Chapter 9 Forms of Deletion (Part One): Ellipsis

During the process of writing, relying upon a certain linguistic context, a portion of sentences, phrases, or words may be deleted without affecting the completeness of semantic expression. The author refers to this as “forms of deletion.” This type of expressive form can reduce sentences, phrases, and words, making sentences concise and rhythms compact.

“Refined language, precise imagery, and compact rhythm” are the principal formal characteristics that distinguish modern poetry from prose and novels, while “meaning beyond words, suggestiveness, and polysemy” are the grammatical characteristics of modern poetry. “Refined language” must depend upon the moderate deletion of sentences, phrases, and words in order to eliminate redundant and superfluous expressions. The late poet and poetry critic Qin Zihao, in his essay “Density,” stated: “The reason modern poetry has become increasingly refined lies in the author’s extreme compression of both the content (substance) and language (form) of the poem. The reason modern poetry is difficult to understand also lies herein. After content and language undergo extreme compression, too much is often omitted. When readers appreciate such works, if they cannot reconnect the omitted parts of content and language, it becomes difficult to comprehend the true meaning within the poem.”1 The author believes that “ellipsis” is merely one of the means by which poetic lines achieve “refinement”; other methods such as “epigrammatic force” and “density” are likewise important means. There are many reasons why modern poetry can appear obscure and difficult to understand. These may be explored from two levels: the level of grammatical rhetoric and the level of creative thought (such as Symbolism and Surrealism). The former includes such issues as grammatical disorder, arbitrary leaps between images without traceable logic, excessive application of Europeanized grammar, and misuse of rhetorical figures; the latter includes Symbolist techniques such as “using music and suggestion to introduce a hazy poetic realm,” and Surrealist methods such as collage and automatic writing.

The common principle of forms of deletion is “the simplification of form,” which occupies the opposite position from the “complication of form” found in techniques such as reduplication, parallelism, gradation, and palindrome. Within rhetorical figures, there are such figures as ellipsis, contraction, terseness, abrupt transition, and mutual textuality. Mutual textuality has already been discussed in the first volume, The Aesthetics of Modern Poetic Techniques, and will not be repeated here. Below, only the more commonly used ellipsis, contraction, and abrupt transition will be analyzed.

Section One: Ellipsis

I. Definition and Functions of Ellipsis

(1) Ellipsis: Content Without Form

“Whenever words or meanings are repeated in consecutive usage and feel cumbersome, one may either omit them by inheriting from the preceding context or omit strokes by probing the following context.”2 “Ellipsis… refers to the phenomenon of partial ‘content without form’ in language. That is, words and characters need not appear, yet their meanings still exist. In understanding the complete meaning of an utterance, one must mentally supply the omitted meaning. Therefore, although the expression of the rhetorical figure ‘ellipsis’ is concretely ‘formalized,’ one must nevertheless accurately grasp its content in comprehending the meaning.”3 Ellipsis must be presented through the simplification of form; it is a matter of “omitting where omission is appropriate” in order to avoid semantic repetition. “Yet at times, it may also lead readers to explore what is missing and obtain the pleasure of meanings beyond the strings.”4 In domestic scholarship, rhetoricians classify “ellipsis” as a rhetorical figure. Only a few senior scholars such as Xu Qinting and Huang Yongwu reclassified “active ellipsis” as a “method of composition,” while “passive ellipsis” was categorized under “grammar.”5 The author believes that within the field of modern poetry, ellipsis is not merely the simplification of sentences; in terms of sentence meaning, it is often accompanied by many functions, such as implicit reference (suggestion) and subtlety. Moreover, the frequency of ellipsis in modern poetry is by no means low. Based on considerations of practicality, it is therefore classified here as a formal rhetorical figure within “forms of deletion.”

(2) Ellipsis: Removing the Dross and Preserving the Essence

Ellipsis is also called “saving strokes,” which corresponds to the Tang dynasty historian Liu Zhiji’s assertion that “Though the wording be concise and abbreviated, the principles all strike the essential points; therefore one may be sparse without omission, frugal without deficiency” (see Liu Zhiji’s Shitong: Narrative Chapter). “The purpose of saving strokes is to prevent sentences from becoming rigid and repetitive, not to seek vigor in tone. Therefore, in terms of rhetorical function, saving strokes and contraction are different.”6 The purpose of ellipsis lies in “removing the dross and preserving the essence,” avoiding side branches and miscellaneous leaves that obscure the theme. Its rhetorical functions are threefold:7

1. To make language concise and brisk.
2. To adjust the number of words and syllables.
3. To emphasize semantic meaning and strengthen rhetorical force.

II. Historical Origins of Ellipsis

“Ellipsis” must be concretely implemented within the paragraphs and sentences of a composition. In The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: On Cutting and Refining, Liu Xie states: “Cutting away floating words is called refinement. Through refinement, weeds and impurities do not arise.” This points out that appropriate “cutting and trimming” is a necessary means to avoid “weeds and impurities.” The actual method of “ellipsis” lies precisely in appropriate “cutting and trimming.” Liu Xie specifically identified two targets for such trimming: “One idea expressed twice is semantic duplication; repeated words and sentences are warts and redundancies in writing.” In other words, anything involving “one idea expressed twice” or “repeated words and sentences” constitutes “floating words” and should be appropriately trimmed, achieving “fullness of feeling without prolixity, and flowing diction without excess.”8

Within classical prose and classical poetry, which excel in conciseness and refinement, “ellipsis” is used with extremely high frequency. For example: “Beneath the pines I asked the boy; he said, ‘My master has gone to gather herbs, only somewhere within these mountains, where clouds are deep and his whereabouts unknown.’” The poet omits his own question to the boy and jumps directly to the boy’s answer, employing precisely “saving strokes”: partial omission. In this way, sufficient space remains to depict how clearly the boy explains his master’s whereabouts.

In Wang Changling’s Tang dynasty poem Joining the Army: Poem Five of Seven:

“The desert winds and dust darken the daylight;
Half-furled red banners emerge from the camp gates.
The vanguard battled by night north of the Tao River;
Already word arrives of capturing Tuyuhun alive.”

The first two lines depict the army setting out at dusk amid blowing desert sands, then the poem directly leaps to the vanguard, after a night of fierce battle, already capturing the enemy leader alive. The actual course of battle between the two armies is left entirely undescribed. Yet the narrative structure of the whole poem remains perfectly clear in sequence. This is what the ancients referred to as the refined technique of “applying ink to the larger areas.” To achieve refinement, one must work upon both “compressed narration” and “partial omission.”

Within the poetic field of modern literature, although modern poetry has cast aside formal shackles such as “tonal patterns, rhyme schemes, antithesis, line numbers, and word counts,” it still inherits the generic characteristic of conciseness and refinement from classical poetry. “Omitting where omission is appropriate” is the concrete practice underlying the concept of conciseness and refinement.

Section Two: Formal Structure of Ellipsis

“Ellipsis” must rely upon a certain linguistic environment. Ellipsis is not the deletion of content, but the simplification of language. The omitted content can still be inferred or accurately restored.7 The formal structure of ellipsis consists of the original form, the abbreviated form, and the omitted text.

(1) Original Form: The complete sentence expressing the full meaning before ellipsis, namely the abbreviated form plus the omitted text.

(2) Abbreviated Form: The remaining words and simplified sentences after ellipsis that retain a suggestive function.

(3) Omitted Text: The components of words or sentences that have been deleted.

Section Three: Modes of Expression in Ellipsis

According to differing circumstances of simplification, the scholar Chen Wangdao divided “ellipsis” into “active ellipsis” and “passive ellipsis.” The former is the method of sentence omission and is further divided into “non-writing” and “saving strokes”; the latter concerns “word omission” and is further divided into “ellipsis inherited from above” and “ellipsis inferred from below.”9 Yang Chunlin and others, meanwhile, divided ellipsis into “simple ellipsis” (passive ellipsis) and “compound ellipsis” (active ellipsis). The former mainly involves the omission of sentence components, including “preceding omission,” “following omission,” “dialogue omission,” “highlighting omission,” “self-narrative omission,” and “general-reference omission.” Simple ellipsis can make language concise and brisk, emphasize the central point, and at times also achieve an indirect and subtle expressive effect. The latter includes three types: “abbreviated writing,” “hidden wording,” and “blank leaving.” In compound ellipsis, meanings are not directly written out, or are not written at all, yet readers may infer, associate, and comprehend them according to the surrounding context.10 Following Yang’s classification, the author will discuss classical poetry examples together with modern poetry examples.

I. Simple (Passive) Ellipsis

1. Preceding Omission (Ellipsis Inherited from Above):
   When something has already been explained in the preceding text, related words are omitted in the following text. In this way, unnecessary repetition may be avoided.

Luo Fu, “Today, Light Snow”11

From rainfall to light snow
The process presumably would not be
More complicated than going from Hunan to Hebei
Mentioning my family’s stir-fried cured pork,
Your family’s mutton soup
And the waves of Dongting Lake, the waters of the Yellow River
Which of these is gentler, and so forth
The issue is no longer simple

After the line “Mentioning my family’s stir-fried cured pork,” the word “mentioning” is no longer repeated. Before each of the following three lines, the introductory word “mentioning” has been omitted. Words with identical meanings usually do not need repetition unless the purpose is emphasis or the creation of rhythmic effects such as reduplication, parallelism, or gradation.

Bai Qiu, “Wanderer”12

A fir tree gazing at distant clouds
A fir tree gazing at clouds
A fir tree
Fir tree

Beginning with the second line, each line omits one phrase. This too is a form of “preceding omission.” In this poem, it signifies the camera drawing closer and gradually focusing, until the “close-up” of the “fir tree” appears in the final line, at which point no surrounding clutter remains. What is employed here is the line-by-line elimination of phrases, using their relative importance as the criterion: the least important elements are removed first, and only the core image is ultimately retained.

1. Following Omission (Ellipsis Probed from Below):
   When something will be explained later in the text, related words are omitted earlier in the text.

Huang Jinlian, “Veteran Soldier”13

Lost his parents
Lost his wife and children
Lost his fields and gardens
The veteran soldier who lost his homeland

At the end of the first three lines, the words “veteran soldier” are omitted, because the fourth line provides the explanation. Thus, repeated words are omitted in the preceding text. In an age of war and chaos, the veteran soldier is a boatman stranded by “politics.” Unless he can take root where he lands, he can only wither helplessly with the passing years.

1. Dialogue Omission:
   In dialogue, as long as both parties can understand one another, certain words may be omitted. For example: “Last night the rain was sparse and the wind sudden; deep sleep could not dispel the lingering wine. I tried asking the curtain-rolling maid, but she replied: ‘The crabapple blossoms are still the same. Don’t you know, don’t you know? It should be that the green has grown fat and the red has grown thin.’” (Li Qingzhao of the Song dynasty, “Like a Dream”). This lyric uses refined dialogue to depict the mistress’s affection for flowers and plants. After the line “I tried asking the curtain-rolling maid,” an interrogative sentence is omitted, and the poem jumps directly to the maid’s response. By combining the preceding and following context and reasoning through the sequence of language, readers may themselves supply the omitted question.
2. Highlighting Omission:
   In dialogue, certain words are highlighted in order to express doubt, surprise, emphasis, and so forth. In such cases, it is not easy to clearly indicate what exactly has been omitted.
3. Self-Narrative Omission:
   In speeches, reports, letters, diaries, and so forth, one often refers to what “I” did. This “I” does not necessarily need to be spoken or written every time.
4. Generalized Omission:
   The object referred to is broad and self-evident. This is generally used in sentences of appeal, command, or dissuasion.

Within modern poetry creation, “simple ellipsis” is more commonly applied by authors in forms such as “preceding omission,” “following omission,” “self-narrative omission,” and “generalized omission.” Some scholars classify these “simple ellipses” under the category of “grammar” for discussion.

II. Compound (Active) Ellipsis

1. Abbreviated Writing:

Meanings that can be inferred from the preceding and following context are omitted rather than explicitly stated, or are merely touched upon with one or several words. Abbreviated writing often contains markers: it may substitute indicative words, or the surrounding context may already provide hints, so that the omitted content remains clear and understandable, unlike the obscurity found in hidden-word omission.

Ji Xiaoyang, “The Goddess of Childbirth”14

Do not ask me about test-tube babies, or
The moral issues of artificial insemination,
Nor ask me methods for bearing sons,
And especially do not ask me the probability
Of your husband having an affair
I am a purely Chinese-style goddess—
Unable to withstand these questions repeatedly
Teasing me…

Isn’t it still the same old saying: remember
To drink your Four-Substance Soup on time, and also
Condoms that should be thrown away must indeed be thrown away;
If you still cannot become pregnant, then I shall
Give you another new superstition—
Never, under any circumstances, on your own birthday
Casually have sexual intercourse with a man…

The “words” following these two passages are all deliberately omitted by the poet, leaving readers to “ponder” them for themselves. Through such a technique, the meaning is not completely spoken out, and thus becomes subtle and flavorful instead. Faced with these “omitted” portions, readers of different genders may naturally think in vastly different directions; even readers of the same gender may perhaps still possess certain divergences of interpretation.

1. Hidden-Word Omission

This is a rhetorical mode of ellipsis in which meaning may be understood even though it is never verbally expressed. Hidden-word omission is a rhetorical method that is subtle, indirect, and rich in implication. On the surface, it reveals not the slightest trace of “defect” or “omission,” yet in understanding and appreciating the meaning of the text, one cannot separate oneself from the words concealed within the sentence. For example: “The nation shattered, yet mountains and rivers remain; in the spring city, grasses and trees grow deep. Moved by the times, flowers shed tears; hating separation, birds startle the heart.” (Du Fu of the Tang dynasty, “Spring View”). In poetry, value lies in shallow words with deep meaning, meaning beyond the words themselves, causing readers to associate one thing from another and comprehend poetic meaning through imagination. Hidden-word omission often achieves astonishing success in this regard, producing resonances beyond the strings. In this poem, the surface wording says “mountains and rivers remain,” but in reality, aside from mountains and rivers, cities, fields, houses, cooking smoke, and everything else no longer exist. The surface wording says “grasses and trees grow deep,” but in reality, because of prolonged warfare, the city lies ruined and nine households out of ten are empty; within the city few inhabitants remain, and everywhere weeds and wild trees grow thick and dense.

Zheng Chouyu, “Biananfan Tribe”15

And I, how I wish my occupation
Were merely striking
The elementary school bell
Held within my bosom
For I have already reached this kind of age—
The age when woodpeckers perch upon my back.

The poet merely says, “For I have already reached this kind of age.” As for whether “this kind of age” means truly old or not yet terribly old, what plans the poet still has left unfinished, what his present occupation is, and what sort of leisure he will have after retirement—the poet says none of these things. Instead, he speaks indirectly, saying: “The age when woodpeckers perch upon my back,” meaning that he has grown so old as to resemble a decayed ancient tree infested with insects, so that woodpeckers fly over every day, perching upon his back to peck at worms for food.

Ya Xian, “Thinking of Someone”16

Until that night I discovered someone
Upon the parasol tree
Using a small knife to carve my name
And then carve her name
Within the same heart
—So it was last summer
The girl washing her feet whom I met by the riverside
…Later we both wept

After the line “—So it was last summer,” the scene undergoes a transition. Through recollective manifestation, it returns to the past spacetime: the riverside of last summer. Then with “…Later we both wept,” the scene is pulled back once again to “that night” being remembered. As for what event or what reason caused the poet and “her” both to weep, the poetic lines do not explain in detail. Judging from the context above, readers should be able to imagine that this pair of lovers seems to have encountered external resistance preventing them from remaining together, thus giving rise to the emotional response: “Later we both wept.”

1. White Space (Omission by Leaving Blank)

In linguistic expression, due to the complexity of emotions being temporarily impossible to articulate clearly, or because expressing them clearly would be less effective than leaving them unsaid, a deliberate blank space is left for readers to exercise their imagination and interpretive ability to “fill in” the missing parts. From the perspective of “semantic content,” the place where “white space” occurs is a form of ellipsis. The omitted content must be supplemented by the reader’s own understanding. However, unlike ordinary ellipsis, which is completed through logical reasoning, white space is filled through imagistic thinking and imagination. The process of completing white space is an aesthetic (re-creative) process. The expressive effect of white space is intentionally pursued; it emphasizes “implication,” while “conciseness” is only secondary.

Zheng Chouyu, “When the Mist Rises”17

I came from the sea, bringing back twenty-two stars of navigation.
You ask me about sailing, and I raise my head and laugh…

“You ask me about sailing, and I raise my head and laugh…” The poet raises his head and laughs; he does not answer the question, nor does he describe his own experiences of sailing. Instead, he uses laughter to replace an answer. What mysteries or allusions are contained within this laughter? The poet deliberately leaves an imaginative space for readers to ponder, to interpret, and to weave their own stories of the sea.

[Notes]

1 This article is included in the collection On Modern Poetry. See Qin Zihao, Complete Works of Qin Zihao (Vol. II), Taipei: Qin Zihao Complete Works Publishing Committee, 1968, p. 269.
2 Huang Yongwu, Methods of Sentence and Word Refinement, Taipei: Hongfan, 1986, p. 168.
3 Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: National Press, 2004, p. 487.
4 Dong Jitang, Analysis of Rhetorical Techniques, Taipei: Wenshizhe, 1992, p. 454.
5 Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Comprehensive Dictionary of Rhetoric, Taipei: Jianhong, 1998, p. 771.
6 Same as note 2, p. 169.
7 Lu Jiaxiang & Chi Taining (eds.), Dictionary of Rhetorical Methods with Examples, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press, 1990, pp. 214–215.
8 Liu Xie, annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Annotated Wenxin Diaolong, Taipei: Liren, 1984, p. 624.
9 Chen Wangdao, An Introduction to Rhetoric, Hong Kong: Daguan, 1964, pp. 184–188.
10 Yang Chunlin & Liu Fan (eds.), Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Art, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Press, 1991, pp. 840–854.
11 Reproduced from Luo Fu, Illustrations of Dreams, Taipei: Shulin, 1999, pp. 94–96.
12 Reproduced from Bai Qiu, Selected Poems of Bai Qiu, Taipei: Sanmin, 2005, pp. 65–67.
13 Reproduced from Zheng Jiongming (ed.), Mixed Voice Chorus, Kaohsiung: Chunhui, 1992, p. 517.
14 Reproduced from Ji Xiaoyang, Orange Coast, Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2003, pp. 68–69.
15 Reproduced from Zheng Chouyu, Collected Poems of Zheng Chouyu I: 1951–1968, Taipei: Hongfan, 1979, p. 204.
16 Reproduced from Ya Xian, Poetry Collection of Ya Xian, Taipei: Hongfan, 1985, pp. 192–193.
17 Same as note 15, pp. 99–100.