Graham Hopkins risks grammatical insanity and offers up some guidelines on the use of hyphenation.
Two-four-six-eight, how shall we hyphenate? We used to "hyphen" words but now we're more likely to "hyphenate" them. It has been said, supposedly in a style guide for the Oxford University Press, that "if you take hyphens seriously you will surely go mad". But dash it all, let's howl at the moon and offer some guidelines (which would have been "guide-lines" before the 1980s).
The overarching (rather than over-arching) guide should be to use a hyphen sparingly. Its principal use is to make things clear, slapping ambiguity in the face. For example, note the difference between "30-odd directors" and "30 odd directors". Or what could be meant by "three hundred year old trees"? A well-placed hyphen (three hundred year-old trees), or two (three hundred-year-old trees), or three (three-hundred-year-old trees) save us from lumbering around for meaning. A hyphen also usefully distinguishes between noun and verb: reform but re-form; recount but re-count.
Apart from its other use (in publishing) to indicate that a word has been broken at the end of a line through lack of space, all other usage is frighteningly optional. Sometimes a hyphen is used to help with pronunciation (de-ice, re-do). This is usually the case where two vowels collide (pre-empt, re-establish, semi-independent), but not always (reissue).
Where compound phrases (which act as one descriptive word) come before a noun, we usually treat ourselves to a hyphen: you have up-to-date records, but your records are up to date; you investigate something in depth, but have an in-depth investigation. The same usually applies to those phrases that logically could - and probably one day will - become one word (fair-minded, last-ditch, ill-considered, tight-fisted). Indeed, "wordprocessing" and "subcommittee" already have (or at least they have in some dictionaries; others will soon play catch-up). But you don't need to buy a first-class ticket as the phrase travels comfortably enough without a hyphen.
A hyphen's number comes up when figures between 21 and 99 are written out in full ("thirty-nine"). Similarly, fractions without a hyphen can appear less than wholesome (two-thirds).
It is over and above the call of duty to march a hyphen into compound words beginning with "over": overblown, overconfident. But some dictionaries fight their quarter with over-subscribe and over-active.
The doors are also closing on Hyphen & Co. Most "co" words trade profitably without Mr Hyphen's old fashioned ways: any coordinator can be cooperative these days (which is overdue given that we've all been uncoordinated and uncooperative for some time).
So, use hyphens if necessary. Apart from being consistent, there are few hard-and-fast rules or, indeed, any hard and fast ones come to that. And remember, to quote the regal Kingsley Amis as he surveyed the subject, "no one is right and no-one is wrong".
An inspector recalls
"The small resident's dining room"; "the seven clients have a single bedroom"; "lockable storage is provided for residents".
From social care inspection reports. Thanks to Anthony Martin, Devon Council
Contributions welcome. Please send them to graham.hopkins@rbi.co.uk
Mother of all books
"A definitive timely determination of the status of a child at risk must be optimally informed by rational formulations based on information obtained through a standardized comprehensive methodology."
From Conducting Parenting Capacity Assessments: A Manual for Mental Health Practitioners. Thanks to Penny Lloyd, BASW Cymru/Wales
Please send in examples of jargon, gobbledygook and management-speak to graham.hopkins@rbi.co.uk