On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 15:42:53 GMT, Ben Siders wrote:

I chalk it up as an adopted linguistic device for people to write the way
they talk. Nothing special about it.


Pretty much what I was going to say too.

Think of it as an emoticon for "trailing off the sentence", more so than a
traditional ellipsis would (and like adding exclaimation points or question
marks, the number of dots corresponds to the magnitude). I find myself
using it in places where I might finish a sentence with a gesture.

It also appears to be used to make a sentence quieter. Kind of like the
opposite of typing in all caps.

In an analytical stretch, you might say the poster was using the ellipses
to quiet his sentences to subversively point out JOAT's tendency of using
all caps.

david
--
It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have
learned English -- up to 50 words used in correct context -- no human being
has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
-- Carl Sagan


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