be distinguished by its recoverable nature, which means the insertion of grammatical elements results in a grammatical sentence (ibid., 885). .