Slash Symbol

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Carolyn Cernich from Humboldt County, California.

Hi, Carolyn. Welcome to the show.

How are you doing? What can we help you with?

Well, we have a little challenge.

I am the elections official in Humboldt County, and one of the things that we have to do is record all the ballot information exactly as it’s presented to us for use on equipment that is accessible to people who have disabilities.

And something that we’ve come across in recent years, and it seems to be getting more and more common, is the use of slash.

For example, a candidate for perhaps a school board will describe himself as attorney slash father.

Or because jurisdictions are limited in the number of words they can use on the ballot when they’re presenting their initiative to the voters, they’ll use phrases like public safety slash essential services measure or a phrase like constructing slash acquiring facilities.

And our problem is how do you say that?

Because the voter who would read those words, attorney slash father, would probably see it as this person is an attorney and a father.

But the slash may not mean and in the case of public safety essential services measure. It’s more like and or, or perhaps or.

Right.

And so you’re talking about hearing that, like people with disabilities?

So it’s people with impaired vision.

And you are reading them, and they are listening to the audio, right?

That’s right, yes.

And the law in California is very particular about I have to present it exactly as it’s presented to me.

So do I say slash? Do I say and, or and or, and slash or?

I think you have, in your question, Karen, I think you have your answer. It is slash.

This is widely used in a variety of contexts throughout English in all the continents where English is spoken.

And almost everyone says slash except for some of the people in the UK who might say stroke instead.

So they might say actor stroke model.

Actor slash model, for example, is a very common phrase.

So common it appears in some dictionaries, meaning somebody who is an actor and a model.

We have a number of different cases in English where we do read punctuation and we say the punctuation.

For example, if we’re talking about radio frequencies, we might say 103.3. We’re saying point for the punctuation to indicate that’s what it is.

And you’re right.

I’m sorry?

Or dot com.

Dot com, exactly.

You’re right in that it is serving as a conjunction here.

You might call it a coordinating conjunction or just a coordinator, depending on which language authority you’re going to follow.

And a lot has been written about this because it’s a relatively, let’s not say it’s a new phenomenon, but let’s say that it’s newly looked at.

Jeffrey Pullum looked at it, and Anne Curzan have looked at it, two linguists that we know and respect.

And if you want, we’ll post links to their stuff online.

But they’ve talked very specific about how particularly among the younger set, slash can be used to separate two ideas in the same way that a semicolon may separate two ideas.

They’re kind of related, but not exactly related.

And don’t they use the word slash written out?

Yes, they do, yeah.

And text messages and emails, the younger folks may actually spell out the word slash rather than putting the slash.

I like how much you’ve thought about this and that you realize that sometimes the slash is serving as a joining conjunction or a kind of a logical conjunction that says either or.

So it sounds like you’re headed in the right direction there.

Yeah, I would just say slash.

I think it’s widespread enough.

And many language authorities, again, have talked about it as being a real thing.

So I think you’re on safe ground there.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, good luck.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, what linguistic problems are vexing you at work?

Let us know about it.

877-929-9673 is the number to call.

Or send your emails to words@waywordradio.org.