Rhetorical figures are elements of language that enrich communication and provide a creative touch to literature or the world of advertising. As we know, the rhetorical figures are very diverse (the metaphor is the best known, but there are others, such as metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole or ellipsis). Each of them provides a unique "formula", a mechanism for ordering words with a specific intention. Next we are going to try to explain one of the most unique figures of speech, the ellipsis.
What is an ellipsis and some examples
As a literary figure, ellipsis consists of not mentioning a word or several intentionally. The purpose of this omission is to express an idea in a straightforward and simple way. The deletion of a word should not alter the message, since it is about omitting a term that is not essential. In other words, the word that is not said is already implicit in the message. In most cases, deleting one or more words occurs because saying or writing them is unnecessary.
If I say "Vicente likes toys, but Maria does not" I am using an ellipsis, because I do not explicitly state that Maria does not like toys, because it is totally unnecessary. Let's look at another example: "My cousin Gabriela got married six years ago, her sister not yet" (it goes without saying that the sister has not married). Thus, ellipsis omits words for various reasons (they are dispensable, mentioning them would be somewhat repetitive and, furthermore, it is a way to save words and make communication more effective). Let's look at another illustrative example: two good friends meet and one says to the other "In my arms" (it is evident that it is not necessary to say "Come into my arms" and both the complete and the incomplete forms have the same meaning).
In sayings and in advertising
Sayings are popular sayings that communicate a teaching. In the proverb we can find examples in which ellipsis is used as a resource to achieve greater brevity and more impact on the message (A fleeing enemy, silver bridge).
The advertising language (whether using words or images) has to be effective and suggestive, for which ellipsis is a good resource in the field of communication. Imagine that in a television advertisement for a soft drink from a well-known brand, the shadow of a bottle appears without the express indication of which brand it is, and a group of young people observe the shadow with great joy (in this example it is evident that what is not It is said, the name of the soft drink, is very present in the message).
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