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nobbyken
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Location: Yongin ^^
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 Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject: Punctuation; when to use the '-' . |
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Hi,
When and where is the most grammatically correct place to use the '-' or hyphen.
For example:
13 year old boat.
13-year-old boat.
13 year-old boat
Resign or re-sign.
Or simply just to insert a sentence-which gives the sentence more meaning-into another sentence.
Thanks,
Ken |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject: Re: Punctuation; when to use the '-' . |
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| nobbyken wrote: |
Hi,
When and where is the most grammatically correct place to use the '-' or hyphen.
Resign or re-sign.
Thanks,
Ken |
This one bugs me completely. They are in effect the complete opposite of each other, so I've taken to using:
resign (to mean intention to quit)
and re-new (to mean intention to do another contract).
Sorry, I'm no help, but I've got free time on my hands at work so I thought I'd chime in.  |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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See wikipedia's entry on compound modifiers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_modifier
| Quote: |
| Hyphens help prevent confusion; otherwise, a reader might interpret the words separately, rather than as a phrase. One or more hyphens join the words into a single idea. |
People aren't too strict with it anymore, and I see my students' textbooks all over the place with hyphens. I love hyphens, though, and am a stickler.
I was taught in journalism class to use "13-year-old boat." 13 year-old boat is ambiguous and could mean that there are 13 boats that are a year old.
Here are a few examples from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen )
| Quote: |
disease-causing poor nutrition, meaning poor nutrition that causes disease
disease causing poor nutrition, meaning a disease that causes poor nutrition
a man-eating shark is a shark that eats humans
a man eating shark is a man who is eating shark meat
a blue green sea is a contradiction
a blue-green sea is a sea whose colour is somewhere between blue and green |
More under "examples of usage." |
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Colorado
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Location: Public School with too much time on my hands.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:31 pm Post subject: Re: Punctuation; when to use the '-' . |
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| xtchr wrote: |
| nobbyken wrote: |
Hi,
When and where is the most grammatically correct place to use the '-' or hyphen.
Resign or re-sign.
Thanks,
Ken |
This one bugs me completely. They are in effect the complete opposite of each other, so I've taken to using:
resign (to mean intention to quit)
and re-new (to mean intention to do another contract).
Sorry, I'm no help, but I've got free time on my hands at work so I thought I'd chime in. |
No, you're right. You don't re-sign a contract, you renew it. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:15 pm Post subject: Re: Punctuation; when to use the '-' . |
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| Colorado wrote: |
| xtchr wrote: |
| nobbyken wrote: |
Hi,
When and where is the most grammatically correct place to use the '-' or hyphen.
Resign or re-sign.
Thanks,
Ken |
This one bugs me completely. They are in effect the complete opposite of each other, so I've taken to using:
resign (to mean intention to quit)
and re-new (to mean intention to do another contract).
Sorry, I'm no help, but I've got free time on my hands at work so I thought I'd chime in. |
No, you're right. You don't re-sign a contract, you renew it. |
No, you don't re-sign, or sign again, the same contract, but you can re-sign with the same school. As resign and re-sign have near-opposte meanings, be careful to use them correctly.
While you might renew a contract, the word "re-new" does not exist.
Regarding hyphenated adjectives, Smee is totally correct. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Smee wrote: |
13 year-old boat is ambiguous and could mean that there are 13 boats that are a year old.
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I'm sorry; I really fail to see how anyone could be confused about this  |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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| blade wrote: |
| Smee wrote: |
13 year-old boat is ambiguous and could mean that there are 13 boats that are a year old.
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I'm sorry; I really fail to see how anyone could be confused about this |
Possibly if he had written "13 year-old boats" it could mean 13 one-year-old boats, but certainly in the singular there should be no confusion.
I should have said Smee is almost totally correct. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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| yes, nowadays people mostly rely on context to figure out the meaning, so you probably won't be confused by 13 year old boat regardless of how many hyphens are there. But, the logic behind using hyphens is to avoid ambiguity, as you can see from the examples on wikipedia. |
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