Puntini di sospensione e mimesi del parlato: le facce del rapporto tra punteggiatura e prosodia

This paper deals with ellipsis <…> in modern Italian and focuses on those uses which
possess a direct connection with prosodic features of spoken language. Firstly, I will illustrate
the position of the prosodic uses of ellipsis in a global theoretical framework,
where punctuation is assigned a basic communicative meaning and its connection with
prosody is generally seen as indirect. The prosodic uses of ellipsis occupy a subordinate
position in this framework, because they appear only in specific text types – i.e. literary
texts – and in specific textual conditions – i.e. reported speech. Secondly, I will provide a
thorough empirical analysis of ellipsis, based on data taken from a collection of Italian
novels. I will show that prosodic uses have the function of simulating fragmentation phenomena
(e.g. retracting, interruption, hesitation), which are characteristic of spontaneous
spoken language. With the help of a model of organization of spoken discourse, I will
classify the prosodic uses of ellipsis according to the specific phenomenon they reproduce
in written text.