Hyphens and dashes, oh my

[Jocelyn Limpert]

conscientious editors care!

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 1:51 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hyphens and dashes, oh my
>
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>
> Who cares?
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Hyphens and dashes, oh my
> >
> >
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> >
> > Aren't there three different things, hyphen, short (en) dash, and
> > long (em) dash?  I've been using hyphens between words
> > ("high-falutin'"), short dashes between numbers ("pages 14--15"), and
> > long dashes between phrases.
> >
> > Although Wikipedia on "Dash" is more high-falutin'.  In Wiki, by the
> > way, the en dash *is* permitted in "
> >
> > Relationships and connections" -- as in the McCain--Feingold bill (my
> > two hyphens = one en-dash); and "Attributive compounds" -- as in
> (notably)
> > "
> >
> > Pre--Civil War era".  Wiki then goes on to
> >
> > Differing recommendations, including CMofS.
> >
> > Wiki also has a section there called
> >
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_dash#En_dash_versus_em_dash>En dash
> > versus em dash.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > At 6/3/2011 09:37 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >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.
> >
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