After having
read about how ellipses are being overemployed and misused across writing, I
turned to my peers. In her most recent blog, Cristina Angel mentions the problems that this epidemic is causing. According to her, ellipses should be used
only in the academic way, in formal writing. Whatever happened to letting
language evolve?
I’ve
been critiqued by my peer, Cristina Serrano, for not acknowledging the
opposition in my recent blog about the value of descriptivists and their
one-to-five scale. That being said, this blog post will be all about playing
devil’s advocate. Although I agree with
most of what Ms. Angel says, I’ll acquiesce to Ms. Serrano’s request.
Ms.
Angel, in your bashing of the modern adaptation of the ellipses, you claim that
“we are not even completing sentences.” So? In the evolving world of texts,
there is no need for complete sentences, or even complete thoughts. As the author pointed out when he sent a text
to his mom that simply read “All Star Game…..” there is an inherent understanding
between texters that enables them to interpret even the vaguest of
messages. This “relaxed way,” of
writing, as you call it, allows people to be free. It gives them the liberty to take the
conversation anywhere…
Example:
Person
1: “All Star Game……”
Person
2: “Yeah…I hope the East can finish strong…”
Person
3: “…Soccer is much more interesting…”
Person
4: “I’m tired……”
While
this may not seem coherent to a stranger, or a linguist trying to figure out
why the English language was saved in the year 2014, it is logical to me, and
that’s all that matters. The privacy of
the texter’s world makes it so that as long as the people directly involved
understand, the “horrible… consequences” that you speak of are rendered
obsolete….and that’s that….
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