Aposiopesis

The Aposiopese (from Greek ἀποσιωπάω aposiopao, " cancel ", " silence ", latin reticentia ) is a special form of the ellipse ( phatic ellipse) a figure of speech in which a sentence is canceled before it is completed, and the last part by a break is replaced. The crash can bring emotional eg overwhelmed (see pathos ) or an unspoken threat to the expression. Sometimes you may also have lost the thread, or search for a word. Then there is a call for help. Often there is also a crash that is intended to indicate shared knowledge and the lack of necessity of the continuation of the sentence. The dialogue partners to complete the sentence in the mind or aloud. In today's vernacular very often is also the demolition of a connected to a main clause subordinate clause immediately after the conjunction and the connection of another main clause, eg: "The idea is quite good, though ... I'm still not totally convinced. "

A special form is the apotropaic Aposiopese: The sentence remains unfinished, to not pronounce a sacred or cursed name, "called" to have.

Examples

" Caesar came, saw and ... "

" Look, this is a ... "

"He can me once ... "

" Come with me, you are but certainly ... "

" What! I? I 'd have him -? Among my dogs - With these small hands I would have him -? "

"If I do not succeed to remove the Count immediately: so thinking ' I - Yes, yes, I think he goes in this case for sure. "

"Comrades! This letter to you is pleased with me! "

" My sister in law said my uncle Toby, it would perhaps be embarrassed, a man came so close to her **** -. Sets this indent, and it is a Aposiopesis; "

" Quos ego - "

"To you I shall - "

Related style figures

  • Rhetorical term
Independent clause Penthesilea (Kleist) Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Emilia Galotti Friedrich Schiller Laurence Sterne Aeneid Anacoluthon
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