Re: Hyphen crisis

good_man <good_man_101@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I came across this in a newspaper which does not fit the rule you just
described:

"higher fuel-economy standards for cars"

Here I guess they are talking about higher economy of fuel. Why aren't
they using a hyphen after "higher"?

"Higher" modifies "standards." It means, higher standards for "fuel
economy," the last two words being the ones tied together. The speaker
should be talking about setting higher standards.

"Higher-roof standards" would mean standards advocating higher roofs.
"Higher roof-standards" would mean higher standards for roofs in general

Someone must have discussed this in a web page somewhere... The Guide to
Grammar and Writing recommends this page:

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/copyXediting/Hyphens.html
Hyphens
New York University
Sonia Jaffe Robbins, Editing Workshop

It lists a whole bunch of rules for forming these compounds. I haven't
looked closely at them so I can't vouch for their accuracy or
usefulness.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux

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