Ellipsis, brachylogy and other forms of brevity in speech in ... - DWC

ELLIPSIS, BRACHYLOGY AND OTHER FORMS OF BREVITY 39
"er bittet (die Götter) durch die Opferspende zum ... "; 63, 7 barhir na
yat sudiise vrthii vark (sc. the enemies, cf. 6, 18, 8); 82, 6 dadhi{Je gabhastyol),:
6, 29, 2 a rahnayo gabhastyol),; 92, 12 paSun na citra 8Ubhaga prathiinii
(teja'TftBi, S.); 101, 1 yal), kr{l'T.U1{Jarbhii nirahan; 103, 2 vajre'f.Ut hatva (sc.
vrtram); 105, 2 duhe (sc. her husband; cf. AthV. 14, 2, 14); 3, 33, 12
atari{Jul), (sc. the river) ; 4,1,11 ayoyuvanal), (dhumakare1)iitmanam ayojayan
vartate .. . yad va . .. tani teja'Tft8Ï avatmani mihikurvan, S. ; viz. die
Glieder, Flügel, G.); 25, 4 indraya aunavama (indrartha'Tft 8omäbhÏ{Java'Tft
kuryam); 5,47,1 prayunjati; 48,2 tirate (sc. hislife); 51,15 aghnata;
6, 18, 5 i{Jayantam. Sometimes it is a nominal form which expresses the
more special sense of a root in an objectless construction : 5, 45, 2 a ...
gavam mata janati gat "the mother of the cows came knowing (the
way) ... "; 1, 14, 5 ara'Tftkrtal), "zurecht machend, das Opfer zurichtend"
(Grassmann); the verb ara'Tft-kr- is also used in its more general sense:
2, 5, 8; 5, 44, 8.
It is not possible to draw a hard-and"fast line between these occurrences
and the so-called absolute use of the verb. Averb, which admits of the
transitive construction, is usually regarded as being used absolutely when
it does not enter into its usual construction with a nominal case form,
while suggesting a vague or general object, e.g. in Dutch hij eet "he is
eating" for "he is having hls meal; he has gone to tabie" : particulars
about the object are irrelevant. "Le régime ... est généralisé et indéterminé,
p. ex. manger dans une phrase telle qu'il faut manger pour vivre"ll7) ;
cf. also Fr. l'homme propose et Dieu di8po8e. The difference between an
absolute use of a verb and an ellipsis is sometimes neglected, or the definition
given is rather wide and genetical connection between both phenomena
is taken for granted: "Ist, wie es nicht selten vorkommt, der Objektsbegriff
als selbstverständlich aus dem Zusammenhang zu ergänzen, so
entwickelt sich bald ein absoluter, prägnanter Gebrauch des Verbums,
wo man nicht mehr von eigentlicher Ellipse sprechen kan".1l8) I would
pref er to distinguish, at least theoretically, between an absolute use of
a verb and ellipses which have become traditional. The elliptic character
of a verb may be completely lost so that other complements become usual
instead of the original transitive complement: Suet. Tit. 5, 3 cum . .. nave
appuli88et. 1l9 ) As already stated, it is however not always easy to decide
whether a verb is used absohitely or elliptically. In cases such as 1;tV. 10,
147, 5 pitvo na daama dayaae vibhaktii G. may be right: "wie ein Verteiler
der Speise teilst du, Meister, (die Schätze) aus", because of the preceding
pitval),. Cf. also 10, 89, 1.
The verb (pra-)sa1ft8- "praise, extol, recite" is of ten accompanied by
117) Ch. Bally, Linguistique générale et linguistique françaises, Beme 1944,
p. 113; 311. I would not include the sentence l'd.ge emporte les plaisir8 among the
examples.
118) E. Löfstedt, Synta.ctica, 11, Lund 1956, p. 243f.
llt) Cf. aIso J. B. Hofmann, Lateinische Umgangsspra.che, Heidelberg 1936,§§155f.