Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon

[Jonathan Lighter]

What bothers me most is the use of long dashes for hypens, something I see
in books more and more.  Extremely distracting: it looks like a new phrase
is coming and not just the second element of a compound.

JL

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 9:02 AM, <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      Re: Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But
>
> Keyser Soeze-phenomenon
>
> is ambiguous between [Keyser [[ Soeze-phenomenon]] and [[Keyser
> Soeze-[phenomenon]].
>
> I'd still go with the clarifying quotation marks.
>
> And why an en-dash instead of a hyphen? I doubt very much that readers
> would see that as clarifying (maybe just because I wouldn't).
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jun 3, 2011, at 8:25 AM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
>
> > On 6/3/11 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> >> Date:    Thu, 2 Jun 2011 19:53:38 -0400
> >> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: Re: Keyser-Soeze Phenomenon
> >>
> >> High-school kids.  Major-league baseball (before it was trademarked).
> >> African-American vernacular English.
> >>
> >> JL
> >
> > Yeah, but I think according to Chicago Manual of Style, what it should
> > be is:
> >
> > Keyser Soeze<ndash>phenomenon
> >
> > Because the first element is an open compound, because as pointed out,
> > it's a first-last name combo, not a last-last name combo.
> >
> > (see CMS 15, 6.85)
> >
> > --
> > ---Amy West
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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