A Pragmatic Study On Ellipsis In Oral English

Ellipsis is a very common linguistic phenomenon in oral interaction. It is a simple grammatical structure with complex pragmatic functions. On most occasions, avoiding redundancy is considered as the main pragmatic function of ellipsis in oral English. However, ellipsis usually does not merely occur for the purpose of avoiding redundancy in expression. As a result, English learners encounter much difficulty in apprehending the real meaning of ellipsis in oral interaction. Therefore, a holistic analysis of ellipsis in terms of its functions from the angle of pragmatics is necessary.An overview of the existing studies on ellipsis from the angle of grammar, semantics and pragmatics shows that pragmatic studies on ellipsis in the past are mainly based on the economy principle and relevance theory. It also indicates that a further analysis of elliptical contents in oral English requires understanding how ellipsis is related to the cooperative principle. Thus the major concern of the present study is with the analysis of pragmatic functions of ellipsis on different occasions under the framework of the cooperative principle.Based on the analysis of the data available at present, the present study has found that ellipsis has various pragmatic functions besides avoiding redundancy, for instance, softening criticism, engendering humor, seeking agreement and so on. It is hoped that these pragmatic functions will shed new light on English learners'understanding of ellipsis in oral interaction.