Bob Cunningham    664569 Thu, 18 Sep 03 07:01 AM On 22 March 2003, under the present subject line, in Message-ID: (Email Removed), I said in a discussion of common-sense hyphenation I've long felt that it should be conventional to hyphenate the modified term in a case like : "I lost the large computer-manual", but I haven't seen a style guide that endorses that convention. I've recently been happy to find that the Oxford Style Manual has the following to say about that very thing: 5.10.1 Compound Words Until recently in British English, the noun phrases themselves were routinely hyphenated to unify the sense: small scale-factory , white water-lily . Although such hyphenation is less common now, editors should leave it where it has been imposed consistently, as it can serve to avoid ambiguity. Bob Cunningham Nouns, British English, Hyphenation, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Colours, Punctuation, Languages, Styles, Phrases, Noun Phrases

	J. J. Lodder    664609 Thu, 18 Sep 03 08:26 AM In practice this is often too difficult to implement, for there is no algorithm available for doing the job. In many cases some understanding of meaning is necessary, and that is as yet beyond the reach of even the most ambitious AI programs. It requires human intervention. Best, Jan J. J. Lodder

	Jitze Couperus    664629 Thu, 18 Sep 03 09:25 AM "I've recently been happy to find that the Oxford Style Manual has the following to say about that ... less common now, editors should leave it where it has been imposed consistently, as it can serve to avoid ambiguity." But this is an excellent example (in my mind anyway) where such hyphenation has served to ambiguate it in the wrong direction. The example is cited: small scale-factory This tells me that it is a small (scale factory) i.e. the factory is associated with scales, and it is a small example of such a factory. A small factory that makes scales. Whereas a small-scale factory is a factory that is described as small-scale, or possibly one that manufactures small scales. The algorithm being that the modifier is hyphenated with the thing it is modifying... In this case it is the scale that is small and not the factory. The example white water-lily is fine because it is the lily that is associated with water. This compound entity is then described as white. It is not a lily associated with white water. My zwei pfennigs. Jitze Jitze Couperus Hyphenation, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Colours, Punctuation, Styles