I just remembered a perfect example of how the humble hyphen can change the meaning of a sentence. It's another motorsport analogy and it happened in the early nineties ...
The top racing driver of the day in England was Nigel Mansell. He had just won the Formula One championship. Speculation was rife - what would he do next season? Would he retire, as so many sportspeople seem to do when they are at the top of their career? Or would he renew his contact with his team to race next season?
Eventually the news came out.
I was in a railway station and saw a copy of Autosport, the prestigious UK journal of all things motorsport, at a newsstand. There was the news on the front cover "Mansell re-signs!"
Great news - he had re-signed his contract and would continue to race. How different that was to "Mansell resigns!"
Just that tiny hyphen....
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