syntax - How to decide on the type of ellipsis

I'm having some hard time deciding on the types of a few ellipses I've got to analyze.

Let's consider an example such as this one:

Then Rosemary came out and said that Daddy was going to jail, and I hit her." "[Did you hit her] Real hard?" "[I hit her] Real hard."

In case of this example, I would say both of the ellipses are clausal since the deletion of the subject,the predicate and the object affected the whole clause; the only element of that remaind being the adverbial. These two ellipses would fall into the category of bare argument ellipsis, as far as I know.

But what if there is an ellipsis such as this:

She loved the child's pink nightie, [she loved] the stack of white pillow slips edged with embroidery...

Here, the coordinating "and" is replaced by a comma for a more dramatic effect and the second clause presupposes the subject and the predicate from the first. Would that still count as an example of clausal ellipsis, since without these two elements the second clause is technically incomplete, or would it be better to label it as an example of verb phrase ellipsis? The problem with that would be the fact that subjects are not considered constituents of verb phrases.

Thanks everybody in advance.

Answer

The first example cited in the post is clausal ellipses, of course, but I am more inclined to regroup it in the sub category of ANSWER ELLIPSES.

If we closely observe the instance, we would find that two sentences are elliptical:

•(did you hit her) "Real hard?"

•(I hit her) Real hard.

The first sentence is a question but, take my word, it a 'disguised/latent answer which is echoed in the latter. So both are answer fragments. ANSWER ELLIPSES can do with just an adjunct/adverbial even. You may differ but ellipses would allow us that liberty.

As regards the second example, we may call it clausal or(textual) ellipses in general and a case of gapping ellipses in particular. It cannot be a VPE as in that case, a non finite VP is ellided and the ellipses must be introduced by an auxiliary verb/participle 'to'. Whereas, in GAPPING ELLIPSES, redundant materials often contain a finite verb. An example:

• John can play the guitar, Mary(.....) the violin.

However, an Ellipses is sense without (sensibility) form; a respite for us, isn't it?!