From: John Hudson (john@tiro.ca)
Date: Tue Nov 06 2007 - 02:22:47 CST
Asmus wrote:
> Because of the way compound words work, they do require that the reader
> mentally break (most of) them apart when reading and every subtle bit of
> help from typography is welcome in that task. In addition, there are
> some ambiguities that can be introduced in the process, where moving the
> intra-word splits changes the meaning. Again, having some help in the
> typography makes text more readable.
If the compound words are so difficult to read and introduce ambiguities, such that
readers must seek 'every subtle bit of help from typography' in order to decipher them,
wouldn't it make sense to write them with hyphens or other less subtle typographic aids?
JH
-- Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Gulf Islands, BC tiro@tiro.com A bilabial velaric ingressive stop is essentially a kiss. -- Pullum & Ladusaw, _Phonetic symbol guide_
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