Ellipsis - On The Internet and In Text Messaging

On The Internet and In Text Messaging

The ellipsis is a non-verbal cue that is often used in computer-mediated interactions, in particular in synchronous genres, such as chat. The reason behind its popularity is the fact that it allows people to indicate in writing several functions:

• the sign of ellipsis can function as a floor holding device, and signal that more is to come, for instance when people break up longer turns in chat
• dot-dot-dot can be used systematically to enact linguistic politeness, for instance indicating topic change or hesitation
• suspension dots can be turn-constructional units to signal silence, for example when indicating disagreement, disapproval or confusion

Although an ellipsis is technically complete with three periods (...), its rise in popularity as a "trailing-off" or "silence" indicator, particularly in mid-20th century comic strip and comic book prose writing, has led to expanded uses online. Today, extended ellipsis anywhere from two to dozens of periods have become common constructions in Internet chat rooms and text messages. The extent of repetition in itself might serve as an additional contextualization or paralinguistic cue, to "extend the lexical meaning of the words, add character to the sentences, and allow fine-tuning and personalisation of the message"