Re: Sickness of the hyphen

[wburns -at- MICRON -dot- COM]

Barclay says:

>They way I remember how to use hyphens is that they connect the words
>before a noun (adjectives or other nouns used as adjectives) that
>modify each other, not the noun.  (Huh?)

I don't think so.  Compound modifiers work together to modify a noun.
They don't modify the noun separately (as in your first example).  In some
cases a noun and a modifying adjective compose the compound, so it may seem
that the first modifies the second which modifies the third.  I tend to listen
to the primary stress in compounds.  Often only one primary stress occurs in a
compound modifier.  In your example, if it had two primary stresses (light'
blue' car) it would clearly not be a compound and should be separated by
commas to clarify the meaning.  If a single primary stress occurs (light' blue
car), then it's clearly a compound modifier.

This method doesn't work in all cases, and it doesn't explain why compound
modifiers are hyphenated when they follow (a practice with which I
disagree).  What I find irritating is the common misconception that prefixes
like "pre" and "post" need to be hyphenated.



Bill Burns                            *
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