[bksvol-discuss] Re: Ellipses
- From: "Chela Robles" <cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 17:29:53 -0700
Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Greek: ????????, élleipsis, "omission") is
a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a
word in the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in
speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off
into silence (aposiopesis) (apostrophe and ellipsis mixed). When placed at the
end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy
longing. The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech.
The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops
(...) or pre-composed triple-dot glyph (.). The usage of the em dash (-) can
overlap the usage of ellipsis.
The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of
ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot.In writing
The way the ellipsis is supposed to be written in the US is "..." per Modern
Language Association (MLA) standards. The use of ellipsis can either mislead or
insult, and the reader must rely on the good intentions of the writer who uses
them. An example of this ambiguity is "She went to . school." In this sentence,
"." might represent the word "elementary". Alternatively, in a usage more
common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, ellipsis can be used when a writer
intentionally omits a specific proper noun, such as a location: "Jan was born
on ... Street in Warsaw." Omission of part of a quoted sentence without
indication by an ellipsis (or bracketed text) would mislead the readers. For
example, "She went to school," as opposed to "She went to Broadmoor Elementary
school."
An ellipsis may also imply an unstated alternative indicated by context. For
example, when Count Dracula says "I never drink . wine", the implication is
that he does drink something else, which in the context would be blood.
In writing the speech of a character in fiction or nonfiction, the ellipsis is
sometimes used to represent an intentional silence of a character, usually
invoked to emphasize a character's irritation, appall, shock or disgust.
The style and use varies in the English language. In legal writing in the
United States, Rule 5.3 in the Bluebook citation guide governs the use of
ellipsis and requires a space before the first dot and between the two
subsequent dots. If an ellipsis ends the sentence, then there are three dots,
each separated by a space, followed by the final punctuation.
The Chicago Manual of Style suggests the use of an ellipsis for any omitted
word, phrase, line, or paragraph from within a quoted passage. There are two
commonly used methods of using ellipsis: one uses three dots for any omission,
while the second makes a distinction between omissions within a sentence (using
three dots: . . .) and omissions between sentences (using a period and a space
followed by three dots: . ...). An ellipsis at the end of a sentence with no
sentence following should be followed by a period (for a total of four dots).
The Modern Language Association (MLA) however, used to indicate that an
ellipsis must include spaces before and after each dot in all uses. If an
ellipsis is meant to represent an omission, square brackets must surround the
ellipsis to make it clear that there was no pause in the original quote: [ . .
. ]. Currently, the MLA has removed the requirement of brackets in their style
handbooks. However, the use of brackets is still correct as it clears confusion.
According to Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style, the details of
typesetting ellipsis depend on the character and size of the font being set and
the typographer's preference. Bringhurst writes that a full space between each
dot is "another Victorian eccentricity." In most contexts, the Chicago ellipsis
is much too wide" - he recommends using flush dots, or thin-spaced dots (up to
one-fifth of an em), or the prefabricated ellipsis character (Unicode U+2026,
Latin entity …). Bringhurst suggests that normally an ellipsis should be
spaced fore-and-aft to separate it from the text, but when it combines with
other punctuation, the leading space disappears and the other punctuation
follows. He provides the following examples:
i . j k.. l., l l, . l m.? n...!
An ellipsis is also often used in mathematics to mean "and so forth". In a
list, between commas, or following a comma, a normal ellipsis is used, as in:
To indicate the omission of values in a repeated operation, an ellipsis raised
to the center of the line is used between two operation symbols or following
the last operation symbol, as in:
The latter formula means the sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 100. However,
it is not a formally defined mathematical symbol. Repeated summations or
products may similarly be denoted using capital sigma and capital pi notation,
respectively:
(see factorial)
Normally dots should only be used where the pattern to be followed is clear,
the exception being to show the indefinite continuation of an irrational number
such as:
.
Sometimes, it is useful to display a formula compactly, for example:
Another example is the set of zeros of the cosine function.
There are many related uses of the ellipsis in set notation.
The diagonal and vertical forms of the ellipsis are particularly useful for
showing missing terms in matrices, such as the size-n identity matrix
The use of ellipsis in mathematical proofs is often deprecated because of the
potential for ambiguity.
In some programming languages (including Perl, Ruby, Groovy, Haskell, and
Pascal), a shortened two-dot ellipsis is used to represent a range of values
given two endpoints; for example, to iterate through a list of integers between
1 and 100 inclusive in Perl:
foreach (1..100)
Perl overloads the ".." operator in scalar context as a stateful bistable
Boolean test, roughly equivalent to "true while x but not yet y".[3] In Perl6,
the 3-character ellipsis is also known as the "yadda yadda yadda" operator and,
similarly to its linguistic meaning, serves as a "stand-in" for code to be
inserted later. In addition, an actual Unicode ellipsis character is used to
serve as a type of marker in a perl6 format string.[4]
In the C programming language, an ellipsis is used to represent a variable
number of parameters to a function. For example:
void func(const char* str, ...)
The above function in C could then be called with different types and numbers
of parameters such as:
func("input string", 5, 10, 15);
and
func("input string", "another string", 0.5);
As of version 1.5, Java has adopted this "varargs" functionality. For example:
public int func(int num, String... strings)
In MATLAB, a three-character ellipsis is used to indicate line
continuationmaking the sequence of lines
x = [ 1 2 3 ...
4 5 6 ];
semantically equivalent to the single line
x = [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ];
Most programming languages other than Perl6 require the ellipsis to be written
as a series of periods; a single (Unicode) ellipsis character cannot be used.
Ellipses are often used in an operating system's taskbars or web browser tabs
to indicate longer titles than will fit. Hovering the cursor over the tab often
shows a pop-up balloon of the full title. When many programs are open, or
during a "tab explosion" in web browsing, the tabs may be reduced in size so
much that no characters from the actual titles show, and ellipses take up all
the space besides the program icon or favicon.
In many user interface guidelines, a "..." after the name of a command implies
that the user will need to provide further information, for example in a
subsequent dialog box, before the action can be completed. A typical example is
the Save As... command, which after being clicked will usually require the user
to enter a file name, as opposed to Save where the file will usually be saved
under the existing name of the file. Also, an ellipsis character after a status
message signifies that an operation may take some time, for example as in
"Downloading updates...".
The ellipsis is one of the favorite constructions of internet chat rooms, and
has evolved over the past ten years into a staple of text-messaging. Though an
ellipsis is technically complete with three periods (...), its rise in
popularity as a "trailing-off" or "silence" indicator, particularly in mid-20th
century comic strip and comic book prose writing, has led to expanded uses
online. It has been used in new ways online, sometimes at the end of a message
"to signal that the rest of the message is forthcoming." Today, extended
ellipsis of two, seven, ten, or even dozens of periods have become common
constructions in internet chat rooms and text messages.[this citation is
incomplete] Often the extended ellipses indicate an awkward silence or a "no
comment" response to the previous statement made by the other party. They are
sometimes used jokingly or for emphatic confusion about what the other person
has said.
They are also used to infer that someone or something is stupid or lacking in
intelligence.
"Elliptical commas", or commas used in plurality for the effect of ellipsis or
multiple ellipsis, have also grown in popularity online-though no style journal
or manual has yet embraced them.
In computing, several ellipsis characters have been codified, depending on the
system used.
In the Unicode standard, there are the following characters:
Character Unicode code point
For general use Horizontal ellipsis . U+2026
Laotian ellipsis ? U+0EAF
Mongolian ellipsis ? U+1801
Thai ellipsis ? U+0E2F
For use in mathematics Vertical ellipsis ? U+22EE
Midline horizontal ellipsis ? U+22EF
Up right diagonal ellipsis ? U+22F0
Down right diagonal ellipsis ? U+22F1
In Chinese and sometimes in Japanese, ellipsis characters are done by entering
two consecutive horizontal ellipsis (U+2026). In vertical texts, the
application should rotate the symbol accordingly.
Unicode recognizes[citation needed] a series of three period characters
(U+002E) as equivalent to the horizontal ellipsis character.
In HTML, the horizontal ellipsis character may be represented by the entity
reference … (since HTML 4.0). Alternatively, in HTML, XML, and SGML, a
numeric character reference such as … or … can be used.
In the TeX typesetting system, the following types of ellipsis are available:
Character TeX markup
Lower ellipsis \ldots
Centred ellipsis \cdots
Diagonal ellipsis \ddots
Vertical ellipsis \vdots
The horizontal ellipsis character also appears in the following older character
maps:
a.. in Windows-1250-Windows-1258 and in IBM/MS-DOS Code page 874, at code 85
(hexadecimal)
b.. in Mac-Roman and Mac-CentEuro at code C9 (hexadecimal)
c.. in Ventura International encoding at code C1 (hexadecimal)
As with all characters, especially those outside of the ASCII range, the
author, sender and receiver of an encoded ellipsis must be in agreement upon
what bytes are being used to represent the character. Naive text processing
software may improperly assume that a particular encoding is being used,
resulting in mojibake.
The Chicago Style Q&A recommends to avoid the use of . (U+2026) character in
manuscripts and to place three periods plus two nonbreaking spaces (. . .)
instead. Note the Chicago Style Q&A states in the same answer that "the numeric
entity for an ellipsis is not formally defined for standard HTML", which
contradicts to explicitly given "…" as a numeric reference to the
horizontal ellipsis character in HTML 4 standard. This misbelief of the Chicago
Style Q&A may have roots in long lasting confusion between Windows-1252 on one
hand and Unicode and ISO 8859-1 on another.
In Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), the ellipsis is used as extension
marker to indicate the possibility of type extensions in the future revisions
of a protocol specification. In a type constraint expression like A ::= INTEGER
(0..127, ..., 256..511) ellipsis is used to separate extension root from
extension additions. Definition of type A in version 1 system of the form A ::=
INTEGER (0..127, ...) and definition of type A in version 2 system of the form
A ::= INTEGER (0..127, ..., 256..511) constitute extension series of the same
type A in different versions of the same specification. The ellipsis can also
be used in compound type definitions to separate the set of fields belonging to
the extension root from the set of fields constituting extension additions.
Here is an example: B ::= SEQUENCE { a INTEGER, b INTEGER, ..., c INTEGER }
Use ellipsis marks when omitting a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from
a quoted passage.
NOTE: To create ellipsis marks with a PC, type the period three times and the
spacing will be automatically set, or press Ctrl-Alt and the period once.
The Three-dot Method
There are many methods for using ellipses. The three-dot method is the simplest
and is appropriate for most general works and many scholarly ones. The three-
or four-dot method and an even more rigorous method used in legal works require
fuller explanations that can be found in other reference books.
Rule 1. Use no more than three marks whether the omission occurs in
the middle of a sentence or between sentences.
Example:
Original sentence:
The regulation states, "All agencies must document overtime or risk
losing federal funds."
Rewritten using ellipses:
The regulation states, "All agencies must document
overtime..."
Note: With the three-dot method, you may leave out punctuation such
as commas that were in the original.
Example: Original sentence from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon
this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal."
Rewritten using ellipses:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth...a new
nation, conceived in liberty..."
Rule 2. When you omit one or more paragraphs within a long
quotation, use ellipsis marks after the last punctuation mark that ends the
preceding paragraph.
I hope this helps.
--
"To me, music that breaks your heart is the music that stays with you forever.
It's one thing to be melancholy and one thing to be sophisticated, but when you
get the two of them together in a way people can relate to, then I think you're
on to something. You want the sophistication to lie in the purity of the sound,
the beauty of the arrangements, and the quality of the performances."-Trumpeter
Chris Botti
--
Chela Robles
AIM and E-Mail: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx
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--
----- Original Message -----
From: Emily Harrison
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 5:00 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Ellipses
I believe it is considered grammatically incorrect to have spaces before or
after ellipses, or at least that's what I learned in school! I definitely
eliminate all spaces before, after and in between ellipses when proofing.
--
Emily Harrison
greeniebone@xxxxxxxxx
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