Bilgewater: Grammar
Task B - ellipsis
One of the striking features of this passage is grammatical ellipsis.
Grammatical words and other words which can easily be inferred contextually
are omitted. Consider sentences 59 and 60, which we repeat below with
the context of the preceding sentence for convenience:
(58) Then she puts on a coat - very nice coat, too.
(59) Fur. (60) Nice fur.
(i) 'Fill out' sentences 59 and 60 in order to remove
(and so reveal) the ellipsis, and compare your effort with ours.
Our answer
Our answers:
(59') It is made of fur.
(60') It is nice fur.
Now go through the passage sentence-by-sentence
noting how many of its sentences are elliptical in some way, calculate
the percentage of sentences which are elliptical, and consider the effect
of the extent of ellipsis you find.
Our answer
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