Hyphen after ly, sometimes?

Question

Question: which is correct?Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades.OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades.I've been going a little hyphen crazy lately and I remember reading somewhere about not using a hyphen after an -ly adverb, but I feel this needs it. Please let me know which is correct. Thanks!AEF

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades.[/nq]
Why not:
Cancel those trades that were incorrectly priced.
(This is not a rhetorical question. We generally
prefer good standard English to jargon, but
when writing solely for professional readers AEF
may have good reason to prefer business jargon.)

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades.[/nq]
[nq:1]Why not: Cancel those trades that were incorrectly priced. (This is not a rhetorical question. We generally prefer good standard ... solely for professional readers AEF may have good reason to prefer business jargon.) Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)[/nq]
Why not? Because I want to do minimal editing of someone else's work. Also, there must be a correct way to do this. Here's another example:

"We gave gifts to the happily married couple."
Does it need a hyphen?
Would you rewrite this as, "We gave gifts to the couple who was happily married"? I think not.
Thanks for your help.
AEF

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades. I've been going a little hyphen ... a hyphen after an -ly adverb, but I feel this needs it. Please let me know which is correct. Thanks![/nq]
I'd leave it out.
Adrian

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades. I've been going a little hyphen ... a hyphen after an -ly adverb, but I feel this needs it. Please let me know which is correct. Thanks![/nq]
There are rules for this, strange as it may seem. Rules based on usage, not just someone's view of how things ought to be. The basic rule is that you use a hyphen to make clear that the first word of the phrase modifies the second word, not the final noun. It applies to -ly words as to all others. It's used almost exclusively where the -ly word can be understood as both adjective and adverb.
Indeed, examples where the hyphen is mandatory after a -ly word are not that easy to come by. Almost all instances can do without. Yours, for example, doesn't require a hyphen there's no such thing as an "incorrectly trade." But consider this one: "A silly-behaving child should be told to act more seriously." If you left out the hyphen, the reader might for a moment think you were talking about a "behaving child" that was silly in some fashion.

Not perhaps an ideal example, but, to repeat, really good ones are hard to come by. Best practice is to presume that no hyphen is needed but keep your mind's ear alert for something odd, like "lovely looking girl." Again, it's easily decoded, but hyphenating it "lovely-looking girl" avoids the momentary twinge for the reader of trying to figure out what a "looking girl" is.
So, the rule for the hyphen after a -ly word is: When in doubt, omit. But don't be afraid to use it when even a moment's confusion might result otherwise.

Bob Lieblich
Hyphenator to the Stars

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel the incorrectly priced trades.[/nq]
[nq:1]There are rules for this, strange as it may seem . . . .[/nq]
To slightly generalize what Bob said, the rule is simple: insert a hyphen between words when omitting it could cause confusion; otherwise, don't.
But there are a couple of points to remember. First, "confusion" needs to be interpreted expansively. Very often, either a re-reading of the sentence, or its context, or both will provide the intended meaning, but that does not excuse the hyphen from its duty, because even the tiniest stumble at first reading the linguistic equivalent of a small speed bump is, when easily avoidable, an insult to the reader, as well as a reduction in the effectiveness of the idea being expressed.

Second, a rule is only useful if it really *is* a rule : we cannot send the hyphen packing just because we "feel" that the intended sense is "obvious": we have to use it whenever there is even a small, theoretical possibility of mis-interpretation, for the good reason that the absence of a hyphen can be as meaningful as its presence. If we cannot be sure that both presence and absence are being controlled by definite rule, we seriously weaken the hyphen's ability to help us make our meaning clear.When we place two or more modifiers in front of a noun, we need to make clear to our readers whether those modifiers are acting independently, are interacting (that is, one or more is adverbial), or are fusing their meanings. If we requisition a supply of "yellow window envelopes", we should expect to receive envelopes that are yellow and have a window (the cutout that shows an address printed on whatever is in the envelope), though we do not know what color the window (typically covered with transparent plastic that may be tinted) will be; but if we ask instead for "yellow-window envelopes", we should expect envelopes whose color is not specified but whose windows are covered with yellow-tinted plastic.

And we must write "a single-stick expert", not "a single stick expert" when describing one adept in the use of that weapon.
Words that are uniquely adverbial do not need the hyphen because they cannot possibly be modifiers of the following noun. Because most words ending in -ly are uniquely adverbial, the rule of thumb is to not hyphenate after them, but a word ending in -ly that is not uniquely an adverb will need a following hyphen (as Bob rightly notes, examples are scarce). Conversely, a word not ending in -ly that is an adverb but not uniquely so also wants a hyphen (for example, "well" when coupled with a past participle is invariably hyphenated: a well-spoken man, a well-designed machine.)
But the principle of avoiding confusion has further extensions: as Follett points out, there is quite a difference between a dancing girl and a dancing-girl, and there are other cases in which our understanding of whether a word is an adjective or part of a compound noun comes chielfy from hyphenation or the absence of it. (But the hyphen is not needed when the words of a compound are essentially just adding together their separate meanings, as in "movie theater".) And some words need to be broken when the unbroken form means something else: re-create vs. recreate; re-pose vs. repose.
We also use it where the possible "confusion" would be just a sort of mental stuttering owing to an unfelicitous combination of prefix and root: "non-operative". for example, instead of "nonoperative".

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Question: which is correct? Cancel the incorrectly-priced trades. OR Cancel ... needs it. Please let me know which is correct. Thanks![/nq]
[nq:1]There are rules for this, strange as it may seem. Rules based on usage, not just someone's view of how ... be afraid to use it when even a moment's confusion might result otherwise. Bob Lieblich Hyphenator to the Stars[/nq]
Sounds good. Thanks Mr. Hyphenator!
AEF

Hyphen after ly, sometimes?

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