Talk:Compound modifier

Contradiction

"According to modern writing guides, compound modifiers require a hyphen between each word ..." That isn't very consistent with the Compound modifier#Exceptions paragraph, which lists modern writing guides that don't have that requirement, and situations where that requirement doesn't apply at all. Art LaPella (talk) 15:27, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just added a "generally" and a note to see the exceptions. Gmalivuk (talk) 15:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Thank you. Art LaPella (talk) 20:13, 18 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editing is finished, now I have some questions

I have done what I can to improve this article, but it still needs a little bit more attention from others, in my judgement.

In the context, was I correct in stating that "Grammatically, there is no difference between hot metal and white-hot metal"? Do you think that this line should be rephrased?

Can anyone provide information on compound modifiers with more layers – something along the lines of the following...?

<compound modifier one>–<compound modifier two> <noun phrase>

I mean the type which require en dashes to distinguish layers.

X<hyphen>Y<en dash>A<hyphen>B

Hopefully someone understands this.

And finally, of no real importance, why are titles and subtitles given in sentence case on Wikipedia? Page titles I understand, but subtitles seem more arguable. I couldn't really find a reason on the Manual of Style. ―Sakrotac (talk) 23:55, 16 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

On my sentence case edit, I won't argue whether the Manual of Style is "correct", but my edit summary links to Wikipedia:Manual of Style (capital letters)#Section headings. Does that answer your question? Art LaPella (talk) 02:24, 18 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is a compound one word, or is it one or more words?

The lead says: "A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words", with "compound" linking to the article English compound that states: "A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme." That's obviously contradictory. Either a compound is one or more words, or it's one word; it can't be both. Unless there are two distinct meanings of "compound" in linguistics, in which case that should be carefully explained and the two different meanings precisely distinguished between. --Jhertel (talk) 13:05, 17 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Compound adjectives

Can you suggest the readers the list of frequently used compound adjectives ? Tagoresamp (talk) 07:21, 28 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Combine Exceptions Sections

It doesn't make sense to have two. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.142.39.68 (talk) 08:53, 19 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I moved this section here to emphasize the fact that it has not been addressed, and I just wanted to create such a section now. Natematic (talk) 10:33, 29 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. I have merged the two sections. Andy Smith (talk) 19:24, 15 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Problematic example 'college-football-halftime controversy'

This change introduced this example:

"College-football-halftime controversy (as opposed to college-football halftime controversy, a controversy occurring during the halftime of a college-football match)"

While it is nice to see a more complex example (more hyphens), I see several problems with it:

1) Claiming a correct spelling of it goes against this claim mentioned just before the list: "Where both (or all) of the words in a compound modifier are nouns, it is seen as not necessary to hyphenate them, as misunderstanding is unlikely." Apparently the Chicago Manual of Style disagrees with that claim, but we have to be consistent in the article, or at least mention that there are two distinct spellings of terms like "college-football-halftime controversy" which are each considered correct/uncorrect by different authorities (mentioning who these authorities are).

2) It is unlike all the other examples in the same list. The other examples very clearly show why a hyphen is needed to avoid misunderstandings. This example doesn't.

3) It is unclear what the other meaning of "college-football-halftime controversy" should even be, if not the mentioned "a controversy occurring during the halftime of a college-football match". The point of the other examples in the list is to show why hyphens are added only in some cases to avoid misunderstanding. But there is no misunderstanding possible for "college-football-halftime controversy" – unless I am missing another possible meaning (?), in which case an explanation would be needed also in the article about the difference in meaning between "college-football-halftime controversy" and "college-football halftime controversy".

The example is therefore quite confusing for me as a reader, especially in that specific list. I believe it should either be removed completely, or at least be removed from the list and mentioned somewhere else, as it doesn't belong there (because it belongs to another class of examples). But the other problems mentioned (1+3) still apply even if it is removed from that list and placed somewhere else; an explanation of the example, including a mention of the disagreement between authorities regarding its spelling, would be needed.

--Jhertel (talk) 23:50, 11 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]