Ellipsis in a Selection of Hemingway's Short Stories

Ellipsis is a lexico-grammatical phenomenon that is used in both spoken and written forms oflwaguage. However, it is more frequent in the spoken form than in the written one. This can be ascribed to the fact that human beings show tendency to be economical in their speech, trying to exert less effort to gain more profit, i.e. using the least words in pursuit of comprehensive expression of meaning. Moreover, people use ellipsis in their dialogues to avoid repetition so that their speech would not be tedious and boring. They depend on such principles as presupposition and others. However, the uses of ellipsis vary, in literature, from one genre to another. It appears salient in poetry and in a lesser degree in the short story whereas it is the least in novels. It also varies from one author to another. For example, it is a striking feature of Hemingway's short stories. Moreover, the use of ellipsis in any piece of literature could entangle the reader and plunge him directly into finding a solution for the story or getting an adequate interpretation of its text.