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Is this sentence considered correct?

His eyes, still on me, were speaking of cruelty.

I think whiz-deletion is applied to it, but I am not entirely sure. Can someone tell me?

tchrist
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sooeithdk
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1 Answers1

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Yes, obviously. It's the reduced alternative of:

His eyes, which were still on me, were speaking of cruelty.

Such an ellipsis, called "whiz-deletion" is quite common. (Such an ellipsis, which is called "whiz-deletion" is quite common)

Sankarane
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  • What is "whiz-deletion"? please explain of that term. – teizoartjewelry Jul 22 '15 at 22:42
  • @Yoshiyuki Sekiguchi: Read more by clicking on the term (link) in red. – Sankarane Jul 22 '15 at 23:00
  • @Sankarane: I don't understand the purpose of your edit, but, Hey! it's your answer. :) – FumbleFingers Jul 23 '15 at 01:14
  • @FF: This wasn't what I meant: "... Here again, "which [were/was/is/etc.] has been deleted." To be precise: "were/was". That's why :-) Thanks for adding the link! – Sankarane Jul 23 '15 at 01:29
  • I'm none the wiser. While I was adding the link, I corrected some mangled [TO BE] forms in your original, but I left your explanatory text pointing out that whiz-deletion also involves deleting the conjugated [TO BE] form (were/was/is/etc.) associated with whatever subject which refers back to. You've just replaced that potentially informative text with what's effectively just a repetition of the penultimate sentence. (But it's still your answer! :) – FumbleFingers Jul 23 '15 at 02:31
  • @FumbleFingers - Say that backwards -- it might make more sense that way. – Hot Licks Jul 23 '15 at 03:01
  • @Hot Licks: It's getting late (even for me! :) You look at the edit history and see if you can explain it any better! – FumbleFingers Jul 23 '15 at 03:04
  • @FF: :-) I thought of making my statement itself into another example:
    Such an ellipsis, called "whiz-deletion" is quite common. (Here again, "which is" has been deleted) - In other words, in my statement "Such an ellipsis, (which is) called... common", "is" is the only applicable form of "to be".     – Sankarane Jul 23 '15 at 10:58