"He told me, ‘Watch how [Fisher] picks up full-court. That’s what I want you to do’. And he gave me the opportunity tonight.
For one night, at least, it worked out spectacularly well
… and rescued the Hawks from a puzzling skid in the process."
(Source:
TrueHoop Blog - ESPN.)
What are the three dots between "well" and "and" called? I don't think they're ellipsis dots since they're not being used to indicate omitted words. What is their function? To introduce a pause?
Thanks!
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Jasmin,
(1) I have found a source (nationalpunctuationday.com) that seems
to agree with you: they
do represent a pause. Here is what it says:
The ellipsis can also be used to indicate a PAUSE [my emphasis]
in the flow of a sentence and is especially useful in quoted material.
It gives these two examples:
Juan thought and thought . . . and then thought some more.
"I'm wondering . . ." Juan said, bemused.
(2) I then found this in
The Chicago Manual of Style (which, as you know, is followed by many American authors):
Ellipsis points suggest faltering or fragmented speech accompanied
by confusion, insecurity, distress, or uncertainty, and they should be reserved for that purpose.
Its examples include:
"The binoculars . . . where the devil did I put them?"
"The ship . . . oh my God! . . . it's sinking!" cried Henrietta.
(3) The same book has something else quite interesting. It says:
Three closely spaced periods -- SUSPENSION POINTS [my emphasis]
-- are frequently used to indicate interruptions or sudden breaks in thought.
Unfortunately, it does not give any examples in English. There is an example in French, but since I do not know French, I dare not quote it. I might accidently offend someone.
The bottom line:
It seems that you are 100% correct. Those ellipsis points/dots simply
reflect a pause (not any missing words).
P.S. I could not find my source, but I understand some authors use
three points to let their voice trail off. Here is a terrible example that I
have made up:
I told my friends that I was going to beat up George for saying those
unkind words about Mona, but when I saw how big George was . . .