Where the missing clause is assumed to be a [a super fun time].
Or "Unfortunately, the elastic wasn't". Here it would be wasn't [elastic].
I did try to search, but if this has already been asked it's not easy (for me) to search for.
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1The name of this construct? "Humor". – GEdgar Mar 16 '20 at 17:18
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I mean, you're not wrong. But I'm unable to use that to find other examples or learn more about how to construct or interpret such. – MyAwesomeNameIsnt Mar 16 '20 at 17:28
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The blanket term for stopping in the middle of a sentence is 'aposiopesis', but this would seem to merit a hyponym. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 16 '20 at 17:44
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1It's what's known in the trade as an "anaphoric island", like Bill is an orphan, and he misses them. Anaphoric islands are explained at the end of this Language Log post. – John Lawler Mar 16 '20 at 17:48
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1That looks like exactly what I was looking for! Thanks so much for pointing me to that post. If you post this as an answer I'll consider it correct and mark it as accepted. – MyAwesomeNameIsnt Mar 16 '20 at 18:21
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2It's a kind of "use/mention pun", much the same as His get-up-and-go has got up and gone. – FumbleFingers Mar 16 '20 at 18:35
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@FumbleFingers - Except that it's a sort of "use/no mention pun". (Or is it "no use/mention"?) – Hot Licks Mar 16 '20 at 20:51
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(Or maybe a "useless pun"?) – Hot Licks Mar 16 '20 at 20:51
1 Answers
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Ellipsis
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/ellipsis
noun [plural =] ellipses
- The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues. ‘it is very rare for an ellipsis to occur without a linguistic antecedent’
