Hyphens and dashes, oh my

[Jonathan Lighter]

But there are so few....

JL

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Jocelyn Limpert
<jocelyn.limpert at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jocelyn Limpert <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hyphens and dashes, oh my
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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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