Is everything so simple with ellipsis?

    The difference between ellipsis and three points

    Ellipsis (ellipsis, from the Greek. Ellipsis - incompleteness) is an independent typographic sign, a type of outflow, consisting of three points in a row, used to indicate hidden meaning, features of oral speech (sigh, pause, thoughtfulness), understatement or to exclude some from the text words, for example when quoting.



    Ellipsis is horizontal, vertical and diagonal.

    Once again, I want to emphasize that the ellipsis is a separate, independent typographic sign and, be that as it may, it differs from three points. In this case, the ellipsis can be formed by both an exclamation mark and a question mark.
    What is the difference between the ellipsis and the three points that led to its appearance? When typing three points, they seem to merge into one solid line, so that this does not happen, the points began to be beat off from each other by additional spaces. Thus, the set began to look more even and pleasant to the eye. This is the eternal "struggle" between display fonts and text fonts: a text font always tends to become even gray, as if trying to turn into a ribbon, and an accidental font, on the contrary, tries to be as bright and unusual as possible, to invigorate the line to attract the reader’s eyes.

    Technical Reference


    So that the points in the ellipsis do not merge into a solid line, they are beaten off from each other (the distance between the points increases). An exception is monospaced fonts, where each character has the same width, i.e. the ellipsis fits into one character and becomes shorter, and three dots, respectively, into three characters! But this means that when typing in a monospaced font, you need to use punctuation marks focusing on their future fate: if these are texts for a site that will most likely be decorated in a non-monospaced font, then it is worth using ellipsis, and if the comments in the code are three dots.
    It has a UTF code of 2026. HTML codes & hellip; and ... and  ASCII code 133 (Alt + 0133)

    Historical reference


    The ellipsis was used before BC. and to name the exact dates of the appearance of this symbol is not possible and is not necessary in the context of this article. The ellipsis was used in ancient Greece to replace “what everyone understands,” for example, the ellipsis could end the phrase “don't put your nose out of business,” like this: “don't put your nose ...”. This is the most primitive example, you can come up with an analogy yourself. The Greeks and Romans also used ellipsis in syntactic constructions, which looked incomplete and in constructions due to the peculiarities of Latin.
    But even understandable constructions with ellipses in the case of their repeated combination turn into a bunch of incoherent words that have no boundaries. What Quintilian talked about (Quintilianus, in Latin) in his writings, calling for the use of ellipsis only in those cases where "everything is clear"! Naturally, this caused controversy: how to figure out where it is already clear and where not. I want to repeat that these problems were caused, in many respects, by the peculiarities of the language and are characteristic of the European community, but not Russian, the Russian language is distinguished by language constructions.

    The first to use the ellipsis in Russia was Karamzin in the 18th century. And initially it was used as an artistic device, mainly in prose, to express the emotional component and only then migrated to ordinary texts as a symbol of understatement and incompleteness, discontinuity,  etc.
    Finally, the prelude is over and we can begin to address the real issues of applying the ellipsis in practice. Hurrah!

    Terms of use


    When is ellipsis used?
    1. To display speech hiccups (even in the middle of words):

    To indicate that the beginning or end of the quote does not coincide with the beginning or end of the sentence in the quoted text, for example:
    Pushkin, evaluating all his predecessors, wrote: "... Some Derzhavin’s odes, despite the incorrect language and uneven syllable, are filled with gusts of genius ...".


    To indicate a gap inside the quote, for example:
    Marx wrote that "language ... is practical, existing for other people and only thereby also exists for me, a real consciousness."


    At the beginning of a text or sentence in order to reflect the inconsistency of thought, or a large time interval separating the sentence from the previous one.
    "... Wah ... wah ... wah ... Your Excellency," whispered Popov.


    In places where the end of the phrase is well known, for example:
    "with whom you will lead ..."
    “They wanted the best ...”



    To indicate the intervals (along with a dash and a division mark ÷)
    + 7 ... + 9С
    15 ... 19 kilograms



    In math


    To skip numbers in a sequence:
    1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 10


    To record periodic fractions or transcendental numbers:
    1/3 = 0.33333333 ...
    Pi = 3.14159 ...



    In RuNet


    To display an ongoing list of pages, for example, in search results, it is sometimes issued as a link:
    ... 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1
    1 ... 15 16 17



    As a list of element numbers displayed on the current page or following in the page navigation list:
    1 ... 15 16 ... 30 31 ... 45 2


    In the news, in addition to the "next": 
    next ... 3



    Terms of use


    How to use it?
    1. The ellipsis beats off the next word with a space and does not beat off the previous word:
      Around the darkness ... and only the small lights of the city in the distance ...

    2. When in one place there are ellipsis, and a comma, a comma is absorbed by the ellipsis:
      My work ... but, by the way, we will not talk about it.

    3. When the ellipsis and the question or exclamation point are found in one place, they are combined using the dot of the question or exclamation point:
      Well, what did you think again? ..
      At the same time, the distance between the question mark and the point should be reduced. And if there is an exclamation-question mark, then one dot is added!
      Yes, how much can you dig, in the  end  ?!.

    4. In direct speech, if there is a dash after the ellipsis, then it (the dash) does not beat off with a space from the ellipsis:
      “Have you thought? .. Are you sure? ..” she said in a weakened voice.

    5. If there are quotation marks or brackets after the ellipsis, then they are not beaten off by a space from the ellipsis:
      He said: “I do not understand your words ...”

    6. If an ellipsis occurs in a heading highlighted by a separate line, then, like the exclamation point and question mark, it is not omitted. It is worth noting that the point in this case is omitted.
      Finding the truth ...
      or
      Will Microsoft buy Yahoo ...

    7. If the ellipsis is at the beginning of the sentence, it does not break off with a space:
      ... Night passed and the first rays of the sun began to play on the tops of the trees.

    8. In the set of discharge, the gaps between the ellipsis and the previous word should be unchanged:
      From the bottom ... and from the bottom ...
      and not
      from the bottom ... and from the bottom ...

    9. In numerical intervals, ellipsis does not break with spaces:
      1 ... 3
      + 29 ... + 31


    10. If the quotation is not complete, then the omission is indicated by an ellipsis, which is set:
      • before a quote (after opening quotes), syntactically not related to the author’s text, to indicate that the quote is not from the beginning of the sentence: L. N. Tolstoy wrote:
        “... in art, simplicity, brevity and clarity are the highest perfection of the form of art that is achieved only with great talent and great work ”;

      • in the middle of the quote, when a part of the text is missing inside it:
        Speaking about the virtues of the language of folk poetry, the speaker recalled: “It is not by chance that our Russian classics ... recommended reading fairy tales, listening to folk speech, studying proverbs, reading writers who possess all the richness of Russian speech” ;

      • after the quote (before the closing quotation marks), when the quoted sentence is not fully quoted:
        Speaking in defense of the culture of spoken language, Chekhov wrote: “In fact, speaking to an intelligent person, speaking badly should be considered as indecent as not being able to read and write ...”

    11. After a quote ending with an ellipsis, a period is put if the quote is not an independent sentence:
      M. V. Lomonosov wrote that “the beauty, splendor, strength and richness of the Russian language appear quite from books written in past centuries ...”.

    12. If quoting large parts of the text or whole sentences are cut out, the ellipsis is usually surrounded by angle brackets: the
      article was sharp, sharp, but although Pushkin, when starting the journal’s publication, didn’t at all seek to aggravate the journalistic polemic <...>, Pushkin appreciated Gogol’s article by dignity and accepted it in the first issue, advising the author to soften the harshest expressions. " quote taken from the  article by P. Reifman .


    Note


    1. />
    /> I generally propose not to use this option, it is too bulky and poorly remembered even during the current work, for such numbering there are points on the pages being viewed, isn’t it?

    In general, such a formulation has been used less and less recently, replacing it with an appropriate phrase:
    Some time ago we told you about the launch of the Mooteam.ru service and, having received a lot of useful comments, decided to talk about a new feature on the site - the dating service - and listen again constructive criticism.

    /> Paragraphs 10, 11 are completely copied from  § 125. The ellipsis for quotes from the Rosenthal handbook.

    Sources of information


    1. The History of the Ellipsis
    2. Literacy.ru
    3. Wikipedia
    4. Rosenthal Handbook
    5. Magazine Nikita Seletsko
    6. § 62. On-screen typography of Lebedev Cowboyhood (for proforma)

    Acknowledgments


    Thanks to everyone who helped to correct the text!
    Special thanks to heath Alexei Yozhikov for helpful comments!

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