By David Ettinger
Grammar Stuff
I’ve written some pretty heavy blogs lately, so I want to toss in this lighter offering which you may enjoy. And you will enjoy it if you’re a “grammar person.”
I work at a Christian ministry in Orlando, Florida, called Zion’s Hope (check out our website here). I am the staff writer, as well as an editor and teacher.
Every year we sell 1, and sometimes 2, Christmas cards which we design ourselves. They are of the highest quality, and always include an evangelical message. (You can find them on our website – why not order bunches of them here?)
In advertising the cards in our brochures, website, magazine, and e-mails, we always refer to them as “Limited Edition” Christmas cards. But a colleague and I insist the phrase should be “Limited-Edition” Christmas cards. The difference, of course, is the hyphen.
The Issue
The reason why my colleague and I fight for the hyphen is that the term “Limited-Edition” when used with a noun (as is “Christmas card”), is a compound modifier. A modifier in grammar is a word which describes a noun. For instance, I have a car. In fact, I have a white car. The word “white” is a modifier, explaining, or describing, something about the car.
Sometimes, however, two words are required to describe a noun. For instance, the worst team in a sports league is often said to “dwell in the cellar.” Therefore, in my old sports-writing days, I would say of my alma-mater’s horrible football team, “the cellar-dwelling New Mexico State University Aggies.”
You see, it took two words to make one thought. They are not the “cellar” Aggies; nor are they the “dwelling” Aggies. Individually, those terms can’t stand alone; it takes a combination of both to create the one thought, and the hyphen is what links them.
Ditto with our “Limited Edition” Christmas cards. They are not “limited” cards; nor are they “edition” cards. They are “Limited-Edition” cards – a compound modifier which REQUIRES a hyphen. Harrumph!
So, why every year – despite this indisputable logic – do the cards get advertised as “Limited Edition” cards WITHOUT the hyphen? The reason is simple: The third editor is the wife of the ministry’s founder, and she wants it this way!
This certainly makes for a blood-boiling, nerve-grinding, logic-twisting, gut-wrenching, nail-biting, hair-pulling, grammar-mutilating set of circumstances.
Bah humbug!
seekingdivineperspective
October 15, 2020
Ha! Love the tirade of hyphenated insults at the end.
Maybe the non-hyphenated modifiers are somewhere in “No Man’s Land,” since if they both modified the noun they’d come with a comma: “limited, edition cards”?
(Retired English Teacher)
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
I love that you called it a tirade! A hypen-omitted tirade.
Regarding your last statement, I think that’s the key. My argument is that each of the two words did not describe the card; it took both of them together to describe the card, hence the hyphen to indicate that.
It was a single-thought-indicator hyphen!!!
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Blue Collar Theologian
October 15, 2020
Humor is good for the soul!
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
I thought it was a good time for a humor-filled, brilliantly-written, thought-provoking, intellectually-challenging blog on hyphens and compound modifiers!!!
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Blue Collar Theologian
October 15, 2020
That is talent!!!
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
Or just a lot of hot wind transferred to my keyboard!
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Tom
October 15, 2020
Ha! Thanks for the levity, David. When they taught us sentence structure and punctuation in grammar school and high school English class, my eyes always glazed over. I’m certain you remember the “Little, Brown Handbook.” That was a huge help in my college days back in the late-70s. I wrote many term papers on my typewriter with that book right next to me. If I made a mistake, I had to go back and correct the error with “white out.” Kids today just don’t know.
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
Hah, the white-out, I remember it well … and used it often! And who can forget the “Little, Brown Handbook”!
Yeah, today’s whippersanppers have no idea how easy they have it. (Yes, I have become my great-grandfather!)
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Blue Collar Theologian
October 15, 2020
I am 39, I can’t imagine typewriter/keyboard life without automatic delete! I would have hated writing! Thanks for sharing this!
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
Yep, you’re just another whippersnapper. You don’t know the traumas we faced in the ancient 1970s. Changing typewriter ribbons were agonizing and soul-crushing experiences. Count your blessings, junior!
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Tom
October 15, 2020
Thanks, Mandy. I started night school classes in the late 70s using an electric typewriter and the college library, took a very long break and completed my degree in the late 90s/early 00s using a PC, Word, and the internet. I can’t adequately describe the wonderful difference.
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Angel at Watchyourlifeinpictures
October 15, 2020
I’ll go with you on the hyphen.
But I’m big on the Oxford comma also.
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
The Oxford comma? Not familiar with it. Heading to the Internet to find out.
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
Okay, just looked it up. I didn’t know that’s what it was called. During my newspaper days, we didn’t use it. However, when I came to Zion’s Hope, the Oxford comma was, and is, the rule. I like it much better as it helps bring more clarity to lists.
I’m with you on this issue!
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vicklea
October 15, 2020
LOL! I’m a Grammar Nazi so I would like the hyphen, also.
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dettinger47
October 15, 2020
Any self-respecting, grammar-loving writer/editor would!
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