[bksvol-discuss] What several gramatical publications say about the ellipsis.
- From: <mayrierenae@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 13:30:12 -0800
Hi Guys,
Oh, boy! The ellipsis gets complicated if you look into it. Here
are some statements that I found about its usage and how it can and should
be typed.
Have fun!
See below.
Mayrie
In English
The style and use varies in the English language.
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
ellipses: 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.
[1]
According to Robert Bringhurst's
Elements of Typographic Style
, the details of typesetting ellipses 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?..!
In legal writing in the United States, Rule 5.3 in the
Bluebook
citation guide governs the use of ellipses 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.
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