docs/114265: grammar and other nits in handbook/basics section

[Ben Kaduk]

The following reply was made to PR docs/114265; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Ben Kaduk" <minimarmot at gmail.com>
To: "Marc Fonvieille" <blackend at freebsd.org>
Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: docs/114265: grammar and other nits in handbook/basics section
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 15:42:11 +0000

 On 7/4/07, Marc Fonvieille <blackend at freebsd.org> wrote:
 > On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 07:12:15PM +0000, Ben Kaduk wrote:
 > >
 > > >Number:         114265
 > > >Category:       docs
 > > >Synopsis:       grammar and other nits in handbook/basics section
 > > >Confidential:   no
 > > >Severity:       non-critical
 > > >Priority:       low
 > > >Responsible:    freebsd-doc
 > > >State:          open
 > > >Quarter:
 > > >Keywords:
 > > >Date-Required:
 > > >Class:          doc-bug
 > > >Submitter-Id:   current-users
 > > >Arrival-Date:   Tue Jul 03 19:20:00 GMT 2007
 > > >Closed-Date:
 > > >Last-Modified:
 > > >Originator:     Ben Kaduk
 > > >Release:        7.0-CURRENT
 > > >Organization:
 > > >Environment:
 > > System: FreeBSD prolepsis.scs.uiuc.edu 7.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT #1: Sun Apr 1 16:59:00 UTC 2007 kaduk at prolepsis.scs.uiuc.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386
 > > >Description:
 > > I attach a diff with many small changes in it; I'll take them in order.
 > >
 [snip]
 > >
 > > o colon separated-->colon-separated (twice): style?
 > >
 > [...]
 >
 > Hello,
 >
 > I cannot find any reference for this one, do you have some links about
 > this usage?
 >
 > --
 > Marc
 >
 Hi Marc,
 
 Well, the most convenient reference for me is the MLA handbook (6th
 ed.) (about three feet away), which sayeth:
 3.2.6 Hyphens
 Compound words of all types -- nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on --
 are written as separate words, with hypens, and as single words.  The
 dictionary shows how to write many compounds; if a compound is not in
 the dictionary, it should usually be written as separate words unless
 a hyphen is needed to prevent readers from misunderstanding the
 relation between the words.  Following are some rules that may help
 you decide...:
 (a) use a hyphen in a compound adjective beginning with an adverb such
 as better, best, ill, lower, little, or well when the adjective
 precedes a noun.
 But do not use a hyphen when the compound adjective comes after the
 noun it modifies
 (b) Do not use a hyphen when the compound adjective comes after the
 noun it modifies.
 (c) Use a hyphen in a compound adjective ending with the present
 participle (e.g. loving) or the past participle (e.g. inspired) of a
 verb when the adjective precedes a noun.
 (d) [numerical prefixes]
 (e) Use hyphens in other compound adjectives before nouns to prevent misreading.
 (f) Do not use hyphens in familiar unhyphenated compound terms such as
 social security, high school, liberal arts, and show business, when
 they appear before nouns as modifiers.
 (g) [join coequal nouns]
 [but not unequal nouns]
 (h) [not after prefixes, usually]
 
 In this case, colon-separated list, I am not sure if separated is
 acting as past participle (lousy english teachers in my past) (c), but
 I think that this ``suggestion'' of the MLA is why I instinctively
 want to hyphenate colon-separated here.
 
 In terms of links, I (having read the above) found this NYU site:
 http://www.nyu.edu/classes/copyXediting/Hyphens.html
 which seems to have the same rules as MLA (see Adjective Forms
 section, numbers 4 (and 9?))
 
 University of Minnesota seems somewhat anti-hyphen compared to others,
 but still have the past- or present-participle rule:
 http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/hyphens.html
 (see ``Unit Modifiers'', numbers 1 and 6)
 
 It seems that if ``separated'' is a participle here (please tell me if
 it is, I'm not sure), the hyphen is in order, but otherwise, the
 authorities are a bit contested.
 
 Thanks for looking into this.
 
 -Ben Kaduk