Hyphen Workshop

[pontios]

Nickel made the suggestion, and I took it seriously (as nickel is a person who says what he means, and means what he says).:)

To be honest, I haven't paid any attention to hyphen rules or conventions (presuming they exist) regarding compound words, so I often don't know which need to be hyphenated and which should be left separated or even, in the extreme case, brought together to form a single word (the Germans have mastered this).

I just came across this suggestion (if not rule) - "if you do not find a particular verb in the dictionary, hyphenate it", which is a rule I've probably subconsciously and unknowingly resorted to in the past (whenever I bothered to, that is).

So, in my blissful ignorance, I haven't really made a point of learning any rules (as I didn't bother about it, in all honesty).

palm-sized is an obvious one to hyphenate; it makes sense to, anyway. I note that it's a compound word that serves as an adjective (note to self).
side cutters is a tool with a side-cutting action (which is an adjective, so I've presumed hyphens come into play here) but, as nickel has pointed out (in another thread), it can also be found as a single word, sidecutters.

Please feel free to post any queries in this thread and/or provide examples to discuss.

My first query

Query 1

Chain link (as in chain link fence).
Do we hyphenate it, leave it separate or unite it into a single compound word?
Is it clear-cut?

 

[pontios]

Query 2

Is Ioannina a city in north west Greece, north-west Greece or northwest Greece?

 

[daeman]

...
OED:
north-west, adv., n., and a. (nɔːθˈwɛst)

[f. north and west: cf. MDu. noortwest (Du. noord-), OHG. nord-, northuuest, G. nordwest, Da. and Sw. nordvest; also F. nordouest (†north-, nort-, nor-), Sp. nordovest, norueste, Pg. noroeste.
OE. had also norðanwestan, from the north-west.]


Wikipedia:

Northwest is a compass direction.

Northwest or north-west or north west may also refer to:
...
North West England, region
North-West (European Parliament constituency), in the Republic of Ireland
Copenhagen North West, a part of Copenhagen, Denmark
...
Northwest Territories, Canadian territory
North-West Territory, historical administrative region of the Hudson's Bay Company

All articles with "Northwest" (or a variant) in the title

Northwest or north west is the ordinal direction halfway between north and west on a compass. It is the opposite of southeast. Northwest corresponds to an azimuth or bearing of 315 degrees.
...
...
Δε μπορώ, μανούλα μ', δε μπορώ, άι σύρε να φέρεις το μαϊστρό...

Απ' όπου φυσάει ο άνεμος, ο μαΐστρος, το μαϊστράλι. Εμένα μου 'ρχεται North by Northwest:

 

[pontios]

Thank you, daeman.
So Ioannina is a city in north-west Greece!

Should northwest and north west therefore (strictly speaking) be reserved for the ordinal direction halfway between north and west on a compass?

 

[nickel]

I need to find a good web page containing the rules of hyphenation with the kind of emphasis I like. There was a good link once in one of these pages, but the pages grow in number and I grow in years and the two do not work well together.

Quick solutions then:
chain link (nice compound noun, does not need a hyphen, does not look good as one word). But, when used as an adjective, it is better to write "chain-link fence". It is not necessary because one easily understands it is a fence using chain links and not a link fence using chains. Careless writers omit this kind of hyphen as a rule. Careful writers add it as a rule.

north west Greece, north-west Greece or northwest Greece?
The hyphen is the safe solution in all such combinations. Dropping the hyphen in favour of one word is the modern tendency.
Write north-west even for the noun:
he pointed to the north-west | the north-west of London
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/north--west?q=northwest

North West is a province of South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_(South_African_province)

Α, ωραία, πρόλαβε ο σύντεκνος...

 

[pontios]

Καλημέρα.

Το "half listen" χρειάζεται ενωτικό σημείο;
.. και τι γίνεται με το "half listening";

edit (from the exclamation thread) ...maybe i should have referred to myself as a possessive-apostrophe swinger?

 

[nickel]

Nothing better than seeing how others have used (or not used) the hyphen in the case of "half listening" (or "half-listening").
Google Google books and see if you can come up with a rule!
https://www.google.com/search?q="half+listening"&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1

 

[pontios]

Thanks, nickel.
From what I've half gathered, you can have a half-listening audience; i.e., one which is half listening. :huh:

 

[pontios]

Which one gets the nod?

a. It was midsummer.
b It was mid-summer.
c. It was mid summer.

Thanks.

 

[nickel]

LOL. I suppose they all get the nod, but let's say that "It was midsummer" also gets the wink.

 

[pontios]

LOL. I suppose they all get the nod, but let's say that "It was midsummer" also gets the wink.

Thanks, nickel.
Nod, wink, nudge, say no more. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT3_UCm1A5I

 

[pontios]

Καλημέρα και καλή εβδομάδα.

Do all the following require hyphens?
(οι σχολές σκέψης βρίσκονται στα μαχαίρια; )

no one
a shoddily built house
early morning chill or early morning coffee
a bi monthly twenty four hour leave
a two hour concert
a half hour recital
a six year old boy
migrant centre staff
a late evening rehearsal

 

[nickel]

Hi!

I'd say:

no one
a shoddily built house
early morning chill or early morning coffee (A hyphen might be considered too much, though it would help.)
a bi-monthly twenty-four-hour leave > a bimonthly 24-hour leave
a two-hour concert
a half-hour recital
a six-year-old boy
migrant centre staff (Again: usually avoided, though it would help)
a late evening rehearsal (A hyphen would help)

Very much depends on the style. In an academic book I would use all the hyphens necessary, even at the risk of appearing pedantic. In a novel I might avoid the obvious ones. Not the ones I have used above, though, whether obvious or not.

 

[pontios]

Thank you, nickel.

You've explained it well (when/where hyphens are needed), and I think it's finally sinking in.

 

[nickel]

Ενωτικά για ακραίες χρήσεις:

short- to mid-term = βραχυμεσοπρόθεσμα
short- to mid- and long-term = βραχυμεσομακροπρόθεσμα

 

[Resident]

CMS guidelines for hyphenation

View attachment hyphenation table.pdf

Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for hyphenation