This contrastive study was an attempt to consider different types of ellipsis proposed by Halliday and Hasan(1976) in two English and Arabic novels. These two novels were “Tale of Two Cities” in English and “Arabian Nights and Days” in Arabic. To gather the required data “Tale of Two Cities” an 1859 historical novel written by Charles Dickens and “Arabian Nights and Days” a novel by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz written in 1979 were used. In order to accomplish the purpose of the study which was to identify probable differences between the use of ellipsis in English and Arabic novels, the classification of ellipsis suggested by Halliday and Hasan (1979) was used. The researcher started analyzing these two sources and found different types of ellipsis discussed above and then move on analysis of the data put into SPSS software version 26. To analyze the data obtained from the study of the texts, the Chi-square measure was applied. Chi-square analysis is usually applied when the data consists of frequencies. Consequently, to find out if there is any significant difference between the use of ellipsis in English and Arabic data, Chi-square tests as appropriate nonparametric statistical tests, were used.The analysis of data revealed that nominal ellipsis was used more than two other types in English novels whereas clausal ellipsis was used more than two other types in Arabic novels. The findings of the present study may be beneficial for both teachers and students.
