Why do we use ellipses so much? Ellipses are primarily employed to replacefiller words like “um,”and their increased usage in written communications is unprecedented.
They usually make meanings opaque, and require more keyboard strokes than other punctuation marks. NYU professor Clay Shirky says that the popularity of ellipses points to an important moment in the evolution of language, where people are starting to write like they talk:
“… much of what is typed is for swift delivery and has more the character of speech, where whole, unbroken sentences are a rarity. Speech is instead characterized by continuous flow, with lots of pauses, repeats, false starts … and pauses to indicate changes in direction. We’re living in a moment a bit like Alexander the Great’s time, when he adopted the altogether remarkable habit (or so Plutarch reported) of reading silently. The relationship between the alphabet and talking was progressively broken as people learned to sound things out in their heads. Now we’re seeing a moment of reversal, where people are trying to use alphabets like we’re talking, and it’s … hard. So we reach for the ellipsis.”
With our love of the casual when it comes to communicating, ellipses may be here to stay. However, if we are more conscious of our ellipsifying habits, it may just make us… a little more eloquent.
Read more about the rise of ellipses on Slate.
(via Slate & Clay Shirky/ Image via Speckyboy Design)
