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Are the following sentences equivalent in meaning? How do (b) and (c) differ in usage?

(a) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country and the majority headed to Europe.

(b) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country, the majority heading to Europe.

(c) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country—the majority heading to Europe.

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  • The use of a dash never changes the meaning. Just the emphasis.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 4, 2021 at 14:28

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(a) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country and the majority headed to Europe.

(b) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country, the majority heading to Europe.

(c) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country—the majority heading to Europe.

Examples (b) and (c) are slightly different. The interruption, the majority heading to Europe, is treated as a minor one in (b) but a major one in (c). Interruptions are set off by different punctuation signs according to how much the writer perceives the impact these interruptions have on the sentence.

Example (a) is short of a comma, which should be placed before the coordinating conjunction and. When two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction, we place a comma before the coordinating conjunction.

Edit (as hinted by Apollyon)

Also, as this process is still on-going, is heading is more appropriate than headed.

My suggestion is as follows:

(a1) Many Syrian people have been driven out of the country, and the majority is heading to Europe.

Example (a) links the points expressed by its two independent clauses slightly closer than what (b) and (c) do with their sentence structures.

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  • Are you sure the OP sentences are all correct and natural?
    – Apollyon
    Commented Dec 4, 2021 at 12:45
  • Shouldn't it be "and the majority are headed to Europe? See this question. They're not headed to Europe in one large group, but in a large number of small groups, so the verb should be are.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented May 14, 2023 at 13:39
  • It's not clear if they are currently trying to reach Europe, have already reached Europe, or tried and failed to reach Europe, and whether this was at the same time as leaving Syria or later, or how long it took, or whether it was all at once or in parts, so it's not clear what form of "head" should be used.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jan 9 at 10:42

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