Composite words...
Heinz J Weyer
write composite words?
Examples:
+ first class service OR first-class service
+ right wing party OR right-wing party
+ best possible service OR best-possible service
Thanks
Heinz J Weyer
--
Dr. Heinz J. Weyer Email: heinz-jo...@psi.ch
SLS Project Phone: +41 (56) 310 3494
Paul-Scherrer Institut Fax : +41 (56) 310 3151
CH-5232 Villigen PSI Url: http://www.psi.ch/sls
Switzerland
psi
news:3C6818A5...@psi.ch...
> Can somebody tell me if there are clear rules how to
> write composite words?
> Examples:
> + first class service OR first-class service
> + right wing party OR right-wing party
> + best possible service OR best-possible service
There are no rules, only conventions. The hyphen, like any punctuation, is
there simply to ensure that your meaning is clear, here grouping pairs of
words to express a single idea. In your first two instances I would keep the
hyphen, to avoid the reader stumbling at weird concepts like "right
wing-party". The third, however, seems plain enough with no hyphen.
psi
Eric Walker
>Can somebody tell me if there are clear rules how to
>write composite words?
>Examples:
> + first class service OR first-class service
> + right wing party OR right-wing party
> + best possible service OR best-possible service
Those examples are not simply "composite words": they are
composite adjectives. For composite adjectives formed from
words that are each definitely distinct words themselves, the
rule is simple: hyphenate them except after an adverb.
He is a first-class fellow.
but
It's a highly rated program.
The logic is that the hyphen tells the reader that the words
are to be thought of as a single concept, rather than taken in
their individual senses. When an adverb is present, the hyphen
is not needed because the adverb obviously cannot directly
modify the noun and so _must_ be modifying the adjective.
When one turns to compound nouns, the matter is much less
clear. The general historical progress is from two words, the
noun proper and an attributive noun--a noun used as an
adjective--(as in "coffee shop") to progress, if the
combination is common, to a hyphenated form ("coffee-shop")
and, eventually, to a single word "coffeeshop"). But there is
no magic way to know where in that chain a given phrase is at
present save by looking about, and then one will often find
confusion and varying forms.
Those that have fully evolved ("cannonball") are quite fixed;
others are less set.
For such combinations, there is no rule save common practice.
--
Cordially,
Eric Walker
Owlcroft House
Mark Wallace
> Can somebody tell me if there are clear rules how to
> write composite words?
> Examples:
> + first class service OR first-class service
> + right wing party OR right-wing party
> + best possible service OR best-possible service
Clarity is the key; there are no specific rules.
To pick one of your examples at random, "right-wing party", the word
'right' is not modifying 'party', but 'wing', so placing a hyphen
between 'right' and 'wing' certainly does no harm, and may help to
avoid your intent being misread.
There are a few exceptions. 'Half', for example, is generally
accepted as not needing to be hyphenated to subsequent adjectives,
as its target is rarely unclear.
That is: a 'half eaten sandwich' will never be mistaken for 'half of
a sandwich which has been eaten'.
--
Mark Wallace
____________________________
You want nanomachines?
I'll give you bloody nanomachines!
http://humorpages.virtualave.net/m-pages/nmaj.htm
____________________________
Harvey V
wrote:
-snip-
> There are a few exceptions. 'Half', for example, is generally
> accepted as not needing to be hyphenated to subsequent adjectives,
> as its target is rarely unclear.
> That is: a 'half eaten sandwich' will never be mistaken for 'half of
> a sandwich which has been eaten'.
But whether one chooses to hyphenate "half-eaten" or not is purely a
stylistic and not a rule-based choice. There is absolutely nothing
*wrong* with writing this as "a half-eaten sandwich". (I find that to
be more clear -- to me, it telegraphs the "single idea" more quickly --
but styles on this matter differ.)
I have yet to see any authoritative support for the view -- which I've
seen expressed in here -- that hyphens should be avoided in all cases
except when absolutely and unavoidably necessary to avoid ambiguity.
--
Hyphenatedly yours,,
Harvey
Martin Ambuhl
>
> Can somebody tell me if there are clear rules how to
> write composite words?
> Examples:
> + first class service OR first-class service
> + right wing party OR right-wing party
> + best possible service OR best-possible service
Adjectival use of compounds, when not written solid, are hyphenated.
"First-class service" is service that is "first-class."
"First class service" is the "class service" that comes first.
--
Carius est nobis flagellari p doctrina quam nescire.
[leofre ys us beon beswungen for lare thaenne hit ne cunnan.]
- MS Cotton Tiberius A, xv, fol. 60v (British Library)
Mark Wallace
"Harvey V" <whhvs@*removethis*operamail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns91B2E0BA...@62.253.162.104...
> I espied that on 11 Feb 2002, "Mark Wallace"
<mwallac...@noknok.nl>
> wrote:
>
> -snip-
>
> > There are a few exceptions. 'Half', for example, is generally
> > accepted as not needing to be hyphenated to subsequent
adjectives,
> > as its target is rarely unclear.
>
> > That is: a 'half eaten sandwich' will never be mistaken for
'half of
> > a sandwich which has been eaten'.
>
> But whether one chooses to hyphenate "half-eaten" or not is purely
a
> stylistic and not a rule-based choice. There is absolutely
nothing
> *wrong* with writing this as "a half-eaten sandwich". (I find
that to
> be more clear -- to me, it telegraphs the "single idea" more
quickly --
> but styles on this matter differ.)
Absolutely. The only 'rule' is that you should do what you think
makes the sentence clear.
> I have yet to see any authoritative support for the view -- which
I've
> seen expressed in here -- that hyphens should be avoided in all
cases
> except when absolutely and unavoidably necessary to avoid
ambiguity.
I'm sure that Eric will find something (probably on a page about the
use of the colon) which will totally and unarguably prove us both to
be philistines.
--
Mark Wallace
____________________________
Little girl lost?
http://humorpages.virtualave.net/m-pages/mother.htm
____________________________
Roberta Davies
>
> Can somebody tell me if there are clear rules how to
> write composite words?
> Examples:
> + first class service OR first-class service
> + right wing party OR right-wing party
> + best possible service OR best-possible service
Here's what "Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers" (1983) has to
say:
(i) The hyphen is used in compounds used attributively, to clarify the
unification of the sense. Thus an adverb qualifying an adjective does
not normally need to be joined to it with a hyphen if the sense is
already clear, as in "a beautifully furnished house". But where the
adverb might not at once be recognised as such, and forms a single
concept with the adjective, a hyphen is necessary, e.g. a well-known
statesman, an ill-educated fellow, a new-found country.
(ii) Where an adverb qualifies a predicate, the hyphen should not be
used, as in "this fact is well known". Use of the hyphen varies in
other compounds, according to whether they are used attributively or
predicatively. Compare:
These are the most up-to-date records. (attrib.)
The records are not up to date. (predic.)
(iii) Where a noun and an adjective (or a participle), or an adjective
and a noun, are used attributively in combination, the hyphen should be
used, e.g. a poverty-stricken family, a blood-red hand, a large-scale
map. This rule applies also to adjectival combinations of colours used
attributively, e.g. bluish-grey haze (but: the haze was bluish grey).
Another adjective or an adverb preceding the combination is not usually
hyphenated with it, e.g. a late nineteenth-century invention (an
exception is "mid", which is joined with a hyphen, as in "a
mid-fifteenth-century church").
(iv) A compound noun with a single stress, which from usage is regarded
as one word, requires no hyphen, e.g. airbus, blackbird, dustman,
footprint, newspaper.
(v) Pronouns and adverbs beginning with any-, every-, and some- are
printed as single words in their conventional senses (anyone, everybody,
etc.). As two separately stressed words, each retains its own meaning
(e.g. you can take any one of these books).
(vi) Many words in common use, originally printed as two words or
hyphenated, are now used without the hyphen. [enormous list of examples
omitted]
(vii) Many compound words having more than one stress require hyphens,
e.g. cross-question, easy-going, short-term. A hyphen is also usually
desirable in a less familiar compound whose first element ends with a
vowel and whose second element begins with a vowel, e.g. aero-elastic,
radio-isotope, sea-urchin; and where the first element ends with the
same consonant as that beginning the second element, e.g. part-time.
More familiar words such as coeducation and radioactive are normally now
printed without hyphens.
(viii) A noun expressing the action of a verb and adverb usually takes a
hyphen although the verbal form does not, e.g. change-over, hand-out,
take-off. [another long list of examples omitted]
(ix) Half an inch, half a dozen, etc. (with the article) require no
hyphens. [final list omitted of miscellaneous words not to be
hyphenated]
Robbie
Eric Walker
[...]
>Here's what "Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers" (1983)
>has to say [about hyphenating compound words]:
[...]
>(iii) Where a noun and an adjective (or a participle), or an
>adjective and a noun, are used attributively in combination,
>the hyphen should be used, e.g. a poverty-stricken family, a
>blood-red hand, a large-scale map. This rule applies also to
>adjectival combinations of colours used attributively, e.g.
>bluish-grey haze (but: the haze was bluish grey). Another
>adjective or an adverb preceding the combination is not usually
>hyphenated with it, e.g. a late nineteenth-century invention
>(an exception is "mid", which is joined with a hyphen, as in
>"a mid-fifteenth-century church").
The quoted advice, much elided here, seems to me excellently
clear and correct, saving one fairly small quibble with the rule
stated above.
While they do carefully say "not _usually_ hyphenated" for
adjectival compounds exceeding two words' worth, it is my sense
that frequent practice is (and my belief that universal practice
ought to be) to hyphenate the entire string--thus
"late-nineteenth-century invention." Such things are ungainly,
and careful writers will thus seek to avoid them, but when they
are the obvious choice, as in that example, I don't see the
point in doing the thing half-way; if the hyphens are to avoid
even momentary confusion about melded concepts, then we should
use them for the full meld.
Mark Wallace
"Eric Walker" <ewa...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
news:rjnyxrebjypebsgpb...@news.cis.dfn.de...
Just so that no lurker gets the idea that any of the good advice in
the last two postings constitutes rules in English grammar, I'll
point out that that there are no such rules.
I do, however, agree with the points made -- cep'n I wouldn't
normally bother to hyphenate "half way", or any other compound using
'half', because it's usually overtly obvious that 'half' modifies
the subsequent word in the sentence.
--
Mark Wallace
-----------------------------------------------------
Doctor Charles.
You can trust him.
http://humorpages.virtualave.net/m-pages/doc01.htm
-----------------------------------------------------
Roberta Davies
I agree, but I didn't want to confuse the lengthy quotation with my own
addenda.
At least anyone who follows Hart's Rules (or other standard style guide)
won't go too far astray.
Robbie