Re: hyphens in multiple-word mo

[Bob Jones <Bob -dot- Jones -at- PAREXEL -dot- COM>]

Karen,

I just had discussions about this rule with my review team for a series of
manuals.  The rule according to _Practical English Handbook_, 1986 Houghton
Mifflin is that the hyphenated compound adjective works only preceding the noun
they modify.  Therefore, "I ate lunch in the company-owned store" is correct
while "The store is company-owned" is incorrect.

The rule also states that a hyphen is not used is the first word of the compound
grouping is an adverb ending in -ly.  They give this example:  "a half-finished
task" and "a partly finished task."

Hope this is helpful.
Bob Jones
bob -dot- jones -at- parexel -dot- com
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: hyphens in multiple-word mo
Author:  Karen Lew <Karen -dot- Lew -at- QUICKMAIL -dot- LLNL -dot- GOV> at Internet
Date:    9/27/96 10:48 AM


The sentence in question read something like this: " . . .[whatever] is
department owned and operated . . ."

As the technical editor, I inserted hyphens as follows: " . . .[whatever]  is
department-owned and -operated . . . " using the grammatical logic of a
temporary compound used as an adjective.

The author (and our mutual boss) kept removing the hyphen before *operated*. I
finally just gave up.

Yes, I realize it would have been much better to merely rewrite the sentence:
" . . . [whatever], owned and operated by the department, . . ."  but that was
not an option at the time.

I can't find this *specific situation* in Chicago Manual of Style, beyond
what's said in 6.31 (and don't have Bernstein of anyone else at hand at the
moment). Anyone have any thoughts on this? (silly question, of course).

Thanks,

Karen L. Lew
Sr. Technical Writer/Editor
Environmental Protection Department
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory