ellipsis

[NanoDave]

PS your are welcome here, especially because you take time to write real sentences with a capital letter, some commatas, and a dot at the end. I hate these lazy sentences with " ....." but many members do not care (although they agreed to the rules when they registered).

Hi Robert, "..." is a proper punctuation, at least in the english language. It is called the ellipsis. It does not imply laziness, nor that the writer does not care. The only shortcut people sometimes take is the tendency to omit the space before the dots and use it like in commas.

Some examples

The water turned bad in 2 days ... I couldn't believe it! =correct
The water turned bad in 2 days... I couldn't believe it! =wrong (but forgivable)
The water turned bad in 2 days ............. I couldn't believe it =wrong
The water turned bad in 2 days; I couldn't believe it! =debatable
The water turned bad in 2 days, I couldn't believe it! =wrong

Not meaning to give an English lesson (I'm not an expert myself), but I think you will be less troubled by it if you know that people are not trying to flout any rules. In any case, if the ellipsis is such an eyesore to you then hopefully all the people who read this thread will realise it from your post and try to refrain from using it in future.

(Additional notes: Some people use as many as 4 dots as in "....", which is also correct. However, that is the maximum it can go. The Chicago Manual of Stlye seem to imply that 4 dots is actually a period before a normal ellipsis in their Question&Answers section Q2 here (http://ucp.uchicago.edu:2001/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=View&VdkVgwKey=%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2FWWW%2Dbooks%2Fmain%2FM isc%2FChicago%2Fcmosfaq%2Fcmosfaq%2ESpecialCharact ers%2Ehtml&DocOffset=1&DocsFound=3&QueryZip=ellipsis&Collection=C90&SearchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fucp%2Euchicago%2Eedu%3A2001 %2Fsearch97cgi%2Fs97%5Fcgi%3Faction%3DFILTERSEARCH %26QueryZip%3Dellipsis%26Filter%3Dcmosfaq%252Ehts% 26ResultTemplate%3DCMOSfaqresults%252Ehts%26QueryT ext%3Dellipsis%26Collection%3DC90%26ResultStart%3D 1%26ResultCount%3D10&))

Another good link:
Semantics of ellipsis (http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jYzMzdmO/semanticsofellipsis.pdf)

And literature on the debate on the proper linguistic representation of ellipsis. (http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jYzMzdmO/semanticsofellipsis.pdf)

[silane]

Nanodave,

That is something new to me, ellipsis, thank. I bet a lot of people are using ellipsis, not knowing what ellipsis is.

i do see people write in this way..... they go without commas.... full stops..... is this also elliopsis....... :p I dont think so.... what about you....

what about ending a sentence with '....', it is ellipsis too? or has some other meaning?

BTW, The water turned bad in 2 days, I couldn't believe it! is wrong, I couldn't believe it! :D

[NanoDave]

Hi Ken, ending with '....' is correct. It is actually a period (the first of the four dots) plus an ellipsis.

For example, the usage:

"I don't think shrimps eat planaria for breakfast.... "

is actually

"I don't think shrimps eat planaria for breakfast. ... "

When the period and the ellipsis is joined together, it looks like a 4-dotted ellipsis.

In this example, the writer is expressing his doubt that shrimps eat planaria for breakfast although he is not very certain. If the sentence is replaced by "I don't think shrimps eat planaria. ", the meaning of the sentence changes. In the latter, the writer is confident in his statement, albeit putting it in a nice way.

[silane]

Use of 4-dotted ellipsis to express doubt is useful, I could have use 4-dots or perhaps 3 or 5 dots to indicate uncertainty in sentences even I am not aware there is ellipsis.

However, the use of ... (3, 4, 5 or more) in place of commas, full stops and everywhere, I don't think it is English or any other languages are using such punctuation....

Any difference in meaning for these 2 sentences:
The water turned bad in 2 days ... I couldn't believe it!
The water turned bad in 2 days, I couldn't believe it!
:undecided

[NanoDave]

Use of 4-dotted ellipsis to express doubt is useful, I could have use 4-dots or perhaps 3 or 5 dots to express doubt in a sentence even I am not aware there is ellipsis.

However, the use of ... (3, 4, 5 or more) in place of commas, full stops and everywhere, I don't think it is English or any other languages are using such punctuation....

Using punctuation too much is wrong ellipsis or not.

Your example

i do see people write in this way..... they go without commas.... full stops..... is this also elliopsis....... I dont think so.... what about you....

is no doubt wrong. It is just as wrong even if you replace it with commas as in

i do see people write in this way, they go without commas, full stops, is this also elliopsis, I dont think so, what about you.

[NanoDave]

Any difference in meaning for these 2 sentences:
The water turned bad in 2 days ... I couldn't believe it!
The water turned bad in 2 days, I couldn't believe it!
:undecided

The sentence in "The water turned bad in 2 days, I couldn't believe it!" is broken English although it is structurally correct. It should be rephrased as "I couldn't believe the water turned bad in 2 days." if the ellipsis is not used.

[Robert]

Hi,
it's OK. I learned something new, something which they didn't teach me in nine years of grammar school with hundreds or thousands of hours of English and endless efforts to teach us English grammar. But it is still a foreign language for me.
My mother tongue is German and at least in this language it is unusual to use "..." or "...." wherever and whenever you want.

Robert

[NanoDave]

Hi Robert, wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis) says there is a ellipsis in Chinese which consist of 6 dots but I don't remember seeing it used ever. I have seen the Ellipsis used in Japanese manga though. :p

However, I think it explains it best at the last section "Ellipsis as a Rhetorical Device" where it defines it as

"a rhetorical figure of speech, the omission of a word or words required by strict grammatical rules but not by sense. The missing words are implied by the context. "

[GunmetalBlue]

Wow, I just noticed this thread. I used the three dots in a recent reply.

My sentence was: "Those skinny white lines on her back do look strangely suspicious if she's supposed to be a Bumblebee..."

It implied a trailing thought, as if I were talking face to face with the person. In the above context it means "hmmm." It engages the other person to jump in and add their comment.

As NanoDave alludes to, in this context it softens the sentence by appearing less confident. It implies I am willing to listen to an alternative explanation, should anyone jump in and add it.

NanoDave, you'll have to change your title "Nano CRS Department" to "Nano English Department..." :D I didn't know I was supposed to add a space before the dots! Good thing it's listed as "forgiveable." :grin2:

-GB

[NanoDave]

Everyone is forgiven. lol