reluctance to hyphenate?

Question

Hi,I think I have seen more than few cases where people did not hyphenate those words with multiple nouns and people reading them seemed to take the practice as normal. Is it normal, acceptable or correct (possibly)?public library staff meeting  Why not? public-library staff meeting (is it because 'public library' should not be hyphenated in this situation?)annual conference preparation committee -- the adjectives seem to modify each other, so no hyphen is needed, IMO.    communications department personnel  Why not? communications-department personnel

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

My own philosophy in cases such as this is to hyphenate only when there's a possibility of misreading -- unless it all gets too ugly, in which case I'd rephrase the sentence.

So, I would hyphenate "public-library staff meeting" because otherwise it could (or would) mean a public meeting for library staff.

Likewise, "annual-conference preparation committee" because it is (presumably) a committee organising an annual conference, not a conference preparation committee that meets annually.

The third case is unambiguous so I would not hyphenate.

CalifJim · Answer

Always consult a dictionary to find out if a compound is hyphenated or written as one word or written as multiple words.

If it is a not listed there, it probably should not take a hyphen. This would be the case for the majority of multiple component compounds. They are written without hyphens.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you, but how can I go about checking if such a compound as "employment development" in "employment development agency" is hyphenated. My dictionary only seems to contain simple one or two-word entries and the list doesn't seem to be exhaustive enough to give me clear, solid help.

Mr Wordy · Answer

CalifJimAlways consult a dictionary to find out if a compound is hyphenated or written as one word or written as multiple words.If it is a not listed there, it probably should not take a hyphen. This would be the case for the majority of multiple component compounds. They are written without hyphens.

Sure, but dictionaries don't tell you when (or if) you should hyphenate compound modifiers. For example, "developing world" is not normally hyphenated, and wouldn't be shown as such in any dictionary, and yet I would certainly hyphenate "developing-world problems" if I meant "problems associated with the developing world". Other people may find this style fussy in the examples given earlier, but dictionaries are silent on the matter.

CalifJim · Answer

developing is a present participle. Do those ever attach to the following word with a hyphen?
I guess my tendency is not to use hyphens any more than necessary. "fussy", as you say.

My advice is for the writer to follow whatever style manual he or she feels comfortable with if the dictionary doesn't solve the problem. I doubt there is one single solution that all editors agree upon when it comes to hyphens.
CJ

Mr Wordy · Answer

CalifJim I doubt there is one single solution that all editors agree upon when it comes to hyphens.

I agree. I suspect that many style guides that address this issue will say something like the Texas Law Review Manual of Style (which I randomly found quoted via Google) does: "When two or more [normally unhyphenated] words are combined to form a modifier immediately preceding a noun, join the words by hyphens if doing so will significantly aid the reader in recognizing the compound adjective".

This leaves it to the writer's judgement to decide whether there is any significant risk of confusion without the hyphen. For example, without a hyphen, "What can we do about developing world problems?" is talking about world problems that are developing. With the hyphen, "What can we do about developing-world problems?" is talking about problems in the developing world. This is, to me, a clear-cut case of a hyphen being required. At the other extreme, even though "high school student" theoretically could mean a school student who is high, this interpretation is so unlikely that I doubt anyone would see the need for a hyphen. The middle ground -- which IMO includes the examples originally given -- is a grey area.

reluctance to hyphenate?

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