Break-in-the-Narrative (Aposiopesis)

Aposiopesis is a-device, which dictionaries define as “A stopping short for rhetorical effect.” This is true. But definition is too general to disclose the stylistic functions of the device.

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.

In the following example the implication of the aposiopesis is a warning:

“ If you continue your intemperate way of living, in six months’ time...”

In the sentence:

“You just come home or I’ll...”

the implication is a threat. The second example shows that without a context the implication can only be vague. But when one known that an angry father to his son said the words over the telephone the implication becomes apparent.

Break-in-the-narrative has a strong degree of predictability, which is ensured by the structure of the sentence. As a stylistic device it is used in complex sentences, in particular in conditional sentences, the if-clause being given in full and the second part only implied.

Sometimes a break in the narrative is caused by euphemistic considerations-unwillingness to name a thing on the ground of its being offensive to the ear, for example:

“Then, mamma, I hardly like to let the words cross my lips, but they have wicked, wicked attractions out there-like dancing girls that-that charm snakes and dance without-Miss Moir with downcast eyes, broke off significantly and blushes, whilst the down on her upper lip quivered modestly.” (Cronin)

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 stylistics.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. Therefore the interrelation between what is given and what is new becomes more significant, in as much as the given is what is said and the new - what is left unsaid. There is a phrase in colloquial English which has become very familiar:

“Good intentions but-”

The implication here is that nothing has come of what it was planned to accomplish.

Aposiopesis is a stylistic device in which the role of the intonation implied cannot be over-estimated. The pause after the break is generally charged with meaning and it is the intonation only that will decode the communicative significance of the utterance.

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