Classification of the elliptical sentences in the question-answer dialogue unity in modern English language communication

Abstract

The article provides an arrangement of different points of view of Russian and foreign linguists on the versatile issue of ellipsis and elliptical sentences. It shows how these constructions are de-scribed within the formal-grammatical, textual, stylistic, logical, comparative and communicative approaches; and the correlation between ellipsis and syntactic anaphoric zero qualification is given. The second part of the article is devoted to the statistics of different types of elliptical sentences based on the established basic models of elliptical sentences in questionand-answer dialogue unities of the modern English language communication. The author identifies five structural models of elliptical sentences in the question-answer dialogical unity of the modern English language. They are: one-member elliptical interrogative and answer sentences with noun, pronoun, adjective and adverb as a key component; one-member elliptical sentences with functional parts of speech as a key component: an elliptical question presented by question words, conjunctions; and elliptical answers in the form of conjunctions, interjections, prepositions. Then come one-member elliptical answer yesand no-sentences; two-member elliptical general and special questions with direct word order; two-member elliptical answer sentences with the incomplete structure of the predicate and also two-member elliptical interrogative and answer sentences with represented members.