In an all-out, last-ditch effort, you run into a cul-de-sac and set a booby-trap to destroy the approaching undead hoard. Is that so far-fetched?
Hyphens are useful for a variety of purposes (in addition to surviving the zombie apocalypse):
- To avoid ambiguity ("re-mark" vs. "remark")
- To spell out numbers ("forty-four")
- To link nouns with nouns ("London-Brighton") or adjectives with adjectives ("French-American")
- To spell out words ("Z-O-M-B-I-E-L-A-N-D")
- To avoid letter collision ("de-ice" vs. "deice")
- To indicate hesitation or stammering ("I reached for the m-m-m-machete")
Is the hyphen left for dead? Hardly. Everything's hunky-dory. Just don't start using it willy-nilly.
Dear Dash - And Sometimes Hyphen
ReplyDeleteDear dash I do not know your name
Or from whence you came
Nor did I know of how you thrive
Common folks hardly kept you alive.
Alas you fought with semi-colons, commas, and periods
To stand between the age-old standards of pristine punctuation.
It must be painful to watch the semi-colon move into your place
With ease and grace it erases all trace of where you should be seen
Yet as it does this evil trick it emphatically harbors you right in it’s midst.
Dear dash I do now know you well
It’s as though you merely fell
Into grammarian business for the sake of pauses
Yet every time I see you holding onto independent clauses
Or occasionally dining amongst compound modifiers, questions and answers,
Spelling out words, and stuttering ever so sweetly, you do not make a sound.
Were you called by any other name – it would not matter.
For I would love you still as much as the first time we met.
When I was a 4 year-old in pre-school who was a grammar-obsessed, blonde-haired little smarty-pants.
Original poem written by Ms. Domanico
(This poem channels the emotions of Lynne Truss as expressed in June Casagrande’s, Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies.)