Samuel Pepys' most interesting aspect of sentence structure is his use of elliptical elements (phrases with omitted words that the reader's mind should fill in by itself). Samuel Pepys was writing for himself, not for publicity; therefore, he had no qualms about using an unusual grammatical form such as the elliptical element. There are many examples in the entries labeled "The Plague" and "The Fire of London." For instance, Pepys writes, "By this time it was about twelve o'clock; and so home." Here, Pepys obviously omits I went. In one of the entries about the fire, Pepys says, "Little was or could be done, the fire coming upon them so fast." Here any reader would have thought that "the fire [was] coming" so fast. I think of Samuel Pepys use of elliptical elements as a personal form of shorthand.
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