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One of the foundational questions regarding any talent or ability is whether it is innate or learned–in other words, are we born musical, or can musicality and creativity be taught?

Is this a run-on sentence? Or is this grammatically correct?

Does the em dash somehow connect the 2 clauses?

Can an em dash be used in place of a semi-colon?

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  • Merriam-Webster has << in other words [idiom] —used to introduce a statement that repeats what has been said in a different and usually a simpler or more exact way "She said the movie was a bit predictable. In other words, she didn't like it." >> (repunctuated slightly) It is quite acceptable to replace the full stop (and new sentence) with a dash before the paraphrasing independent clause. A semicolon is also acceptable.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented May 28 at 21:53
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    The comment says so. Semicolon or dash? shows that either can be used to join (semantically related) independent clauses, and 'in other words' is a parenthetical that may be placed between suitable independent clauses.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented May 28 at 21:58
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    @ChappoHasn'tForgotten: I don't agree that punctuation should be off topic. And I certain don't agree that style should be off topic! It is in fact one of the major topic of this site, why people come here.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 29 at 18:02
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    @EdwinAshworth You voted to close this because it can be looked up in a dictionary. But how? Where can the poster easily find this information? I mean, yes, perhaps he could look at the (loooong) entry for word and see whether in other words was listed, and whether it had a syntactic label; but that is only part of the question. He cannot find in that entry the fact that, in this case, it is the dash which is responsible for his puzzlement.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 29 at 18:05
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    @EdwinAshworth: It does not explain how all of the question is easily found in a dictionary. The mere meaning of the phrase in other words is by no means enough.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 29 at 18:51

2 Answers 2

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The heart of the matter is that a dash interrupts the sentence, because—see? You can interrupt an incomplete sentence—turning it into an anacoluthon—with a dash, and begin a new sentence, or just add a few words less than a sentence or clause.

You may or may not resume the old sentence after a second, matching dash, turning the part between dashes into parenthesis, just as when you enclose something in brackets, or in commas.

Note that overuse of dashes is not good style; but, used sparingly, they are beyond reproach except in very formal language.

In your case, the phrase in other words is a red herring: it is an ordinary adverbial phrase. If you left it out, your sentence would still work and have the same syntax.

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    I'd say that the preposition phrase "in other words" is an indicator serving to clarify the nature of its semantic relationship to the anchor ("whether it is innate or learned"). It's part of the supplement "in other words, are we born musical ...".
    – BillJ
    Commented May 29 at 6:31
  • @BillJ: Yes, but does that make a difference with respect to the structure of the sentence here, "subordinating conjunction" and such?
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 29 at 18:01
  • Yes, because it shows that it is part of the supplement. You said it was an adverbial phrase, which I wouldn't go along with, though I accept that supplements are a sub-type of adjunct in clause structure. The supplement in full is, of course, in other words, are we born musical, or can musicality and creativity be taught?
    – BillJ
    Commented May 30 at 5:22
  • @BillJ: It is a bit hard to follow because I don't know all of your terminology, so I don't know how such things as 'supplements' are defined.
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 30 at 15:21
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Em dashes can correctly connect two independent clauses in place of a semicolon or colon. In other situations, they can also replace commas or parentheses. They can effectively connect sentence components of any length—though whether to use them in every situation where a comma or semicolon would suffice is another matter.

“In other words” is just a transitional phrase that can be placed parenthetically within an independent clause, typically at the start. It links the clauses semantically, but not grammatically.

Side note: the dash in your quoted example is actually an en dash (–), not an em dash (—). So, technically, your sentence is incorrect. Some guides recommend a spaced en dash in place of an em dash, but an unspaced en dash is never used for this purpose.

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    Outside of the United States, the English-speaking world, such as in the UK, mostly uses a spaced en dash, not an em dash. So you cannot say an en dash is "wrong".
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented May 29 at 1:51
  • @tchrist: Hmm would you really say Brits don't use spaceless m-dashes in older print?
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Commented May 29 at 2:44
  • @tchrist “Some guides recommend a spaced en dash in place of an em dash, but an unspaced en dash is never used for this purpose.” The issue is the en dash without any spaces.
    – GrammarCop
    Commented May 29 at 3:04
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    @tchrist ... I certainly recall reading Jane Austen's profligate use of em dashes two centuries ago. Sometimes it seemed like she couldn't write a paragraph without salting it liberally with those.
    – Robusto
    Commented May 29 at 19:04
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    @Robusto Sometimes you find two-em and three-em dashes in those really old novels. Hence U+2E3A ‭ ⸺ TWO-EM DASH, U+2E3B ‭ ⸻ THREE-EM DASH, etc.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented May 29 at 19:39

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