Re: OT Use of Ellipses (was Wikipedia entry on XyWrite)

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

OK. But even that can be a problem, as in this quotation from a news
article about Secretary Rice:


> "The problem is that since Annapolis there has been a certain ...
> level of activity that raises questions and they need to address
> that." 


here:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080615/D91ALTD80.html; eudora="autourl">
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080615/D91ALTD80.html


Surely, in a newspaper article, and between quotation marks,
ellipsis should not be used except to indicate an omission
of text? Surely there are other ways of indicating tone? Indeed, there's
something fishy about the whole thing. It raises so many questions as to
who made the decision, and when, to interpret a pause that may or may not
have actually taken place.


At 6/13/2008 10:18 PM, you wrote:


> Good point, Harry. The
> legitimate uses of ellipses are as follows:
> 1. To indicate the omission of letters or words from quoted material
> (which should otherwise always be reproduced _exactly_).
> 2. To indicate that the thought expressed in the sentence is incomplete
> or the sentence otherwise broken off. For example, I ended my sentence
> about Xy's "features found in no other app" with an ellipsis,
> to indicate that there were many more that I could not think of at the
> moment.