Are en-dash, em-dash, hyphen, minus sign, and quotation dash superfluous? [closed]
I believe one major reason that proper usage of en-dash, em-dash, hyphen, minus sign, and quotation dash can be so frustrating is because they convey information already given by the context of the mark.
Are there instances where the use of one of the strikingly similar punctuation marks listed would resolve an ambiguity? I am struggling to imagine a phrase which could be interpreted differently depending on which punctuation was used, and I am confident I have never closely inspected the length of one of these marks in order to better understand a statement.
Solution 1:
You can easily construct a "garden-path" sentence based on a phrasal verb where the choice of punctuation can clearly show whether you meant it to be a phrasal verb or not:
She was upset by my carrying-on top of everything else-her credit card.
She was upset by my carrying—on top of everything else—her credit card.
In the first sentence, you have to stop and reinterpret "carrying-on" as not being a gerund form of "carry on" but as a simple verb, interrupted by a prepositional clause. The use of the em-dash is not strictly necessary, but it is clearly an aid to smooth reading.
Solution 2:
The purpose of hyphens and dashes and, indeed, virtually all punctuation and other printing conventions is not generally to add meaning but rather to make parsing the existing meaning faster, easier, and/or more pleasant.
So you could write
I am expecting to fill two interview slots—one from 12:30–1:00 p.m. and another from 2:30–3:00 p.m.—for the secretary-treasurer position.
using all one symbol:
I am expecting to fill two interview slots-one from 12:30-1:00 p.m. and another from 2:30-3:00 p.m.-for the secretary-treasurer position.
But the former is, to me, at least a little bit easier on the eyes and a little bit easier to comprehend on the first pass.
Note that even conventions like different cases of letters, or spaces between words, are not an inherent feature of written language (see Wikipedia). Obviously, even the second sentence above is significantly easier to understand than
IAMEXPECTINGTOFILLTWOINTERVIEWSLOTSONEFROM1230100PMANDANOTHERFROM230300PMFORTHESECRETARYTREASURERPOSITION
but even that can be deciphered based on contextual clues.
Of course, there are a myriad of other printing conventions that professional typesetters use to make reading a more seamless and enjoyable experience, that we don't attempt to duplicate in everyday communications (for example, customized kerning, or adjusting the space between letters, just to name one of the most basic). And it is possible to make substitutions for most dashes and hyphens; this is largely a matter of style and personal preference. For example:
I am expecting to fill two interview slots (one from twelve-thirty to one in the afternoon, and another from two-thirty to three) for the combined secretary and treasurer position.
However, most of us would like the option to use some aspects of the first example, so hyphens and dashes are probably not going away anytime soon.
Bottom line, if the extra keystrokes required for various dashes is really bothersome to you, you can leave them out; you can either use extra hyphens to approximate them, or substitute other punctuation or extra words to clarify your meaning (or live with the possibility of ambiguity and re-reading on the part of your audience). However, keeping them in your writing toolbox will give you more options for writing sentences clearly and concisely.
Solution 3:
I think this pair works. The first is a plausible sentence (think sailing), and if you wrote the second instead of the first, people would have a very hard time figuring out what you meant.
I found the wind—up river from the Jones's house.
I found the wind-up river from the Jones's house.
But I think the only pair of punctuation marks that might create ambiguity are the hyphen and the dash.
Solution 4:
The n-dash (–) is used for ranges and the dash (-) for hyphenation. These two cases can yield ambiguity.
For example, "a-b" implies a pairing and "a−b" implies a range—these are very different.
Solution 5:
Suppose Margot Beste-Chetwynde (from the novel Decline and Fall) collaborates on a mathematical paper with Paul Pennyfeather. Their theorem might well be called the Pennyfeather–Beste-Chetwynde Theorem, with an en-dash between the names and a hyphen inside the double-barrelled name.