Entertainment / Literature / Aposiopesis: Breaking off as if unable to continue, stopping suddenly in the midst of a sentence, or leaving a statement unfinished at a dramatic moment. Sometimes the interruption is an artificial choice the author makes for a dramatic effect. For instance, Steele writes, 'The fire surrounds them while -- I cannot go on.' He leaves the horrific outcome of the conflagration to the readers' imaginations. Aposiopesis is a wonderful and flexible technique for showing a character's overcharged emotions. Hamlet makes use of aposiopesis to illustrate his grief and shock at his mother's behavior after the king's death. One example is when he can't finish his comparison between his mother and Niobe: Like Niobe, all tears--why, she, even she-- / O God! A beast that wants discourse of reason / Would have mourned longer. Aposiopesis is an example of a rhetorical trope.
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Lifestyle / Poetry / Anacoluthon : An interruption in a sentence, sometimes indicated by a pause, that is afterwards restarted in a syntactically different way. See also aposiopesis. MORE