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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007The usage of the dash "-"
The government has also offered cash incentives to girl-only families in the countryside. I think it means that the government has also offered cash incentives to families which only have a girl in the countryside. I'd like to know how "families which only have a girl" is changed to "girl-only families ". And anyone can tell me more similar usage and examples. > The government has also offered cash > incentives to girl-only families in the [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > cash incentives to families which only have a girl in > the countryside. "to families in the countryside that have only one or more female children but no male children". Yes, you're correct. But it's a "hyphen", not a "dash". > I'd like to know how "families which only > have a girl" is changed to "girl-only families ". And anyone can > tell me more similar usage and examples. We do this all the time in English. For example: "This is a "read-only documment" = "You may only read this document; you may not change the content unless you save it with a different name". These two examples ought to be enough to give you the general principle behind this kind of abbreviated-adjective formation. Now, you try a few of your own and we can tell you whether you've understood it.  SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. "If you are still not convinced of the a.s-brain connection, finish this sentence: 'It is easier to think after I … (a) get a haircut (b) take a dump'." Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog, 12 Jan 2007; http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ teranews now charges a one-time US$3.95 setup fee -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com >> The government has also offered cash incentives to girl-only >> families in the countryside. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > "to families in the countryside that have only one or more female > children but no male children". Who mentioned children? Obviously it's an incentive to encourage lesbian marriages. > Yes, you're correct. But it's a "hyphen", not a "dash". > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > "read-only documment" = "You may only read this document; you may not > change the content unless you save it with a different name". I have known people who were good at producing write-only documents. Some of them now have good jobs with the civil service. SignaturePeter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet address could disappear at any time. >>> The government has also offered cash incentives to girl-only >>> families in the countryside. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Who mentioned children? Obviously it's an incentive to encourage > lesbian marriages. Ach! How could I have missed that interpretation? >> Yes, you're correct. But it's a "hyphen", not a "dash". >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > I have known people who were good at producing write-only > documents. Some of them now have good jobs with the civil service. I think that's generally referred to as the "Incivility Service" in most anti-bureaucratic circles. SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. "A thermal acoustic model and its steady state approximation account for the heat generated by the nonradiative relaxations subsequent to the absorption." Anonymous physicist. teranews charges a one-time US$3.95 setup fee -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > >> The government has also offered cash incentives to girl-only > >> families in the countryside. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Who mentioned children? Obviously it's an incentive to encourage lesbian > marriages. With child brides, yet. SignatureSML >>The government has also offered cash >>incentives to girl-only families in the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > "to families in the countryside that have only one or more female > children but no male children". It's still pretty strange English. It looks as though it means "to families consisting only of girls (or possibly women)". SignatureRob Bannister On 24 Jan 2007, Robert Bannister wrote >>> The government has also offered cash >>> incentives to girl-only families in the [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > It's still pretty strange English. It looks as though it means "to > families consisting only of girls (or possibly women)". I think that holds true only if one's default meaning for "girls" is "females in general" -- if the default is "young females living with their parents", there's no ambiguity at all. SignatureCheers, Harvey Canadian and British English, indiscriminately mixed For e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van > On 24 Jan 2007, Robert Bannister wrote > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > "females in general" -- if the default is "young females living with > their parents", there's no ambiguity at all. I don't see that. My default meaning is young females under at least 17, but probably younger than that, but "girl-only family" doesn't really make much sense at all in the quoted context. If a parent told me he/she had "a girl-only family", I would know what they meant, but that is different. Context is everything. SignatureRob Bannister > The government has also offered cash > incentives to girl-only families in the > countryside. The mark is called a hyphen. The dash is longer and is represented in plain ASCII by "--". > I think it means that the government has also offered cash incentives to > families which only have a girl in the countryside. Yes. > I'd like to know how "families which only have a girl" is changed to > "girl-only families ". And anyone can tell me more similar usage and > examples. One of the use of the hyphen is to fashion adjective constructions out of various parts of speech. The water was a color between gray and green, and it flowed over the spill way. ~ The gray-green water flowed over the spillway. In this case, gray and green are given approximately equal value. "Grayish green" would mean green was predominate. The two-child family is common in Springfield. (Most or many families have exactly two children.) I could not get in because it was an adults-only club. (A club that admitted only adults.) SignatureLars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/> <http://myspace.com/larseighner> Countdown: 728 days to go. "Lars Eighner" <usenet@larseighner.com> дÈëÏûÏ¢ÐÂ. > One of the use of the hyphen is to fashion adjective constructions out of > various parts of speech. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > I could not get in because it was an adults-only club. (A club that > admitted only adults.) Thanks for your excellent explanation! I found the usage of word compounding: http://www.bartleby.com/64/84.html So I think I have understood it. |
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