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Katrinarc Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary
Halloween / waste-your-money-on-trash stakes
Hi, I would like to know the function performed by the dashes in this case:
Those in the Halloween industry are simply behaving as good capitalists should, following the maxim of that great economist P.T. Barnum that a sucker is born every minute, satisfying a market they have created (...) Don't get me started on outfits for pets or the moveto extend the holiday into an event than runs for a whole season so that it becomesyou'll love this "Falloween". Only Christmas gets consumers dipping into their pocketbooks with such happy abandon. Stretch Halloween over the whole of October, and it may soon race into first place in the waste-your-money-on-trash stakes.
Those in the Halloween industry are simply behaving as good capitalists should, following the maxim of that great economist P.T. Barnum that a sucker is born every minute, satisfying a market they have created (...) Don't get me started on outfits for pets or the moveto extend the holiday into an event than runs for a whole season so that it becomes
Top answer
The author is trying to make a phrase into an adjective. Using so many dashes is often not serious. It's similar to how writers use quotation marks (scare quotes) not as direct quotations but for irony/sarcasm.
- The author is trying to make a phrase into an adjective.
- Using so many dashes is often not serious.
- It's similar to how writers use quotation marks (scare quotes) not as direct quotations but for irony/sarcasm.
- Here, the author is trying to criticize the Halloween sellers by saying they are competing with Christmas sellers for making people waste the most money by extending the time that they offer those holiday items.
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2 Answers
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The author is trying to make a phrase into an adjective. Using so many dashes is often not serious. It's similar to how writers use quotation marks (scare quotes) not as direct quotations but for irony/sarcasm. Here, the author is trying to criticize the Halloween sellers by saying they are competing with Christmas sellers for making people waste the most money by extending the time that they off
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I found two more common examples: "up-to-date" and "out-of-date". While people could use the single words "new" and "old", those compound dash adjectives are often used instead. Like the Halloween phrase, they can be written without the dashes.
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