Tricky question: Canada-based?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

If I've got the attribution right, Jane Bergen asked: <<Which is the correct
method for using a place name as an adjective, when it is hyphenated with
"-based" as in "Canadian-based company" or "Canada-based company"?>>

Leave the name (any proper noun) unchanged in this kind of usage; I forget
the precise grammatical term for this (its related to the "genitive", I
believe), but this follows the example of saying "Microsoft" Word, rather
than "Microsoftian" Word. The reason? Saying "x-based" is shorthand for
"based in X", not "based in Xian" (with apologies to any Xians in the
audience). If you omit the "-based", then you need to transform the word,
and "Canada-based company" becomes "Canadian" company. You can't necessarily
omit the "-based", since some nominally Canadian companies are based
elsewhere in the world, and since some foreign companies that aren't
Canadian are also based in Canada. Small but potentially important
difference in meaning.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."--Goethe

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