[Grammar] RE: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

There cannot be a space "between" an ellipsis any more than there can be an orange "between" a banana. An ellipsis is a single punctuation mark consisting of three closely-spaced dots.

OK, thanks.

Therefore, I might view it as being something of a 'clearly defined single unit'.

 

[GoesStation]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Do you mean that it is down to what the preferences of the 'publisher' are (ie. as opposed to those of the writer), please?

Publishers follow style guides which set out the grammatical and typesetting rules they aim to follow. You can find some good ones on line.

I'd be somewhat surprised to find a style guide that allows a sentence to end with an ellipsis that isn't followed by a period.

 

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Yes.

Ok, great. I will adhere to your helpful suggestion.

It is difficult trying to learn things on your own because there is so much conflicting information. And also, as someone pointed out in an earlier thread, there are some differences between the UK and US language/grammar.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Do you mean that it is down to what the preferences of the 'publisher' are (ie. as opposed to those of the writer), please?

I mean either the publisher or the writer.

 

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Publishers follow style guides which set out the grammatical and typesetting rules they aim to follow. You can find some good ones on line.

I'd be somewhat surprised to find a style guide that allows a sentence to end with an ellipsis that isn't followed by a period.

I read a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. This is where/why I get confused! I see appreciable contradictions to what I have been taught in pre-GSCE English night school.

And the same goes for a lot of '19th C' texts (although we have already discussed this in a previous thread).

 

[jutfrank]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

I'd be somewhat surprised to find a style guide that allows a sentence to end with an ellipsis that isn't followed by a period.

A little investigation of the styles used in some of the books on my shelf confirms to me the variance I mentioned.

 

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

I mean either the publisher or the writer.

I suppose the text/article may never be intended to be published (and so it remains in handwritten form - until discovered). For example (off the top of my head): Anne Frank's diary.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Also, with punctuation generally, sometimes the style of writing may be so idiosyncratic that the text itself demands that a publisher breaks a rule of convention to suit the writer's intention. (Though I think this is not likely with ellipses, especially in non-fiction texts.)

 

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Sometimes writers drop the capital letter from the start of a word which would typically have one (I am referring to such words being buried within an ellipsis and in italics - such as if someone is 'dreaming').

For instance:

(... i did not see her ... but i could sense her ... she and i were as one ...).​

As you can see, the capital 'I' has been replaced by a lower-case 'i'. I am not sure if this is because it is a 'dream' (or similar), or else because the phrases is within an ellipsis sentence?

Thanks.

 

[jutfrank]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

No, there must be another explanation why the writer used lower case 'i's. The most likely explanation I can think of is mere carelessness.

 

[monsterjazzlicks]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

No, there must be another explanation why the writer used lower case 'i's. The most likely explanation I can think of is mere carelessness.

The use of the lower-case 'i' (and many others) are repeated throughout Stephen King's novel "The Shining".

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: Capital Letter after Ellipsis (Question)

Stephen King has a very specific style of writing. Once you get to be as well-respected and incredible as he is, you can pretty much do what you like!