Another lesson in hyphenating phrasal adjectives
A couple of weeks ago, a headline in a law-oriented magazine prompted me to write on the importance of hyphenating phrasal adjectives. Today a different headline teaches the same lesson more vividly, and this time, the headline writer gets it right. From the Onion:
Without the hyphens, diseased and deformed would describe the author. But the hyphens make clear that those words modify animal.
They are useful, it's true. But wouldn't it be better to say "I'm a lover of diseased and deformed animals?
Posted by: Angela Harms | 14 July 2008 at 11:42 AM
That’s a good rewrite. Better yet, “I love diseased and deformed animals.” Make the verb express the action in the sentence.
Posted by: Ray Ward | 14 July 2008 at 07:41 PM
How would you hypenate a compound adjective that includes a two-word proper noun?
Would you write "Nebula-Award-winning author" or "Nebula Award-winning author"?
I suppose "five-year-old child" is a precedent for the former, but it feels wrong to me to hyphenate a multi-word proper noun that isn't normally hyphenated.
However consider the hypothetical Beastly Awards. A sentence could begin, "Beastly Award-winning authors include..."
Posted by: Paul | 26 July 2008 at 12:36 AM