And sometimes, I do this.
Friday, January 8, 2010 at 6:58AM From: Stasa
To: Erin
Subject: Hyphen or no hyphen?
Encourage prudent risk-taking.
From: Erin
To: Stasa
Subject: Re: Hyphen or no hyphen?
Hyphen
From: Stasa
To: Erin
Subject: Re: Hyphen or no hyphen?
NO way!!
Do you have time to briefly explain why? I was sure it was no hyphen, although I marked it initially with one. Thanks!
From: Erin
To: Stasa
Subject: Re: Hyphen or no hyphen?
It's a compound noun. Like compound adjectives, compound nouns require a hyphen so they will be linked and interpreted properly. Otherwise, you have prudent (the adjective) plus risk (the noun) plus taking (the verb), and it looks as though "prudent risk" is "taking" something somewhere. But what we really mean is that "risk-taking" is a thing in its own right and should be done prudently.
This is totally off the cuff*, by the way, but I'm pretty sure it's right. I can't find concrete support for it anywhere. I see it both ways on the Web, but neither way in the dictionary. Figures.
From: Stasa
To: Erin
Subject: Re: Hyphen or no hyphen?
Thank you! :)
And you’d think that would have been the end of it, right? But NO. I couldn’t let it go. It started to plague me (now I’m back on Poe, that brilliant drunkard). So, I started a whole, new thread, before Stasa had even responded to my last reply.
From: Erin
To: Stasa
Subject: Also
In this usage, "taking" is actually a gerund (the noun'ed-out form of a verb), so it's truly, truly a compound noun: noun+noun.
Still no hard-and-fast (hee hee hee) rule, though.
From: Stasa
To: Erin
Subject: Re:Also
Your head. :)
From: Erin
To: Stasa
Subject: Re: Also
Scary, freaking place, LG. Scary, freaking place.
I was also thinking that, unlike some compound nouns (dishwasher, bookstore), you really can't put "risktaking" together. It looks weird. And sometimes, with our language, that seems to be all it takes to create a rule. Only William Safire would know for sure, and he has left us.
Oh. My head. I think I'll put this whole exchange on my blog tomorrow.
In summary, lest anyone should think I have it easy, sitting here in my study, banging out words all day long…well, I don’t. Not really. Because look what it does to my mind. This is not normal or healthy. And I did all this with a four-year-old boy and a borderline personality-afflicted (that’s a compound something, for sure) German shorthaired pointer frisking about in the background.
And then, I obsessed over it for another hour, refining the explanation and sending it back to Stasa, in case anyone at work questioned her on it. (Because sometimes they do. Sheesh.)
Yes, I could do this all day; this grammar nonsense. The worst part is that it matters so much to me. Ah….send help. Send help!
* No, this does not require hyphenation. However, had I written, “This is a totally off-the-cuff** opinion,” it would have. Because, of course, that would have been a compound adjective, modifying the noun “opinion.”
** Note to self: Be extra careful when typing the word “cuff.”
Reader Comments (3)
However, what bugs me the most about this same project is "We exhibit a 'Can Do' attitude." OMG. Really HR? Initial caps for "can do"? Welcome to my world. Thanks, Sprout.
And you know what I'm going to say now, don't you? "Can-Do" should be hyphenated. It's a compound adjective, describing the noun "attitude."
Although, if we're capping the whole thing, I suppose convention has gone right out the window....
Yep. It needs a hyphen. Indeed. Sigh.