Break-in-the narrative

Aposiopesis is a device which dictionaries define as "A stop­ping short for rhetorical effect." This is true. But this definition is too general to disclose the stylistic functions of the device.In the spoken variety of the language a break in the narrative is usually caused by unwillingness to proceed; or by the supposition that what remains to be said can be understood by the implication embodied in what was said; or by uncertainty as to what should be said.

In the written variety a break in the narrative is always a stylistic device used for some stylistic effect. It is difficult, however, to draw a hard and fast distinction between break-in-the-narrative as a typ­ical feature of lively colloquial language and as a specific stylistic device. The only criterion which may serve as a guide is that in con­versation the implication can be conveyed by an adequate gesture. In writing it is the context, which suggests the adequate intonation, that is the only key to decoding the aposiopesis. Break-in-the-narrative is a device which, on the one hand, offers a number of variants in deciphering the implication and, on the other, is highly predictable. The problem of implication is, as it were, a crucial one in sty list ics. What is implied sometimes outweighs what is expressed. In other stylistic devices the degree of implication is not so high as in break-in-the-narrative. A sudden break in the narrative will inevitably focus the attention on what is left unsaid.

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