Study On Comparison Of Ellipsis In English And Chinese

With the quickened tampo of life, the increased stress on efficiency and efficacy and the ascension of the idea that languages are means of communication, more and more people have come to think that the simplest and pithiest language is the best to use. As a result, whenever in reading or writing, they want to be as quick and efficient as possible. Ellipsis is such a good device to resort to; hence there is extensive use of ellipsis. To be more specific, ellipsis is used to simplify the language, avoid repetition and to emphasize and reinforce a part of the text. At the beginning of the thesis, systematical study is made on the definition, purposes and classification of ellipsis. Meanwhile, three criteria for ellipsis are provided for judging the phenomenon of ellipsis. Then statistical differences are obtained from close examining of more than two thousand sentences in thirty passages of English and Chinese. It is statistically and theoretically proved that the employment of ellipsis is more prevalent and deep-rooted in the Chinese language. And the reasons for these differences are presented as well. At last, the writer tries to connect the phenomenon of ellipsis with philosophy of language and makes a further discussion on the cultural background of the frequent employment of ellipsis in Chinese. It is believed that this thesis will benefit both students of English and English-speakers who are learning Chinese because it will help them to overcome their own language habits of using ellipsis in the other language.