Mind the gap with ellipsis

In its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis implies the skilful exclusion of words suggested by a previous clause in the sentence

Roopa Banerjee

Many of us know ellipsis merely as a punctuation mark with three periods to indicate that some written matter has been eliminated from a sentence. However, in its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis implies the skilful exclusion of words suggested by a previous clause in the sentence. For example: “The American soldiers killed eight civilians, and the French eight” omits the word soldiers after French, and civilians after eight. Yet, readers have no trouble following the writer as both missing words are clearly implied by the previous clause.

The word ellipsis comes from the Greek élleipsis, i.e, to leave out or fall short.

In a larger context, ellipsis is used in literature to denote entire chunks of a story missing in the narrative. This literary device is used to reduce time, or sometimes as a rhetoric method to allow readers to fill in the missing segments of the story with their own imagination.

A famous extension of ellipsis was used by American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) who initiated the Iceberg Theory, aka the theory of omission. As a young journalist, Hemingway had to focus his reporting on current news events, which allowed very little personal perspective or interpretation. When he became a writer, he continued this minimalistic style, focusing on external elements without overtly discussing underlying themes. Hemingway maintained that the deeper meaning of a story should not be obvious. In his posthumously published memoir A Moveable Feast, he explains: “I omitted the real end (of Out of Season) which was that the old man hanged himself. This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything… and the omitted part would strengthen the story.” In the writing style of the Iceberg Theory, the complexities of a narrative run beneath the surface of a story.

Another striking example of literary ellipsis is in To the Lighthouse by American novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). The novel is composed in two parts and many years pass between them during which World War I is fought and won. It is left to readers to deduce the events that take place during the two parts by changes clearly evident in the characters of the novel.

Literature apart, ellipsis is commonly used in filmmaking. It is normal procedure to edit sections of the story where the action is not essential to the narrative. For example ellipsis was prominently used in 1970s Bollywood films where the hero’s childhood was segued into his grown-up scene just before the credit titles of the film rolled.

Stories with flashback, in films as well as novels, have to use this literary device as the narrative treads the back-and-forth journey of the characters. No book or film can be written in real time and that makes the use of the ellipsis essential. Similarly, chronological jumps always need an ellipsis. Most Harry Potter films have an implied time jump within them.

Our day-to-day conversations are also peppered with ellipses. For instance:

“Hey Seema, when does the film start?”

“At three.”

Seema doesn’t say The film starts at three because it’s clear what she is addressing in her response.

Look out for ellipses in your day-to-day conversations, books and films. You will be surprised to find that much is being told by omitting much more!

Exercise

Here are some examples of books/poems which use ellipsis. Guess the names of the authors/poets of the given titles?