Thought of looking up a little more of en dash usage on seeing this post :)
What I found was that along with relationships, the en dash is also used instead of the word ‘to’ (like the Delhi–Bombay distance) and to indicate routes (such as the New York–Boston commuter train). Besides, it is used to hyphenate compounds of compounds, where at least one pair is already hyphenated (as in ‘Netscape 6.1 is an Open-Source–based browser’).
Yes, come to think of it closely, it is! That means en dash is not just about ranges that are expressed numerically, but also about expresssions that are numerical ranges semantically. Thus, a distance, though not expressed as a numerical range but rather as a combination of the names of the places, uses an en-dash! I just realised this. Thanks! :)
Thought of looking up a little more of en dash usage on seeing this post :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I found was that along with relationships, the en dash is also used instead of the word ‘to’ (like the Delhi–Bombay distance) and to indicate routes (such as the New York–Boston commuter train).
Besides, it is used to hyphenate compounds of compounds, where at least one pair is already hyphenated (as in ‘Netscape 6.1 is an Open-Source–based browser’).
'To', when it stands for distance, is also actually a range. Isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, come to think of it closely, it is! That means en dash is not just about ranges that are expressed numerically, but also about expresssions that are numerical ranges semantically. Thus, a distance, though not expressed as a numerical range but rather as a combination of the names of the places, uses an en-dash! I just realised this. Thanks! :)
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