07-02-2024, 07:19 PM
Ellipsis stuff scraped from the internets:
(I also learned there is MUCH disagreement/variation in the use of
ellipses, hyphens, n-dashes, m-dashes, colons, semicolons;
and it's all Emily Dickinson's fault.)
An ellipsis can be written with or without spaces between the dots, both forms
are acceptable.
While the most commonly used ellipsis has three dots, an ellipsis can have more.
The dots in an ellipsis are usually referred to as "ellipsis points".
Uses of ellipses:
Omission of words, lines, and larger structures.
A common convention when you are omitting part of quote is to use brackets
around the ellipsis to emphasize that you, not the person being quoted, are
doing the omission:
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. [...] I love you so
intimately that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimately that when
I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda
When omitting the lines of a poem that uses a fixed number of metrical feet
per line, one convention is to use enough ellipsis points to equal the length of
the average line:
"When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her though I know she lies,
...............................................
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
― famous Brit
A speaker trailing off into silence to think, sleep, lose consciousness, die
A speaker hesitating due to uncertainty, threat, fear, psychological trauma
To imply that a speaker wants to avoid certain words or leave them unspoken
Pauses - for thought, pacing, dramatic effect, interruptions
The number of ellipsis points can denote the length of the pause
Time-related effects, discontinuity, nonlinearity
Passage of time
To denote that the text/dialog continued but is missing/not intelligible
To encourage the reader to fill in the missing information
To allow the reader to create their own version of events
To create a psychological/emotional connection between the reader and the narrative
To suggest the possibility of future continuation (when at the end)
To suggest a continuation from the past (when at the beginning)
A change of subject
An off-topic remark
A change of viewpoint
A switch in attention
A digression, deviation
A substitute for a line break/paragraph when line breaks, multiple spaces
can't be entered/aren't available
My takeaway from this exploration is that I'm pretty much fine with any of these uses.
What'd be finer would be for the writer to be consistent enough so's I'd get a clue
as to what's happening.
(But I can't help but think that the reason I can afford to be so magnanimous
is that I rarely, if at all, use any punctuation (have I ever used an ellipsis? not sure,
but probably not) or uppercase in my poems cuz I prefer to use white space.)
And.... I couldn't help but notice that one dot and three dots and up are taken,
but what about two dots? There's a big opportunity just sitting, waiting for some
entrepreneurial writer to gobble up.
(I also learned there is MUCH disagreement/variation in the use of
ellipses, hyphens, n-dashes, m-dashes, colons, semicolons;
and it's all Emily Dickinson's fault.)
An ellipsis can be written with or without spaces between the dots, both forms
are acceptable.
While the most commonly used ellipsis has three dots, an ellipsis can have more.
The dots in an ellipsis are usually referred to as "ellipsis points".
Uses of ellipses:
Omission of words, lines, and larger structures.
A common convention when you are omitting part of quote is to use brackets
around the ellipsis to emphasize that you, not the person being quoted, are
doing the omission:
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. [...] I love you so
intimately that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimately that when
I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda
When omitting the lines of a poem that uses a fixed number of metrical feet
per line, one convention is to use enough ellipsis points to equal the length of
the average line:
"When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her though I know she lies,
...............................................
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
― famous Brit
A speaker trailing off into silence to think, sleep, lose consciousness, die
A speaker hesitating due to uncertainty, threat, fear, psychological trauma
To imply that a speaker wants to avoid certain words or leave them unspoken
Pauses - for thought, pacing, dramatic effect, interruptions
The number of ellipsis points can denote the length of the pause
Time-related effects, discontinuity, nonlinearity
Passage of time
To denote that the text/dialog continued but is missing/not intelligible
To encourage the reader to fill in the missing information
To allow the reader to create their own version of events
To create a psychological/emotional connection between the reader and the narrative
To suggest the possibility of future continuation (when at the end)
To suggest a continuation from the past (when at the beginning)
A change of subject
An off-topic remark
A change of viewpoint
A switch in attention
A digression, deviation
A substitute for a line break/paragraph when line breaks, multiple spaces
can't be entered/aren't available
My takeaway from this exploration is that I'm pretty much fine with any of these uses.
What'd be finer would be for the writer to be consistent enough so's I'd get a clue
as to what's happening.
(But I can't help but think that the reason I can afford to be so magnanimous
is that I rarely, if at all, use any punctuation (have I ever used an ellipsis? not sure,
but probably not) or uppercase in my poems cuz I prefer to use white space.)
And.... I couldn't help but notice that one dot and three dots and up are taken,
but what about two dots? There's a big opportunity just sitting, waiting for some
entrepreneurial writer to gobble up.
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions