A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air…

Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

The Hyphen (From Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, 2003)

“There are a great many hyphens left in America. For my part, I think the most un- American thing in the world is a hyphen.” Woodrow Wilson, Former US President, Re-elected in 1916.)

Uses of the Hyphen 1. To avoid ambiguity. ◦ A re-formed musical group. ◦ A reformed musical group. ◦ A long-standing friend. ◦ A long standing friend.

Large schedule establishment overheads ◦ Large-schedule establishment overheads? ◦ Or large schedule-establishment overheads? Locally constant, linear and quadratic approximations ◦ Is this a list of three approximations? Locally constant, linear, and quadratic? ◦ Or locally-constant linear and locally-constant quadratic approximations?

2. Spelling out numbers. ◦ Twenty-three. ◦ Forty-two. 3. Linking nouns to other nouns. ◦ The London-Brighton train. ◦ American-French relations. ◦ Tarzan the ape-man.

4. A noun phrase modifying another noun. ◦ Stainless steel – not hyphenated, just an adjective modifying a noun. ◦ Stainless-steel kitchen – “stainless steel” works as a noun phrase, and the hyphen prevents reading it as a stainless kitchen made out of steel.

5. Certain (but not all) prefixes. ◦ Un-American ◦ Anti-Communist ◦ Quasi-grammatical ◦ But not:  Prejudice  Subordinate

6. Spelling out words ◦ Muammar Qaddafi’s name has been spelled:  G-h-a-d-d-a-f-i  K-a-d-d-a-f-i  G-a-d-h-a-f-i  K-h-a-d-a-f-y  (and over 30 other variants)

7. To avoid letter collision in compound words: ◦ Shell-like, not Shelllike ◦ Re-elect, not reelect. ◦ De-ice, not deice. Sometimes not necessary:  Skiing And what is the participle (-ing) form of playing the Nintendo Wii?

8. To indicate an unfinished word on a line. ◦ “I was walking through the woods and suddenly dis-covered…” 9. To indicate hesitation and stammering. ◦ “M-m-my n-name is B-B-Billy B-B-Bibbet.” – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

` 10. To qualify a forthcoming hyphenated phrase. ◦ He was a two- or three-year-old. ◦ Whether you’re pro- or anti-religion…

When does a word stop being hyphenated? Through repeated use, typically. ◦ Previous hyphenated words:  To-morrow  Sub-marine  Good-bye

What’s the difference? Extra-marital sex. Extra marital sex. Little-used car. Little used car. Pickled-herring merchant. Pickled herring merchant.

Any questions?