Elliptical Phenomena in German Spoken Language

Abstract

Ellipsis is a universal property of natural languages. But its means of realization differ significantly from language to language. When it comes to elliptical phenomena, there are substantial differences between written and spoken language. Especially ellipsis in the spoken language refers to an intentional omission of certain linguistic component in the dynamic space where discourse participants, discourse situation and discourse text interact with each other. On this occasion discourse participants can easily infer the unrealized linguistic component in terms of internal and/or external linguistic context. The drivers of linguistic elliptical phenomena are chiefly attributed to linguistic economy and informational efficiency.In the chapter 2 of this paper we are concerned with the definition of ellipsis. In the chapter 3 we address