Compound modifier

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A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words: that is, two or more words that collectively modify a noun. Compound modifiers are grammatically equivalent to single-word modifiers and can be used in combination with other modifiers. (In the preceding sentence, "single-word" is itself a compound modifier.)

Contents

The constituents of compound modifiers need not be adjectives; combinations of nouns, determiners, and other parts of speech are also common. For example, man-eating (shark) and one-way (street). The punctuation of compound modifiers in English depends on their grammatical role. Attributive compounds—modifiers within the noun phrase—are typically hyphenated, whereas the same compounds used as predicates are typically not (if they are temporary compounds), unless they are permanent compounds attested as dictionary headwords.

Compound adjectives

Words that function as compound adjectives may modify a noun or a noun phrase. Take the English examples heavy metal detector and heavy-metal detector. The former example contains only the bare adjective heavy to describe a device that is properly written as metal detector; the latter example contains the phrase heavy-metal, which is a compound noun that is ordinarily rendered as heavy metal absent an accompanying adjective. In the latter example, however, heavy-metal functions as a compound adjective that modifies the noun detector.

Note that whether a word sequence such as "heavy + metal + detector" implies a compound adjective + noun or bare adjective + compound noun depends on the punctuation. For instance, heavy-metal detector and heavy metal detector can refer to quite different things: heavy-metal detector implies a device that detects heavy metals (wherein heavy-metal functions as a compound adjective that modifies the noun detector). By contrast, heavy metal detector, without the hyphen, refers to a metal detector that is heavy. Heavy is a bare adjective that modifies the compound noun metal detector. Thus, heavy metal detector is a bare adjective + compound noun sequence. [1]

A strategy to avoid conflation of compound adjective + noun versus bare adjective + compound noun sequences is to clearly distinguish the usage of an attributive adjective and a noun adjunct. Accordingly, the phrase heavy metallic detector unequivocally employs a compound adjective to describe a weighty detector made of metal.

Hyphenation of elements in English

Conventionally, and with the support of modern writing guides, compound modifiers that appear before a noun phrase should include a hyphen between each word, subject to certain exceptions. Hyphens are used in this way to prevent confusion; without their use, a reader might interpret the words separately, rather than as a phrase. Hyphens join the relevant words into a single idea, a compound adjective.

A compound modifier that is spaced rather than hyphenated is referred to as an open compound. [2]

When a numeral and a noun are used in a compound modifier that precedes a noun, the noun takes the singular form. For example, the 2021 Belmont Stakes was a "12-furlong race" and an "eight-horse race", but not a "12-furlongs race" or an "eight-horses race".

Exceptions

Major style guides advise consulting a dictionary to determine whether a compound adjective should be hyphenated; compounds entered as dictionary headwords are permanent compounds, and for these, the dictionary's hyphenation should be followed even when the compound adjective precedes a noun. [3] [4] [5] According to some guides, hyphens are unnecessary in familiar compounds used as adjectives "where no ambiguity could result", [6] while other guides suggest using hyphens "generally" in such compounds used as adjectives before nouns. [7]

It may be appropriate to distinguish between compound modifiers whose adverb has the suffix -ly , such as quickly and badly, and those whose adverb does not, such as well. [8] [9] The -ly suffix on an adverb allows readers to understand its lexical category (if not in the technical sense, then at least in the sense of the intended meaning), showing that it is intended to modify the adjective that it precedes and so not requiring hyphenation. [10] Quickly and badly are unambiguously adverbs.

Other adverbs (such as well) can commonly be used as adjectives; these adverbs without the -ly suffix therefore commonly take a hyphen. For example, one could speak of a well-known actress or a little-known actress. If the compound modifier that would otherwise be hyphenated is changed to a post-modifier—one which is located after the modified noun phrase—then the hyphen is conventionally not necessary: the actress is well known.

Finally, the word very in a compound modifier is generally not accompanied by a hyphen. [11] 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. [12]

Examples

Other languages

Hungarian

Hungarian orthography describes three types of this modification in spelling, as described in the main article.

Japanese

Japanese adjectives can compound. This is quite common for na-adjectives, which function essentially as attributive noun phrases, while it is relatively uncommon for i-adjectives, and is much less common than Japanese compound verbs. Common examples include omo-shiro-i (面白い, interesting) "face-whitening" (noun + i-adjective) and zuru-gashiko-i (狡賢い, sly) "crafty-clever" (i-adjective stem + i-adjective).

See also

Related Research Articles

In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an object or subject within a phrase, clause, or sentence.

An adjective is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.

An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how, in what way, when, where, to what extent. This is called the adverbial function and may be performed by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses.

The hyphen‐ is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. Son-in-law is an example of a hyphenated word.

An adjective phrase is a phrase whose head is an adjective. Almost any grammar or syntax textbook or dictionary of linguistics terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar way, e.g. Kesner Bland (1996:499), Crystal (1996:9), Greenbaum (1996:288ff.), Haegeman and Guéron (1999:70f.), Brinton (2000:172f.), Jurafsky and Martin (2000:362). The adjective can initiate the phrase, conclude the phrase, or appear in a medial position. The dependents of the head adjective—i.e. the other words and phrases inside the adjective phrase—are typically adverb or prepositional phrases, but they can also be clauses. Adjectives and adjective phrases function in two basic ways, attributively or predicatively. An attributive adjective (phrase) precedes the noun of a noun phrase. A predicative adjective (phrase) follows a linking verb and serves to describe the preceding subject, e.g. The man is very happy.

In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which modifies the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", providing extra details about which particular ball is being referred to. Similarly, the adverb "quickly" acts as a modifier in the verb phrase "run quickly". Modification can be considered a high-level domain of the functions of language, on par with predication and reference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English compound</span> Aspect of English grammar

A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme. The English language, like many others, uses compounds frequently. English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word classes or the semantic relationship of their components.

In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. If the joining of the words or signs is orthographically represented with a hyphen, the result is a hyphenated compound. If they are joined without an intervening space, it is a closed compound. If they are joined with a space, then the result – at least in English – may be an open compound.

Title case or headline case is a style of capitalization used for rendering the titles of published works or works of art in English. When using title case, all words are capitalized, except for minor words that are not the first or last word of the title. There are different rules for which words are major, hence capitalized. As an example, a headline might be written like this: "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog".

In linguistics, an adverbial phrase ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divided into two types: complement adverbs and modifier adverbs. For example, in the sentence She sang very well, the expression very well is an adverbial phrase, as it modifies the verb to sing. More specifically, the adverbial phrase very well contains two adverbs, very and well: while well modifies the verb to convey information about the manner of singing, very is a degree modifier that conveys information about the degree to which the action of singing well was accomplished.

In grammar, a noun adjunct, attributive noun, qualifying noun, noun (pre)modifier, or apposite noun is an optional noun that modifies another noun; functioning similarly to an adjective, it is, more specifically, a noun functioning as a pre-modifier in a noun phrase. For example, in the phrase "chicken soup" the noun adjunct "chicken" modifies the noun "soup". It is irrelevant whether the resulting compound noun is spelled in one or two parts. "Field" is a noun adjunct in both "field player" and "fieldhouse".

Hungarian orthography consists of rules defining the standard written form of the Hungarian language. It includes the spelling of lexical words, proper nouns and foreign words (loanwords) in themselves, with suffixes, and in compounds, as well as the hyphenation of words, punctuation, abbreviations, collation, and other information.

A postpositive adjective or postnominal adjective is an adjective that is placed after the noun or pronoun that it modifies, as in noun phrases such as attorney general, queen regnant, or all matters financial. This contrasts with prepositive adjectives, which come before the noun or pronoun, as in noun phrases such as red rose, lucky contestant, or busy bees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English adverbs</span>

English adverbs are words such as so, just, how, well, also, very, even, only, really, and why that head adverb phrases, and whose most typical members function as modifiers in verb phrases and clauses, along with adjective and adverb phrases. The category is highly heterogeneous, but a large number of the very typical members are derived from adjectives + the suffix -ly and modify any word, phrase or clause other than a noun. Adverbs form an open lexical category in English. They do not typically license or function as complements in other phrases. Semantically, they are again highly various, denoting manner, degree, duration, frequency, domain, modality, and much more.

The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the en dash–, generally longer than the hyphen but shorter than the minus sign; the em dash—, longer than either the en dash or the minus sign; and the horizontal bar―, whose length varies across typefaces but tends to be between those of the en and em dashes.

An attributive verb is a verb that modifies a noun in the manner of an attributive adjective, rather than express an independent idea as a predicate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English nouns</span> Part of speech

English nouns form the largest category of words in English, both in terms of the number of different words and in terms of how often they are used in typical texts. The three main categories of English nouns are common nouns, proper nouns, and pronouns. A defining feature of English nouns is their ability to inflect for number, as through the plural –s morpheme. English nouns primarily function as the heads of noun phrases, which prototypically function at the clause level as subjects, objects, and predicative complements. These phrases are the only English phrases whose structure includes determinatives and predeterminatives, which add abstract specifying meaning such as definiteness and proximity. Like nouns in general, English nouns typically denote physical objects, but they also denote actions, characteristics, relations in space, and just about anything at all. Taken all together, these features separate English nouns from the language's other lexical categories, such as adjectives and verbs.

An expletive attributive is an adjective or adverb that does not contribute to the meaning of a sentence, but is used to intensify its emotional force. Often such words or phrases are regarded as profanity or "bad language", though there are also inoffensive expletive attributives. The word is derived from the Latin verb explere, meaning "to fill", and it was originally introduced into English in the 17th century for various kinds of padding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English determiners</span> Determiners in the English language

English determiners are words – such as the, a, each, some, which, this, and numerals such as six – that are most commonly used with nouns to specify their referents. The determiners form a closed lexical category in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English adjectives</span> Adjectives in the English language

English adjectives form a large open category of words in English which, semantically, tend to denote properties such as size, colour, mood, quality, age, etc. with such members as other, big, new, good, different, Cuban, sure, important, and right. Adjectives head adjective phrases, and the most typical members function as modifiers in noun phrases. Most adjectives either inflect for grade or combine with more and most to form comparatives and superlatives. They are characteristically modifiable by very. A large number of the most typical members combine with the suffix -ly to form adverbs. Most adjectives function as complements in verb phrases, and some license complements of their own.

References

  1. ↑ Shrives, Craig. "Hyphens in compound adjectives". www.grammar-monster.com. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  2. ↑ Kramer, Lindsay (August 18, 2021). "What Are Compound Adjectives?". Grammarly .
  3. ↑ VandenBos, Gary R., ed. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). American Psychological Association. section 4.13. ISBN   978-1-4338-0559-2. Hyphenation. Compound words take many forms. [...] The dictionary is an excellent guide for such decisions. [...] When a compound can be found in the dictionary, its usage is established and it is known as a permanent compound.
  4. ↑ The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). University of Chicago Press. 2010. section 7.85. ISBN   978-0-226-10420-1. In general, Chicago prefers a spare hyphenation style: if no suitable example or analogy can be found either in this section or in the dictionary, hyphenate only if doing so will aid readability
  5. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors. Merriam Webster. 1998. p. 73. ISBN   978-0-87779-622-0. Permanent compound adjectives are usually written as they appear in the dictionary even when they follow the noun they modify
  6. ↑ The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). University of Chicago Press. 2010. section 7.80. ISBN   978-0-226-10420-1. Where no ambiguity could result, as in public welfare administration or graduate student housing, hyphenation is unnecessary
  7. ↑ Waddingham, Anne (2014). New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 59. ISBN   9780199570027. a compound expression preceding the noun is generally hyphenated when it forms a unit modifying the noun
  8. ↑ Hyphens – Punctuation Rules, GrammarBook.com
  9. ↑ Guardian and Observer Style Guide (see section on adverbs)
  10. ↑ "Spelling and Hyphenation". Northeastern University Guidelines. Northeastern University. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
  11. ↑ Compound Modifiers, DailyWritingTips.com
  12. ↑ Compound Modifiers, Writing.com
  13. ↑ This example was taken from The Chicago Manual of Style , to show how "when a compound noun is an element of a phrasal adjective, the entire compound noun must be hyphenated to clarify the relationship among the words." See: The Chicago Manual of Style (fifteenth ed.). 2003.

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