Re: "based" hyphenations

[Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET>]

David Dvorkin replied:

>> The normal rule in English is that a compound adjective--that is, an
>> adjective formed of two or more words--is hyphenated.  So yes,
>> browser-based and web-based.
>
>Not quite.  Compound adjectives are hyphenated when they precede
>the noun they modify but not if they follow it.

I've heard this in a bunch of places, but it just doesn't seem to be a true
rule of English.  Consider this sentence:

   Is this thing browser based or isn't it?

It's just plain weird without the hyphen.  It's not obvious how to parse it
until you've read the whole sentence and gone back, like a garden-path
sentence.  At first it looks like "thing browser" is the main noun phrase.
(Or substitute other reasonable words if this one doesn't confuse you.)
Here's the right way to punctuate it:

   Is this thing browser-based or isn't it?

So, I think it's just a myth that it matters whether the compound adjective
precedes or follows the noun.  What matters is making the sentence easy to
parse and making the punctuation give clues to the expected pronunciation.
We normally put a lot more stress on "browser" than "based", so it needs a
hyphen.

Another thing to think about is whether leaving out the hyphen would appear
unintentional to the reader.  You never want the reader to start doubting
that everything you write is deliberate, or you lose the reader's trust.
Sentence that are tricky to parse because of missing punctuation plant just
this sort of doubt in the reader's mind.

--
Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- chisp -dot- net>
Boulder, Colorado

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