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The History of the Ellipsis, from Medieval Subpuncting to Irrational Numbers
- nnethercote 10y agoI once sat next to Anne Toner at a dinner. (I admit I don't remember her name, but I doubt there are any other female scholars in Cambridge studying the same topic.) I asked her what she worked on, and she told me that her PhD was about the history of the ellipsis. I tried making a weak joke along the lines of "why the ellipsis? Why not, say, the comma?" She surprised me by launching into an extensive explanation of how the comma was far less interesting because its use was standardized much earlier, it is used in fewer situations, and so on. I felt abashed, but was happy that her enthusiasm and knowledge steamrolled right over the top of my weak mocking. It may be an obscure topic, but good for her for being so interested in and devoted to it.
- labster 10y ago...
- mannykannot 10y ago"Both subpuncting and the ellipsis indicate a falling short or a defect in the text..." I had never heard of subpuncting before reading article (and my spellchecker does not know it yet) but ellipsis is useful in abstraction - focusing on the matter at hand - which is neither necessarily an error or a shortfall of information.