Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential. I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.
—By Janet Fitch
What are the texts that has been omitted?
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1The non-elided sentence would be, "I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to [become an artist]." "become an artist" is omitted the second time because it would be repetitious.– Quack E. DuckJul 6 at 4:58
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1Why do you suppose that some text has been omitted?– James KJul 6 at 5:14
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@JamesK for the oddness of last part.– SamJul 6 at 5:19
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1"I won't do it unless I have to" is perfectly normal English.– Kate BuntingJul 6 at 8:14
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2If you know it's standard English, you know it isn't semantically odd. It's simply an omission of an unnecessary repetition.– Kate BuntingJul 6 at 8:25
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2 Answers
What are the texts that has been omitted?
I believe that some text has been omitted from the paragraph. Is that correct? If so, what text has been left out?
The full sentence without omissions would be:
"I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to become an artist"
"become an artist" is omitted the second time because it would be repetitious. Generally speaking this is a common grammatical construction. For example:
"I won't do it, unless I have to"
means
"I won't do it, unless I have to do it."
Perhaps equally confusing is the expression "have to" itself. Both "have" and "to" have multiple definitions.
It might be clearer to temporarily translate this as "must":
"nobody becomes an artist unless they must become an artist"
"nobody becomes an artist unless they must"
The semantic oddness is due to the author expressing a surprising idea. You may disagree with the author.
The author claims that becoming an artist is not a choice.
Every artist has been compelled to become an artist.
Nobody becomes an artist unless they have to become an artist.
This may or may not be true. It is possible to express falsehoods in grammatically correct English. It is possible to say (for example) "All lawyers are honest", which is semantically odd, but grammatically correct.
