The Shakespearean play-goer who complained of the cliches

[Benjamin Barrett]

Thank you for that correction. It seems perhaps that JL thought that, too.

I'm pretty sure the hyphen is completely inadequate for disambiguation. Unlike the comma, which has the semicolon for backup, the hyphen is left to its own devices and is quickly overwhelmed.

Looking casually at a couple of GB pages, it seems that "play-goer" is preferred to "play goer" (Google does't distinguish) but "playgoer" has a much higher number of hits. If I want to use "play-goer" or "playgoer," I don't think I can avoid this problem.

I do agree, though, that "Shakespearean-play goer" is better.

But then, what happens to a person who follows a will-o'-the-wisp? Are they are will-o'-the-wisp-follower? Will-o'-the-wisp=follower would be clearer.

Generally, I find that in technical writing, only the last item in a compound takes a hyphen, so that you see dry-cell-type instead of "dry-cell-type." This usage (which I employ in technical writing) avoids the will-o'-the-wisp overhyphenation problem.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home

On Sep 24, 2014, at 11:07 AM, David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Daniel <david at COARSECOURSES.COM>
> Subject:      Re: The Shakespearean play-goer who complained of the cliches
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Shouldn't this thread be "The Shakespearean-play goer who complained of =
> the
> clich=E9s" (hyphen moved one to the left), lest he be a goer to plays in =
> the
> time of Shakespeare?=20
> DAD
> 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 2:37 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: The Shakespearean play-goer who complained of the cliches
> 
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The Shakespearean play-goer who complained of the =
> cliches
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ---
> ---
> 
> At 9/24/2014 04:07 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>> Well, a lot of people go to Shakespeare to recognize the quotations.
>> [End excerpt]
>> 
>> The last quip in the passage above, "people go to Shakespeare to
>> recognize the quotations", is nowadays assigned to Orson Welles or
>> Oscar Wilde. For example, Richard Lederer implausibly attributes the
>> remark to Oscar Wilde.
> 
> I attribute it to my mother, who after taking me to a Shakespeare=20
> play circa 1950 said "Shakespeare is just full of quotations."
> 
> Joel

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