Comments on: I love hyphens http://imjon.com/2008/10/01/i-love-hyphens/ thoughts, ideas, projects and musings Mon, 16 May 2011 04:33:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: calum http://imjon.com/2008/10/01/i-love-hyphens/comment-page-1/#comment-625 calum Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:06:17 +0000 http://imjon.com/2008/10/01/i-love-hyphens/#comment-625 The hyphen is urgent and key, yes, particularly when dealing with less than canonically phrased phrases; it can aid interpretation and, by increasing the speed with which the text can be comprehended, allows the reader to plough on, unbefuddled. However, for reasons other than mere contrariness, I would argue that ambiguity is, outside of specific (and often legal) contexts, something that should be revelled in. Setting aside the possibility that the HRS sign is adverting to a huge sale of huge rugs (something worth considering in these increasingly non-binary (first hyphen!) times), the lack of punctuative clarification allows the beholder the opportunity to visualise if not a panoply then at least an array of possibilities, to allow his or her imagination to be stretched, even just a little, in a way that an unambiguously punctuated sign would not. No, the hyphenated sign is a railroad, grabbing the reader's mind and demanding it follow one path. Unhyphenated, the reader is a little freeer than he or she would otherwise have been. Freedom, as we were told, somewhat impliedly, by QFX in 1994, is a thing most nifty. Also, aloud, HUGE RUG SALE is funner to say, equal emphasis on each word, than HUGE-RUG SALE or HUGE RUG-SALE, which is singsongier and therefore leaves the speaker sounding like a primary school teacher attempting to mask fury or some sort of unbearably keen children's television presenter (depending on accent), neither of which is What You Want. None of which is to denigrate your blogpost, and is, in truth, just a way for me to pass time that would otherwise be given over to unbillable seagull watching (see? DO YOU SEE?). The hyphen is urgent and key, yes, particularly when dealing with less than canonically phrased phrases; it can aid interpretation and, by increasing the speed with which the text can be comprehended, allows the reader to plough on, unbefuddled. However, for reasons other than mere contrariness, I would argue that ambiguity is, outside of specific (and often legal) contexts, something that should be revelled in. Setting aside the possibility that the HRS sign is adverting to a huge sale of huge rugs (something worth considering in these increasingly non-binary (first hyphen!) times), the lack of punctuative clarification allows the beholder the opportunity to visualise if not a panoply then at least an array of possibilities, to allow his or her imagination to be stretched, even just a little, in a way that an unambiguously punctuated sign would not. No, the hyphenated sign is a railroad, grabbing the reader’s mind and demanding it follow one path. Unhyphenated, the reader is a little freeer than he or she would otherwise have been. Freedom, as we were told, somewhat impliedly, by QFX in 1994, is a thing most nifty.

Also, aloud, HUGE RUG SALE is funner to say, equal emphasis on each word, than HUGE-RUG SALE or HUGE RUG-SALE, which is singsongier and therefore leaves the speaker sounding like a primary school teacher attempting to mask fury or some sort of unbearably keen children’s television presenter (depending on accent), neither of which is What You Want.

None of which is to denigrate your blogpost, and is, in truth, just a way for me to pass time that would otherwise be given over to unbillable seagull watching (see? DO YOU SEE?).

]]> By: Pages tagged "punctilious" http://imjon.com/2008/10/01/i-love-hyphens/comment-page-1/#comment-624 Pages tagged "punctilious" Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:02:23 +0000 http://imjon.com/2008/10/01/i-love-hyphens/#comment-624 [...] bookmarks tagged punctilious I love hyphens saved by 2 others     spricket24 bookmarked on 10/01/08 | [...] [...] bookmarks tagged punctilious I love hyphens saved by 2 others     spricket24 bookmarked on 10/01/08 | [...]

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