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From: Frederick Williams <frederick.williams2@tesco.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: How to hyphenate
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:31:12 +0100
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Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
>
> Frederick Williams wrote:
> > Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
> >> Frederick Williams wrote:
> >>> How would one hyphenate
> >>>
> >>> fifteen and a half year old
> >>>
> >>> if at all?
> >>>
> >> If it's an adjective it should, according to the guidelines for
> >> hyphenation, be done as follows "fifteen-and-a-half-year-old" but, to be
> >> honest, such hyphens are often left out.
> >>
> >> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
> >
> > Thank you. 'According to the guidelines for hyphenation' you write,
> > where are such guidelines to be found?
> >
> In various guides to usage, e.g. IIRc Michael Swan, Modern English
> Usage. At the askoxford.com website, which is run by the publishers of
> the Oxford English Dictionary ther is among other things the foll9owing
> guidance:
>
> When is it correct to use a hyphen?
>
> Hyphenation in English is highly variable, and in many contexts, it
> really doesn't matter. The Fowler brothers, first editors of the Concise
> Oxford Dictionary, wrote in their preface to the 1911 edition:
>
> We have also to admit that after trying hard at an early stage to
> arrive at some principle that should teach us when to separate, when to
> hyphen, and when to unite the parts of compound words, we had to abandon
> the attempt as hopeless, and welter in the prevailing chaos.
>
> The places where it does matter are summarized in the Oxford Pocket
> Fowler's Modern English Usage (2004), the most important being
>
> 1. to make clear the unifying of the sense in compound expressions
> such as punch-drunk, cost-benefit analysis, or weight-carrying, or
> compounds in attributive use (that is, in front of the noun), as in an
> up-to-date list or the well-known performer;
> 2. to join a prefix to a proper name (e.g. anti-Darwinian);
> 3. to avoid misunderstanding by distinguishing phrases such as
> twenty-odd people and twenty odd people, or a third-world conflict and a
> third world conflict;
> 4. to clarify the use of a prefix, as in recovering from an illness
> and re-covering an umbrella;
> 5. to clarify compounds with similar adjacent sounds, such as
> sword-dance, co-opt, tool-like.
> 6. to represent the use of a common element in a list of compounds,
> such as four-, six-, and eight-legged animals.
> 7. in dividing a word across a line-break. Guidance on word division
> is given in reference books such as the Oxford Colour Spelling
> Dictionary (1996).
>
> I hope that helps, Einde O'Callaghan
It does! Many thanks.
--
Which of the seven heavens / Was responsible her smile /
Wouldn't be sure but attested / That, whoever it was, a god /
Worth kneeling-to for a while / Had tabernacled and rested.
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