Aposiopesis is a rhetorical device that involves a deliberate interruption or pause to create dramatic tension, often using a dash or ellipsis. It can be used to imply a threat or to create emotional pauses in dialogue. It is effective when listeners can infer the intended meaning from the speaker’s opening premise.
WiseGEEK could tell you exactly what an aposiopesis is, but… I’m sorry, I can’t go on. Can we talk about some other rhetorical device instead?
The above fragment is an example of a rhetorical device known as aposiopesis, from the Greek for “to become silent.” An apotheosis can come in many forms, but in general it is a deliberate interruption or pause used to create dramatic tension. An aposiopesis is often created through the use of a dash (-) or an ellipsis (…) to imply an idea that cannot or need not be completed by the speaker.
If a mother tells her child “Put that toy down now or I will…”, she has used a form of aposiopesis to imply a threat of punishment. The speaker set a condition, but the listener didn’t need to actually hear the rest of the sentence to understand the consequences. An aposiopesis is most effective when listeners can successfully infer what is missing.
Another form of aposiopesis occurs whenever the speaker becomes too overwhelmed or distracted to finish a full thought. At a funeral, for example, a eulogy speaker may need to pause mid-sentence to collect his thoughts: “I will always remember my best friend Ray… I’m sorry, I can’t find the words… Ray was Alone…”. These pauses indicated by ellipsis would be considered aposiopesis. When a speaker becomes unable to continue, the resulting pause would be an aposiopesis.
Many playwrights and screenwriters use aposiopesis to make dialogue more realistic or sincere. Many famous soliloquies in Shakespeare’s works are meant to be delivered with emotional pauses and moments of silence, not as straight recitations. A character may also use an aposiopesis to create dramatic or comic tension in the scene, such as at a pivotal moment when a detective is about to name the real killer: “I finally put the last few pieces together and I know that the killer is- I’m those real flowers? I can never grow anything in my office. Wherever was I? Oh yes, the real killer…”.
An aposiopesis can be a very effective rhetorical tool when used sparingly and under the right conditions. If the listener is unable to infer the intended meaning from the speaker’s opening premise, then an aposiopesis may not work as well. Many aposiopesis are presented as conditional sentences of cause and effect, with the speaker providing only the cause or premise: “If I have to come up there…” or “If only I had a tape recorder right now…”. The listener should be able to provide their own logical conclusion based on the speaker’s deliberate pause.
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