Ellipsis

...
Punctuation marks
Comma, comma	,
Semicolon, semicolon	;
Colon, colon	:
Point	.
Ellipsis	...
Focus	·
bullet point	•
Question mark	?
Exclamation, exclamation, call signs	!
Apostrophe, apostrophe	'
- - Hyphen ; Hyphen ; Supplementary line
Indent ; Up line	-
quotation marks "" »« / «» ‚'› ‹ / ‹ ›
Slashes / \
Brackets () []

Ellipses (...) are an orthographic symbol that is represented by three consecutive points or by the three-point "..." (a separate character ) and serves as a punctuation or word mark . Mostly it shows an ellipse (omission of a text part) or it is used as a stylistic device , e.g. B. to display pauses or interrupted speech. The omission can appear at the beginning or end of a sentence or paragraph as well as within sentences and words. They are not only used in texts (part of a word, whole word, group of words, number or series of numbers), but also, for example, in tables and in mathematical and scientific formulas and in programming languages .

In typesetting and word processing , the typographic character used to set the ellipses is also called an ellipse . The symbol represents a sequence of three points that are evenly spaced horizontally on the baseline .

orthography

German

The use of the ellipsis is regulated in the German spelling rules currently valid (September 2012) in Sections 99 and 100.

Combination with spaces

When asked whether ellipses are written with or without spaces , it is important to note what exactly the ellipses stand for:

If one or more letters of a word are replaced by ellipses, these are appended to the adjacent word part or parts without spaces.
Ellipsis, which stand for words or parts of sentences that have been left out, are surrounded by spaces like these if they are not immediately before a punctuation mark.

No space is inserted between opening or closing parentheses and ellipses. Special rules apply to ellipses in quotations that are placed in square brackets, see below.

If a sentence ends with an ellipsis, it must be followed by a non-breaking space in the word processor . Otherwise there is a risk that the ellipses will be cut off at the line break and then appear at the beginning of the next line. The same applies in the event that a sentence begins with an ellipsis.

Combination with full stop and comma

If there are ellipses at the end of a full sentence, the end point is omitted.

If an ellipsis ends, the ellipses are not preceded by a comma. Example: " Latin American dances are Cha Cha Cha , Rumba , Jive ..." There are several reasons for not using the comma:

If text is omitted, a structural punctuation mark loses its function at the point where it was broken off. So it can be omitted.
The ellipsis is not text; it is a punctuation mark. Commas are used to structure text; they are not placed between text and other punctuation marks.
In the case of the formulation, an "and" can be used instead of the termination. There is no comma before “and” in a list.

Upper / lower case after the ellipsis

Ellipses count as ordinary periods , provided they end the sentence . As a result, the next sentence usually starts with capitalization . It is also possible to small to continue to write, for example if the ellipsis to display only a hesitation within the set.

English

In English , in addition to the corresponding special character (...), three dots (...) Separated by narrow (...) Or protected spaces are used as ellipses. In the case of an omission at the end of a sentence, the final point often follows the three ellipsis. In this case, however, some authors do without the initial space or - as in German - the end point.

“The quick brown fox jumps. . . . Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. "

French

In French , the special character is not used for the ellipsis. As in Spanish , three separate points are written instead ( French points de suspension ).

If the ellipses are in square brackets , according to the rules of the Imprimerie nationale , no spaces are used within the brackets: […] (as in German).

Chinese

In Chinese , six ellipses are used, with the special character for three ellipses written twice in a row: ……. The six ellipses take the horizontal place of two Chinese characters.

use

The word putain was not allowed to appear in the title in 1960

Omission of parts of the text

For example, omissions are used in direct speech when the author does not want to reproduce vulgar expressions:

“You are an A…!” Max exclaimed angrily.
Mr. Mustermann replied casually: "Shear yourself for ...!"

Omissions in quotations

In order to limit verbatim quotations to the essential parts for the respective use, omissions are permitted if they do not falsify the meaning of the quotation. Several regulations have prevailed; mostly ellipses are used in round or square brackets:

"Wikipedia is a [...] project to create an online dictionary in numerous languages that is freely and free of charge."

- Wikipedia : Article "Wikipedia"

The ellipses in the square brackets can be left out of integrated quotations at the beginning and end of the quotation. In the case of quotations highlighted (with a colon), however, they should be present (including the end point):

The main page of Wikipedia says: "Wikipedia is a project to build an encyclopedia [...]."

There it is said that "Wikipedia [...] is a project to build an encyclopedia".

enumeration

You can also end a list with an ellipsis. There is no comma in front of the ellipses, analogous to the spelling for etc. or etc. at the end of a list:

He masters all Latin American dances: Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive, etc.
He masters all Latin American dances: Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive etc.
He masters all Latin American dances: Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Jive ...

In this case, the ellipses do not strictly represent omitted text. Rather, the writer dispenses with a complete list from the outset. The ellipses indicate that the list is incomplete and only examples are given.

Display of breaks and interruptions

Ellipses can be used to indicate pauses in the flow of speech or to make it clear that a sentence is breaking off, for example because the speaker has been interrupted. The same function can also dashes are used:

Stefan started to stutter: "I ... I don't know ..."
Stefan started to stutter: "I - I don't know ..."
Stefan started to stutter: "I - I don't know -"

In this case, no text is left out that could have been reproduced, but the pauses and interruptions are already present in the speech and are displayed true to the original. In the same function, ellipses are also used for parts of words or sentences that the speaker has "swallowed" or pronounced incomprehensibly.

In dialogues, the ellipses often suggest embarrassed or embarrassed silence.

"Are eggs a fruit or a vegetable?"

"..."

Even in comics and caricatures, the speech or thought bubble with ellipses usually represents embarrassment. The "visible silence" is then a placeholder for a statement that is withheld out of tact, confusion or displeasure.

Stylistic devices

Aside from direct speech or the internal monologue , ellipses can also be found as stylistic devices , for example where a text idea is not brought to its conclusion:

This is the stuff dreams are made of ...

Ellipses are sometimes used at the end of a sentence to indicate that the author wants to leave a thought open or unanswered in order to make the reader think.

Ellipses can also express hesitation, analogous to the short pauses that arise when speaking hesitantly.

Ellipses are also used to reinforce question marks or exclamation marks.

"You can not be serious …!"

Similar to capital letters or repetitions, this effect is created by the optical highlighting and lengthening of a sentence. At the same time, however, amazement and speechlessness are suggested. As an introduction, you will find the ellipsis for answers to riddles or trick questions.

"The mother of the Man in the Moon had three children: La, Le and ...?"

"... the man in the moon."

Tables

According to DIN 55301 (design of statistical tables), the ellipses stand for “nothing available (exactly zero)” as a value-substituting symbol (in contrast to value-supplementing symbols, including quality indicators ), in contrast to the number 0 with the meaning “less than half of 1 in the last position occupied, but more than nothing ”. This is exactly how the symbol is used in tables of official statistics .

Numbers

In addition to the classic use in the text, ellipses are required instead of the bis-dash , especially in technical works , if figures contain dashes:

component	Application area
Antifreeze	−30 ° C ... −40 ° C
electronics	−20 ° C ... +60 ° C

Because two dashes cannot meet directly, only the word bis or the ellipse can be used for such intervals .

Use in math

In mathematics , according to DIN 1302, the ellipses are used as continuation points in the sense of , etc. , in order to illustrate intervals , sequences or multiple chaining.

Finite sequences can be written down in a shorter way, for example the digits through . ${\ displaystyle 0,1,2, \ dotsc, 9}$

If the continuation is sufficiently clear, it can also be used to write infinite sequences, such as the odd numbers: ${\ displaystyle 1,3,5,7, \ dotsc}$

When used with operations the position of the ellipsis from the translator is occasionally adjusted to the operation used: . ${\ displaystyle 1 + {\ frac {1} {2}} + {\ frac {1} {4}} + {\ frac {1} {8}} + \ cdots = 2}$

However, the representation by means of continuation points is not clear if the law of formation behind a sequence of numbers is not known and cannot be assumed to be known. The sequence can represent all odd numbers from 3 , but also all odd prime numbers and any number of others. ${\ displaystyle 3,5,7, \ dotsc}$

Despite the disadvantage of the possible ambiguity in principle, the use of the ellipse has a long tradition in mathematics. For example, Fourier , the inventor of the sum symbol , used the ellipse in defining it. This is also common today because it is easy to understand, although a formally exact definition of the summation symbol is possible using recursion. ${\ displaystyle \ textstyle \ sum}$

A representation using continuation points can also be useful "as a supplementary statement" if you want to illustrate links. This applies, for example, alternating sums where the presentation with alternating positive and negative is clearer than the powers of -1: . ${\ displaystyle \ sum _ {k = 1} ^ {\ infty} {\ frac {(-1) ^ {k + 1}} {k}} = 1 - {\ frac {1} {2}} + { \ frac {1} {3}} - {\ frac {1} {4}} \ pm \ cdots = \ ln 2}$

Use in graphical user interfaces

In graphical user interfaces , an ellipse attached to menu functions or buttons means that a further input (for example as a dialog) follows when selected. If the ellipse is missing, the function has already been carried out when you select it.

"Save" - the opened file is overwritten without any further input.
"Save as ..." - in the following dialog you can e.g. B. another storage location or file name or another file format can be selected.

Use in programming languages

Various programming languages use ellipses, but these are always represented with three points. These include variadic functions in Java and C . In C ++ and D they are used for variadic templates and since C ++ 17 in folding expressions.

In Haskell it is possible to specify lists with a 2-point ellipse. Theoretically, the language allows the definition of an operator consisting of three points or more.

Representation in computer systems and replacement

Coding

In the international Unicode character coding system , the punctuation mark is contained as U + 2026 horizontal ellipsis (horizontal ellipsis ).

In ASCII - character set the character is not, which is why many older computer systems could not represent it.

In the WWW document format HTML , the character is encoded as follows:

… (hexadecimal),
… (decimal)
and …(named character).

In LaTeX , the ellipses \ldotsare also given.

keyboard

In Windows , the character can be entered by holding down the Altwhile entering the sequence of digits 0133on the numeric keypad .
On Linux systems, the ellipsis character is created with the German keyboard layout by pressing the key combination Alt Gr+ ..
With the Neo keyboard layout , the character can be created with Mod 3+ X, the vertical ellipse (see below) with ↻ +….
At X.org , the character can generally be generated by pressing the Compose key and then entering a period (.) And a colon (:).
On German Apple systems, the ellipses can be entered using the key combination ⌥+ ..
On keyboards with the assignment T2 in accordance with the revised German standard DIN 2137 : 2012-06, the ellipsis character is entered with the key sequence Gruppenumschaltung ⇨followed by ,(comma).
On German keyboards according to older editions of DIN 2137 (or with assignment T1 according to the new version), the ellipses are not present as a single typographic character.

Replacement

If the character cannot be displayed because it is missing in the font or character set used , it should be replaced by three dots "...".

However, since practically all modern computer systems and fonts are based on Unicode , the character can now be displayed, processed, transmitted and archived worldwide. A replacement for technical reasons is therefore hardly necessary. Even if the keyboard used does not have the character, it can practically always be inserted using a corresponding function of the operating system or the respective text editor .

Some text editors automatically replace three periods with the typographic character.

Other ellipses

In the Mathematical Operators block, Unicode defines further characters consisting of three dots arranged in a row, which are mainly used in tables and in the mathematical formula set:

Unicode	character	Surname	Latex
U + 22EE	⋮	vertical ellipsis (vertical ellipse)	`\vdots`
U + 22EF	⋯	midline horizontal ellipsis (horizontal ellipse at medium height)	`\cdots`
U + 22F0	⋰	up right diagonal ellipsis (right-upward diagonal ellipse)	`\iddots`^a
U + 22F1	⋱	down right diagonal ellipsis (right-downward sloping diagonal ellipse)	`\ddots`

^aThe LaTeX add-on package is mathdotsrequired for this command .

literature

Bernhard Siegert : [...] ellipses. Lecture at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig. Institute for Book Art, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 978-3-932865-26-8 .
Bernhard Siegert: […]. In: punctuation marks. Scenes of writing (Festschrift for Bettine Menke ). Edited by Helga Lutz, Nils Plath, Dietmar Schmidt. Kadmos, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86599-364-9 , pp. 227-231.

Web links

Wiktionary: ellipses - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

^ Friedrich Forssman, Ralf de Jong: Detail typography. 2nd Edition. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-87439-642-8 , pp. 185-186.

↑ Katja Hübener: Period, Comma & Co. - The common punctuation marks in detail . Niggli Verlag, Sülden / Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-7212-0505-7 , p. 58 .

^ Council for German orthography (ed.): German orthography . Rules and vocabulary according to the recommendations of the German Spelling Council. Revised version of the official regulations 2004. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8233-6270-8 ( ids-mannheim.de [PDF; accessed on September 10, 2012]).

^ Friedrich Forssman, Ralf de Jong: Detail typography . Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2004, ISBN 978-3-87439-642-4 .

↑ http://www.kirov-center.org/incl_07/ids/e5-3.html ( Memento from April 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

^ ^A ^b Robert Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style . 3. Edition. Hartley & Marks, 1997, pp. 32 .

^ University of Chicago Press (Ed.): The Chicago Manual of Style . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003.

↑ Amelie Solbrig: Bilingual Microtypography: A set of rules for German / English typesetting. (PDF (3.7 MB)) (No longer available online.) HTWK Leipzig, 2008, p. 75 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 8, 2015 .

^ Anne Waddingham: New Hart's Rules. The Oxford Style Guide . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-957002-7 , pp. 82 .

↑

^ Page "Wikipedia" . In: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Processing status: April 18, 2016, 16:19 UTC. (Accessed: November 21, 2016, 3:43 pm UTC)

↑ Punctuation at the end of lists. Retrieved April 16, 2013 .

↑ Guidelines for the design of statistical tables for network programming, Working Group Publications of the State Statistical Offices, Wiesbaden 1997, 41 pages, here: p. 36.

↑ GENESIS-Online database: Explanation of symbols

↑ "Le signe indique que l'on doit donner au nombres entier toutes ses valeur , et prendre la somme des termes". J. Fourier: Refroidissement séculaire du globe terrestre . Bulletin des Sciences par la Société philomathique de Paris, No 3, 7 (1820), pp. 58-70. Reprinted in Œuvres de Fourier , Vol. 2, pp. 271–288. The quote appears on p. 280 . ${\ displaystyle \ sum _ {i = 1} ^ {\ infty}}$ ${\ displaystyle i}$ ${\ displaystyle 1,2,3, \ ldots}$

↑ Graham, Knuth, Patashnik. Concrete Mathematics , Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 2nd Edition, 1989. ISBN 0-201-55802-5 . P. 22.

↑ See Bronstein, Semendjajew: Taschenbuch der Mathematik , 23rd edition, 1987, ISBN 3-87144-492-8 , p. 112.

↑ See Graham, Knuth, Patashnik: Concrete Mathematics , Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 2nd edition, 1989, ISBN 0-201-55802-5 , p. 26.

↑ developer.apple.com: Menu and Menu Item Titles

↑ http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/language/varargs.html

↑ http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdarg/va_arg/

↑ http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n2242.pdf

↑ http://dlang.org/variadic-function-templates.html

↑ http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2014/n4295.html

↑ https://wiki.haskell.org/List_comprehension

[1] Friedrich Forssman, Ralf de Jong: Detail typography. 2nd Edition. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-87439-642-8 , pp. 185-186.

[2] Katja Hübener: Period, Comma & Co. - The common punctuation marks in detail . Niggli Verlag, Sülden / Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-7212-0505-7 , p. 58 .

[Rechtschreibrat-3] Council for German orthography (ed.): German orthography . Rules and vocabulary according to the recommendations of the German Spelling Council. Revised version of the official regulations 2004. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-8233-6270-8 ( ids-mannheim.de [PDF; accessed on September 10, 2012]).

[4] Friedrich Forssman, Ralf de Jong: Detail typography . Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2004, ISBN 978-3-87439-642-4 .

[5] ttp://www.kirov-center.org/incl_07/ids/e5-3.html ( Memento from April 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[bringhurst-6] A ^b Robert Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style . 3. Edition. Hartley & Marks, 1997, pp. 32 .

[7] University of Chicago Press (Ed.): The Chicago Manual of Style . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003.

[8] Amelie Solbrig: Bilingual Microtypography: A set of rules for German / English typesetting. (PDF (3.7 MB)) (No longer available online.) HTWK Leipzig, 2008, p. 75 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 8, 2015 .

[9] Anne Waddingham: New Hart's Rules. The Oxford Style Guide . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-957002-7 , pp. 82 .

[10] ↑

[11] Page "Wikipedia" . In: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Processing status: April 18, 2016, 16:19 UTC. (Accessed: November 21, 2016, 3:43 pm UTC)

[12] Punctuation at the end of lists. Retrieved April 16, 2013 .

[13] Guidelines for the design of statistical tables for network programming, Working Group Publications of the State Statistical Offices, Wiesbaden 1997, 41 pages, here: p. 36.

[14] GENESIS-Online database: Explanation of symbols