Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on
LONDON (Reuters) - About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bumble-bee is now bumblebee, ice-cream is ice cream and pot-belly is pot belly.
And if you've got a problem, don't be such a crybaby (formerly cry-baby).
The hyphen has been squeezed as informal ways of communicating, honed in text messages and emails, spread on Web sites and seep into newspapers and books.
"People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they're not really sure what they are for," said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week.
Another factor in the hyphen's demise is designers' distaste for its ungainly horizontal bulk between words.
"Printed writing is very much design-led these days in adverts and Web sites, and people feel that hyphens mess up the look of a nice bit of typography," he said. "The hyphen is seen as messy looking and old-fashioned."
The team that compiled the Shorter OED, a two-volume tome despite its name, only committed the grammatical amputations after exhaustive research.
"The whole process of changing the spelling of words in the dictionary is all based on our analysis of evidence of language, it's not just what we think looks better," Stevenson said.
Researchers examined a corpus of more than 2 billion words, consisting of full sentences that appeared in newspapers, books, Web sites and blogs from 2000 onwards.
For the most part, the dictionary dropped hyphens from compound nouns, which were unified in a single word (e.g. pigeonhole) or split into two (e.g. test tube).
But hyphens have not lost their place altogether. The Shorter OED editor commended their first-rate service rendered to English in the form of compound adjectives, much like the one in the middle of this sentence.
"There are places where a hyphen is necessary," Stevenson said. "Because you can certainly start to get real ambiguity."
Twenty-odd people came to the party, he said. Or was it twenty odd people?
Some of the 16,000 hyphenation changes in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, sixth edition:
Formerly hyphenated words split in two:
9 Comments:
May I just say what a relief to find someone who really understands what they're discussing on the net. You definitely understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More and more people should read this and understand this side of your story. It's surprising you are not more popular since
you surely possess the gift.
My web site: funnymariogames
I usually do not drop many remarks, but i did
a few searching and wound up here "Thousands of hyphens perish as English marches on".
And I do have a couple of questions for you if it's allright. Is it simply me or does it look as if like some of these remarks look like coming from brain dead people? :-P And, if you are posting at additional sites, I would like to follow everything fresh you have to post. Could you make a list of every one of all your social pages like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
My site :: income
Malaysia & Singapore & brunei greatest online blogshop for wholesale &
quantity korean accessories, accessories, earstuds, necklace,
rings, hair, bracelet & trinket accessories. Offer 35 % wholesale discount. Ship Worldwide
My site > stitching wire indonesia
Malaysia & Singapore & brunei ideal on the internet blogshop for wholesale &
supply korean accessories, earrings, earstuds, necklace, rings, hair, bracelet
& bracelet accessories. Promotion 35 % wholesale markdown. Ship Worldwide
Also visit my weblog sittercity.com promo code
Can I simply just say what a relief to find somebody that truly knows what they are discussing on the internet.
You definitely understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important.
More people need to check this out and understand this side of the story.
It's surprising you're not more popular given that you
most certainly possess the gift.
Have a look at my blog post ; click the up coming document
Do you have a spam problem on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; we have created some nice practices and
we are looking to trade techniques with other folks,
why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.
Feel free to surf my website cheap iPhone 5 for sale online
This post is truly a good one it helps new internet people,
who are wishing in favor of blogging.
Also visit my blog post ; web hosting delhi
Appreciate the recommendation. Let me try it out.
Here is my web-site; voyeur sex
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my website so i came to “return the favor”.
I'm trying to find things to enhance my site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
my weblog http://sexygirlchat.net
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home