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With the economy still recovering (or preparing to worsen, depending on whom you ask), a lesser-known but equally important problem is plaguing our society. OK, that’s probably hyperbole, but it brings us right to the point. When done properly, the hyphenation of compound modifiers is unobtrusive and probably goes unnoticed; but sadly we live in what my brother, a copyeditor at a metropolitan daily, calls a culture of overhyphenation.

I might wince at an apostrophe and an ‘S’ that need to be transposed, and I might scoff at a ‘who’ that should be a ‘whom’. But at the sight of a hyphen where none is needed, my heart starts racing and my face gets as flush as though the misplaced character were a typographical gauntlet at my feet.

So, what are these abuses of the hyphen? I’m only going to focus on one, and we’ll get to it in a second. First, it may be more helpful to establish what compound modifiers are and when it is appropriate to hyphenate them. (As a preface, it’s worth pointing out that grammar lessons bring to consciousness what, at some level, you already know; in that sense, they differ from the majority of didactic situations whose model is the transference of knowledge. So trust me, this will be fun!)

Simply put, a compound modifier is the use of a phrase of two or more words to describe a noun. There are two in the first sentence above: “lesser-known” and “equally important”, both of which modify “problem”. The key is that the words form a single phrase that names one attribute of the noun; this differentiates a compound modifier from a series of adjectives that lists multiple attributes of a noun (ex., “long, dreary, cold winter’s night”).

The general and prevalent misunderstanding is that a compound modifier, simply because it is a compound modifier, deserves a hyphen. This is just not true. The purpose of a hyphen uniting the two (or more) words of a compound modifier is never simply to indicate the existence of a compound modifier, but rather to disambiguate the noun phrase as a whole (compound modifier plus noun).

For instance, in real estate ads for townhome developments, one frequently listed amenity is the availability of “two-car garages.” Now, imagine that the compound modifier was not hyphenated and read “two car garages.” It may be small, but the possibility is there that someone may understand this to mean there are only two garages that house cars — perhaps they’re available by lottery or on a “first come, first served” basis? So the hyphen is used as a sign that, on the contrary, there are garages available that can hold two cars.

Now let’s get to the most common misuse of the hyphen in compound modifiers, which is in the middle of a combination of an “-ly” adverb and an adjective. There are two examples in this post so far: “equally important” and “frequently listed”.

What makes this use improper? Remember that the purpose of the hyphen is to disambiguate. Because an adverb by its very nature cannot modify a noun, it is grammatically impossible for ambiguity to arise. Does “equally problem” or “frequently amenity” make any sense to you? Hopefully not.

(Look for a follow-up soon.)

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