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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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hyphen before "specific"?
noah little
33 Posts
(Offline)
1
2009/11/30 - 8:44am
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Time to ask y'all (now that I've spent too much time anyway not finding an answer to what I thought was a simple question).

Do you write "course-specific" or "course specific"? Or either?

Thanks!
N

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2
2009/11/30 - 9:58am
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Without doing vocabulary-specific research on it, I would say the use of a hyphen is context specific: as a compound adjective, as in an x-specific y, use a hyphen; as a predicate, as in x is y specific, omit the hyphen.

noah little
33 Posts
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3
2009/11/30 - 2:50pm
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Aha, thanks. I think I would tend to write without the hyphen, but I've been living in a hyphen-happy language culture (German-speaking Switzerland), so wondered if my hesitation was caused by that. Ach. They still look funny to me.

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4
2009/12/03 - 9:37am
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Glenn: I don't see the difference between your two examples. They both use "x-specific"/"x specific" as an adjective and I would use a hyphen in both cases.

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5
2009/12/03 - 12:07pm
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You are completely correct that both are adjectives. Grammatically, English makes a few distinctions when adjectives are used as predicates. Hyphenation is one of those distinctions: compound adjectives are generally not hypenated when used as predicates.

Sometimes there are other formal distinctions as well when adjectives are used as predicates:
(e.g. units singular vs. plural)
the two-year-old child … / This child is two years old.
the three-foot-long ruler … / This ruler is three feet long.
(e.g. can't be predicate)
the main reason / (NOT: This reason is main.)
the former president / (NOT: This president is former.)
(e.g. can only be predicate)
This boat is afloat. / (NOT: The afloat boat … )
This cheese is alone. / (NOT: The alone cheese …)

Guest
6
2009/12/03 - 12:15pm
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I see your point.

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