4 ms·

rule-of-thumb* Eliminating hyphens is some linguistic fashion pandemic.

grawprog 5y ago
Not to get into a pedantic argument about grammar and such, but seeing as writing is a form of communication, does writing rule of thumb vs rule-of-thumb provide any more or less information to the reader? I would pronounce both of those the same out loud, I read both of those the same in my mind. Hyphens in places like that are a piece of punctuation that provide no real extra information or purpose, but clutter the sentence with symbols. Punctuation exists to provide missing information to a reader. What information do hyphens provide in that situation that is necessary for me or other readers to understand what the commenter intended?
- airhead969 5y ago
  > Not to get into a pedantic argument about grammar and such, but .. Everything before the word "but" is typically disingenuous. > I would pronounce both of those the same out loud, I read both of those the same in my mind. This is a bald-faced lie. :) Hyphenated words and idioms are often pronounced faster. > Hyphens in places like that are a piece of punctuation that provide no real extra information or purpose, but clutter the sentence with symbols. They're not symbols, they're punctuation. They indicate rate-of-speech and semantic boundaries. if i write text like this it is very annoying also you cannot tell where one thought ends and another begins do you really want to live in such a shitty world ifiwritetextlikethisitisveryannoyingalsoyoucannottekkwhereonethiughtendsandanitherbeginsdoyourreallywantoliveinsuchashittyworld Hyphens also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after the fact. They also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after-the-fact. They also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after. the. fact. Perhaps users of a language should learn the rules and conventions before throwing them away simply because they don't understand them?
  - drabbiticus 5y ago
    Grammar/Punctuation Nazi Alert! But in all seriousness, since you seem to be very passionate and prescriptive about conventions in written communication, the original use of "the rule of thumb" by OP in the non-hyphenated form is in fact correct. Hyphens are used when noun phrases are used in an attributive manner (i.e. noun as adjective). See https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb for additional info as well as consulting your copy of Strunk and White

Not to get into a pedantic argument about grammar and such, but seeing as writing is a form of communication, does writing rule of thumb vs rule-of-thumb provide any more or less information to the reader? I would pronounce both of those the same out loud, I read both of those the same in my mind. Hyphens in places like that are a piece of punctuation that provide no real extra information or purpose, but clutter the sentence with symbols. Punctuation exists to provide missing information to a reader. What information do hyphens provide in that situation that is necessary for me or other readers to understand what the commenter intended?

airhead969 5y ago
> Not to get into a pedantic argument about grammar and such, but .. Everything before the word "but" is typically disingenuous. > I would pronounce both of those the same out loud, I read both of those the same in my mind. This is a bald-faced lie. :) Hyphenated words and idioms are often pronounced faster. > Hyphens in places like that are a piece of punctuation that provide no real extra information or purpose, but clutter the sentence with symbols. They're not symbols, they're punctuation. They indicate rate-of-speech and semantic boundaries. if i write text like this it is very annoying also you cannot tell where one thought ends and another begins do you really want to live in such a shitty world ifiwritetextlikethisitisveryannoyingalsoyoucannottekkwhereonethiughtendsandanitherbeginsdoyourreallywantoliveinsuchashittyworld Hyphens also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after the fact. They also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after-the-fact. They also serve as affordances to cue the reader to the presence of familiar idioms rather than impose additional cognitive load onto them after. the. fact. Perhaps users of a language should learn the rules and conventions before throwing them away simply because they don't understand them?
- drabbiticus 5y ago
  Grammar/Punctuation Nazi Alert! But in all seriousness, since you seem to be very passionate and prescriptive about conventions in written communication, the original use of "the rule of thumb" by OP in the non-hyphenated form is in fact correct. Hyphens are used when noun phrases are used in an attributive manner (i.e. noun as adjective). See https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb for additional info as well as consulting your copy of Strunk and White