Studies in Language. International Journal sponsored by the Foundation “Foundations of Language” - Volume 4, Issue 1, 1980

Most English elliptical sentences (ES's) can be accounted for syntactically in terms of major constituents, and semantically by a few interpretative generalizations. This account of elliptical sentences will, without any further formal elaboration, also account for the syntax and semantics of English gapping and secondary conjunction.

The notion of arbitrariness of the linguistic sign should not pervade the whole of language study. Language as social interaction involves most naturally, person, number, time and other categories, which often find linguistic expression. The four dimensions of the personal endings of the Greek verb (person, number, tense and voice) can be abstracted from the paradigm and explained as a natural, non-arbitrary result of the subjective centering of language around the speaker.