Linguistics
• The word ‘Linguistics, has been derived from Latin
lingua (tongue) and istics (knowledge or science).
Therefore, linguistics is the scientific study of
language.
•
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, from
the sounds and gestures of speech up to organization of
words, sentences, and meaning. Linguistics is also
concerned with the relationship between language and
cognition, society, and history. But it is the study not of one
particular language but of human language in general
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Linguistics
• Linguistics: is that science which studies the origin, organization,
nature, and development of language descriptively, historically,
comparatively, and explicitly, and formulates the general rules
related to language. Each human language is a complex of
knowledge and abilities speakers of the language to communicate
with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions, desires,
and all other things that need expressing. Linguistics is the study of
these knowledge systems in all their aspects: how is such a
knowledge system structured, how is it acquired, how is it used in
the production and comprehension of messages, how does it
change over time?
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Key Concepts of Linguistics
• Synchrony and Diachronic: They refer to the difference in treating
language from different points of view. When we take a synchronic
point of view, we are looking at a language as we find it at a given
period of time. The diachronic point of view, on the other hand, gives
us the historical angle, we look at a language over period of time
along with changes that occurred in it.
• Competence vs Performance: Noam Chomsky first used these
terms to specifically refer to a person’s intuitive knowledge of the
rules, structure, and meanings of his language as a native speaker
(he called it competence), and his actual use of these (which he
termed performance)
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• Form, Substance and Context: The distinction refers to the
system. Sounds produced by the human speech organs can be said
to comprise the substance (phonic substance), visual (Graphic
substance) or content. Its shaping into different functional
configurations can be called forms or expressions. The word Drink
(content) is used as both noun and verb. Form can be analyzed
without taking into account the meaning. Form can be studied from
different angles: phonological, morphological, grammatical,
syntactical, etc. Context is the relationship between form and
situation.
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• Parole: (The act of speaking) the actual linguistic
behavior or performance of individuals, in contrast to
the linguistics system of a community.
• langue: ( a language system) a language viewed as an
abstract system used by a speech community, in
contrast to the actual linguistic behavior of
individuals.
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Linguistics levels
• The Grammatical system: It is stock of morphemes, and the arrangements
in which they occur;
1. Morphology
2. Syntax
• The phonological system: It is a stock of phonemes, and the assignments
in which they occur.
• The morphophonemic system: It is the code which ties together the
grammatical and the phonological system.
• The semantic system: It associates various morphemes, and arrangements
in which morphemes can be put, with things and situations, or kinds of
things and situations
• The phonemic system: it denotes the ways in which sequence of
phonemes are converted into sound waves.
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Branches
• Phonetics: Phonetics is the study of speech processes.
• Grammatical levels:
a. syntax: concerned with the study of the
arrangement of words in sentences
b. Morphology: Concerned with the study and analysis of the
structure, form and classes of words.
• Semantics: Concerned with the meaning and its manifestation in
language.
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What is Morphology?
• Morphology:
The term morphology is Greek and is a makeup
of morph- meaning 'shape, form', and -ology which means 'the study
of something'. is the study of the patterns of word-forms. It
studies how the words are formed, where they originate from,
what their grammatical forms are, what the functions of
prefixes and suffixes in the formation of words are, on what
basis the parts of speech of a particular language are formed,
how the system of gender, number, plural, etc function, how
and why the word-forms change.
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purposes
• The internal structure of words and the
segmentation into different kinds of
morphemes is essential to the two basic
purposes or morphology: 1. the creation of
new words and 2. the modification of
existing words.
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Words
• Words are two types: Content words and function words
• Lexical words: these are the words which have
meaning that can be understood fully in and of itself.
Noun, verb, adjective and adverb are called lexical
words.
• Function words: are the words, on the other hand can
be understood completely only when they occur with
other words. These include pronoun, conjunction,
articles, and preposition.
Thomas E. Murray, The Structure of English, Allyn and
Bacon, 1995)
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Haspelmath and Sims
• Two different kinds of words as defined by
Haspelmath and Sims
• Dictionary word (lexeme)
• Text word (word form)
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Morpheme
• First, some preliminaries. All languages have words and morphemes.
Words can be freely moved around in a sentence. For example, cats is a
word:
• Cats is a complex word, made up two morphemes; a morpheme is the
smallest unit of meaning or function within a language. The two
morphemes are the root cat and –s, which means ‘plural’.
• Minimal (of a pair of forms distinguish by only one feature, p, b are a
minimal pair, distinguished by the feature of voicing) units of grammatical
structure, such as the four components of un faith fullness are called
morphemes.
• Morphemes are those distinct, minimal syntactical unit which
form words.
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morpheme
•
•
•
•
•
Is a minimal grammatical unit of a language
Are syntactical units which form words
They form compose words in various ways
It is not divisible or analyzable into smaller forms
They may or may not have meaning, or may or may not have a
phonological representation. E.g. {un-} has a negative
meaning in unfriendly, but it is meaningless in under. The
word sheep has two morphemes, but no phonological
representation and is called zero morpheme.
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Morpho(pho)nology: Morphs, Morphemes and
Allomorphs
• Morphonology is concerned with the interface between
morphology and phonology, and more specifically with the question
how morphemes are realized in different phonological contexts.
• Morphemes often occur in different variants: in this case we speak
of different allomorphs realizing a single morpheme. Allomorphs
are really morphs, but in order to stress that a group of morphs
belong to one morpheme the term ‘allomorph’ is used.
• Morph: a morph is the phonetic realization of a morpheme
• Allomorph: When a morpheme is realized by more than one sound
pattern, we call the variations allomorphs.
• • Allomorphs are phonologically, lexically or grammatically
conditioned.
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Phonological conditioning:
• the English plural morpheme
(1) verbs, bets, kisses
allomorphs of the Engl. plural
morpheme
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• the phonological form of the stem determines
the form of the suffix:
• /-z/ after vowels and voiced consonants which
are not sibilants [b,d,g,v,m,n,ᵑ, l,r,y,w]
• /-s/ after voiceless consonants which are not
sibilants[(p,t,k,f,Ө]
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The Past Tense /d/
• /id/ occurs after morphs ending in alveolar
stops /t/ and /d/ as in wanted and wedded
• /d/ occurs after voiced phonemes except /t/
and /d/ as in loved and walked
• /t/ occurs after voiceless phonemes except /t/
as in helped.
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Morphological Conditioning
• Zero suffixes: certain words in English do not
change their forms. For example, sheep, deer,
fish, etc. this is called zero suffix
• Vowel Mutation: in changing some singular
nouns into plural, we change vowels. For
example, find---found, sing---sung, etc. This
process is called vowel mutation
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• Consonant changes: some pluralizing is
affected by consonant changes. For example,
knife—knives, wife—wives. This process is
called consonant changes
• Suppletion: Some times we change the whole
form of words. For example, go—went, bad--worse, good—better. This is called
suppletion.
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• Replacive: There is no obvious way to analyze
forms like geese, lice etc. some linguistics
suggest that the plural vowel /i:/ in geese,
/gi:s/ which replaces the /u:/ in goose /gu :s/
should be regarded as a special type of
morphemic element called a replacive.
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Kinds of Morpheme
Two types of morpheme have been identified on the basis of their
occurrence in larger constructions
• Free
• Bound (Affixes: Prefixes, and Suffixes)
a. Affixes: Derivational, Inflectional and Bound
Base
• Derivational: Class Maintaining and Class
Changing
• Free Morpheme: a morpheme that
occurs alone, or can stand alone. All
content words are free morpheme.
• Bound Morpheme: cannot occur or stand
alone.
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Affixes
• affix := a morpheme that attaches to others
(i.e., to bases).
Types of affixes: location
(a) prefix: An affix that goes on the front.
(b) suffix: An affix that goes on the end.
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• According to the function
derivational affix : an affix that produces a
meaning change when added to a base.
Examples
• -er (own-er), -ful (beauti-ful), un- (un-do), etc.
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•
•
•
•
Is not part of an obligatory set of affixes
Generally occurs closer to the root
Generally is more meaningful, and
Is more likely to result in a form that has a
somewhat idiosyncratic meaning?
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What is inflection?
• Definition
Inflection is variation in the form of a word,
typically by means of an affix that expresses a
grammatical contrast, which is obligatory for
the stem’s word class in some given
grammatical context
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inflectional affix : a purely grammatical affix,
which bears little meaning.
• Inflectional affixes cannot result in a category
change.
Examples
• -s (tree-s), -est (small-est), etc.
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• Expresses a grammatical contrast that is obligatory
for its stem’s word class in some given grammatical
context.
• Does not change the word class of its stem.
• Is typically located farther from its root than a
derivational affix, and
• Produce a predictable, nonidosyncratic change of
meaning
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English inflectional affixes
English has only 8 inflectional affixes. Below is the list of them.
• Affix Example Attaches Forming to a … a …
a. Plural -s dogs N N
b. Possessive (genitive) –‟s Bill‟s hat N N
c. 3rd person singular nonpast -s She sings lovely. V V
d. Progressive -ing She is singing lovely. V V
e. Past tense –ed He cooked dinner. V V
f. Past participle –en/-ed He has cooked a meal. V V
g. Comparative –er cheaper A A
h. Superlative –est cheapest A A
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Some English derivational affixes
Below is the list of some derivational affixes in
English. The table tells you what the affix means,
what it attaches to (what part of speech) and
what part of speech it forms once attached.
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33
34
35
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Shorthand notation for describing rules
In the above tables, the two rightmost columns describe how
the morpheme in question interacts with syntactic category.
Linguists have a shorthand notation for describing these
changes:
(This
means “-able affixes to a V and produces an A”.)
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Here are a few more examples from English:
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Derivational vs. Inflectional
There are some differences between these two
bound morphemes, which are as follows:
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40
The Formation of Words
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42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
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Characteristics of Creating new words
• Sometimes the new words are a derived form
of the same class as in boyhood, childhood,
principleship. The suffixes –hood, ship
produce nouns out of nouns. These are called
“Class-maintaining”
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Word Formation
Sometimes the derived words are changing their
parts of speech as in teacher, boyish,
development, national. The suffixes –er, -ish, ment, -al are the suffixes which change the parts
speech. –er is added to the verb teach, has
become a noun. In boyish, a noun boy has
become an adjective after suffixing the –ish.
These are called “Class-changing” morphemes
.
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• Some morphemes which serve as roots for
derivational forms but which never appear as
free forms. In words such as conclude,
preclude, include, exclude, the clude is called
“Bound Base” which serves as roots for
derivational forms. And so is the –ceive in
receive, perceive, deceive.
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• There are two ways to form or create new
words.
• Major Rules (inflection, derivation,
compounding
• Minor Rules (borrowing, conversion,
shortening, blending, backformation, stress
interchange)
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• Derivational Affixes
In English Language both prefixes and suffixes can
be derivational affixes. Adding a derivational
affixes may change the form class of the
morphemes. The function of derivational affixes
is to change one part of speech into another.
According to function derivational affixes can be
classified into following types
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• Nominalyzer
• Adjectivizer
• Verbalizer
• Adverbalizer
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Nominalyzer
• Denominal nominalyzer
• Denominal adjectivizer
• Denominal verbalizer
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• What is Nominalyzer?
Nominalyzer means make a noun.
Parts of speech are changed into each
other to create nouns.
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• Denominal nominalyzer: (NounNoun): This means change noun to
noun. Some affixes are used to
create a noun from another noun.
They are as follows:
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Suffixes
• ship: by adding this suffix, change noun in to noun. It
shows state, condition
Examples:• Friend-friendship, relation-relationship, championchampionship
In the above examples the suffixes ‘ship’ shows relationship.
• hood: by adding this suffix at the end of noun, change
noun to noun. Shows condition or state
Examples:
Child-childhood, brother-brotherhood, man-manhood,
neighbor-neighborhood.
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• er/n/ese/ish: by adding these suffixes at
the end of noun change noun to noun.
– er :- London-Londoner, New York-New
Yorker.
– ese: - Japan-Japanese, China-Chinese
– n :- Italy-Italian, Korea-Korean
– ish :- Turkey-Turkish, Spain-Spanish
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• Cy: added to nouns to make nouns. It
indicates state.
Example:
• President – presidency
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• dom: by adding suffix ‘dom’ at the end of
noun, change noun to noun. Means domain,
or condition
Examples:
• King-Kingdom, star-stardom,
But remember that the suffix ‘dom’ is
unproductive; we cannot find more examples.
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Prefixes
• ex: - by adding prefix ‘ex’ change noun to noun. Means post
and equal
Examples:
• Ex-wife, president- ex-president, roommate- ex-roommate.
• Note: That we can not use ‘ex’ for father, mother, sister,
brother also for animals.
• dis :- by adding this prefix, change noun to noun. Means
apart, not, opposite, negation, removal
Examples:
• Continuation-discontinuation.
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Deadjectival nominalyzer: It means change
adjective to noun. Just we use suffixes
• Ness: by addint suffix –ness at the end of an
adjective, change an adjective in to a noun
Exmaple:
• Happy – happiness, sick – sickness, weak-weakness
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• Ity: by adding this suffix at the end of an
adjective, change an adjective in to a noun.
Example:
• Possible – possibility, responsible –
responsibility, personal -- personalitiy
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• dom: - by adding this suffix at the end of an
adjective, change an adjective in to a noun
Example:
• Free – freedom, wise-wisdom
These are the two common words in English
language.
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Deverbal nominalizer: this means change verb
in to noun.
Suffixes
• er, or, ess: - by adding these suffixes to the end of
the verb, change verb to noun
Example:
• er)-teach-teacher, speak-speaker, cheat-cheater
• (es)- act-actress, wait-waitress
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tion: - by adding suffix ‘tion’ at the end of a verb, change
a verb in to a noun
Examples:
• Complete-completion, collect-collection, correctcorrection
– ment: - by adding this suffix to the end of verb,
change verb to noun
Examples:
• Develop-development, entertain-entertainment,
manage-management
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ance: - by adding suffix ‘ance’ to the end of a verb,
Change a verb in to a noun.
Examples:
• Appear-appearance, insist-insistence
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Identifying nouns
It is not always possible to identify a noun by its form. However, some word
endings can show that the word is probably a noun.
Examples:
• -age
postage, language, sausage
• -ance/-ence
insurance, importance, difference
• -er/-or
teacher, driver, actor
-hood
• childhood, motherhood, fatherhood
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Example:
-ism
• socialism, capitalism, nationalism
-ist
• artist, optimist, pianist
-itude
• attitude, multitude, solitude
-ity/-ty
• identity, quantity, cruelty
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Example:
• -ment
• excitement, argument, government
• -ness
• happiness, business, darkness
• -ship
• friendship, championship, relationship
• -tion/-sion
• station, nation, extension
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Gerunds
The -ing forms of verbs (gerunds) can also act as
nouns.
• Smoking is forbidden on all flights.
• The City Council does its economic planning
every September.
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Adjectivizer
What is Adjectivizer?
Denominal adjectivizer: it means change noun
to adjective.
• Suffixes
– less: - by adding this suffix to the end of noun,
change noun to adjective
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Examples:
• Hope-hopeless, job-jobless, car-car less,
money-moneyless
– al: - by adding suffix ‘al’ to the end on noun,
change noun to adjective.
Examples:
• Music-musical
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– ful: - by adding this suffix to the end of noun,
change noun to adjective.
Examples:
• Beauty-beautiful, color-colorful, successsuccessful
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ous: - by adding suffix ‘ous’ change noun to
adjective.
Examples:
• Glory-glorious, fame-famous, couragecourageous.
ish\like: - by adding these suffixes to the end noun,
change noun to
Examples:
• Child-childish, childlike
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y: - by adding suffix ‘y’ at the end of noun, change
noun to adjective.
Examples:
• Lucky, fun-funny, sun-sunny, dust-dusty.
ly: - by adding the suffix at end of noun, change
noun to adjective.
Examples:
• Love-lovely, friend-friendly, manly
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Deverbal adjectivizer: it means that change verb to
adjective.
• Suffixes
able, ible: - by adding these suffixes, change verb to
adjective.
Examples:
• Suite-suitable, laugh-laughable, cut-cutable,
imposable.
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ive: - by adding this suffix, change verb to adjective.
Examples:
• Act-active, pass-passive, addit-additive, competecompetitive.
al: - by adding this suffix, change verb to adjective.
Examples:
• Practice-practicable
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Adjectival adjectivizer: this means that change
adjective to adjective. Always use prefixes.
• Prefixes
In/im/ir/il: - by adding these prefixes at the
beginning of adjective, change adjective to
adjective.
Examples:
• Expensive-inexpensive, possible-impossible,
polite-impolite, regular-irregular
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Verbal verbalizer: it means make verb. Parts of
speech are changed with each other t to make
verb.
Denominal verbalizer: this means change noun
to verb. Uses suffixes and prefixes.
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• Suffixes
en: -by adding suffix ‘en’ to end of noun, change
noun to verb.
Examples:
• Strength-strengthen, threat-threaten
ize: -by adding this suffix, change noun to verb.
Examples:
• Computer-computerize, capital-capitalize.
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fy: - by adding suffix ‘fy’, change noun to verb.
Examples:
• Beauty-beautify, class-classify
• Prefixes
en: - by adding prefix ‘en’ to the beginning of the
noun, change noun to verb.
Examples:
• Force-enforce roll-enroll
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de :- by adding this prefix, change noun to verb.
Examples:
• Note-denote, port-deport, forst-deforst
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Deadjectival verbalizer: this means by adding
affixes with adjective, change adjective to verb.
• Suffixes
en: -by adding this suffix, change adjective to verb.
Examples:
• Weak-weaken fasten, fresh-freshen, brightbrighten.
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fy: - by adding suffix ‘fy’ to the end of adjective,
change adjective to verb.
Examples:
• Specify, verify, falsify, certain-certify.
ize: - by adding this suffix, change adjective to verb.
• Global-globalize, special-specialize, generalgeneralize.
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• Prefixes
en: - by adding prefix ‘en’ to the beginning of
the adjective, change adjective to verb.
Examples:
• Large-enlarge, able-enable.
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be: - by adding this prefix, change adjective to
verb.
Examples:
• Little-belittle.
But note that it is unproductive.
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Verbal verbalizer: This means change verb to verb
(VERB-VERB). Only we use prefixes.
• Prefixes
re: - by adding prefix ‘re’ to beginning of the verb,
change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Move-remove, present-represent, turn-return.
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pre: - by adding this prefix, change verb to verb.
Examples:
• View-preview. Arrange-prearrange, talk-pretalk.
ex: -by adding this prefix, change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Cite-excite. Aggregate-exaggerate.
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dis: - by adding this prefix, change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Arrange-disarrange close-disclose, charge-discharge
un: - by adding the prefix ‘un’ to beginning of the verb,
change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Lock-unlock, do-undo, cover-uncover.
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under: - by adding this prefix with the verb,
change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Develop-under develop, pay-underpay.
over: - by adding this prefix, change verb to
verb.
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Examples:
• Sea-oversea, estimate-overestimate, work-overwork, pay-overpay, eatovereat.
miss: - by adding this prefix with the verb, change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Undersand-missunderstand, trust-mistrust, use-misuse, spell-misspell,
out: - by adding this prefix, change verb to verb.
Examples:
• Live-outlive, go-outgo, play-outplay.
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assignment
• Find out all adverb affixes.
• Due date: 10 days before the final exam
• If not, 10 marks will be deducted from your
final score.
• The assignment should have a cover letter,
table of contents, preface, conclusion, and
references.
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Compounding
• A compound is lexical unit in which two or
more lexical morphemes (free roots) are
juxtaposed, e.g. aircraft, textbook, white-cup,
slow-down, fingerprint. (Bahir Hussain and
co-writers.)
• Compounds are found in all word classes. The
most common types of compounds are:
Nouns: car park, rock band
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• Adjectives: heartbreaking, sugar-free, airsick
• Verbs: oven-bake, baby-sit, chain-smoke
• Adverbs: good-naturedly, nevertheless
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• It is sometimes difficult to know where to put
hyphens in words that are compound ed. It is
also difficult to know whether to separate
words (e.g. post box) or to join the words (e.g.
postbox). In such cases, it is best to check in a
good learner’s dictionary.
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• Compound words
• A compound word is two or more words
linked together to produce a word with a new
meaning:
• tooth + brush = toothbrush eco + friendly =
eco-friendly animal + lover = animal lover
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Types of Compound
• Coordinate Compound: in coordinate
compounds the two elements are parallel.
Both parts having the same parts of speech
function, for instance ‘thirteen’ has the
elements ‘three’ + ‘ten’. Another examples are
paper-clip, land lord, mail man
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• Subordinate Compounds: in subordinate
compounds one element modifies the other,
for instance ‘ bus station’ means a station for
bus. Here the ‘bus’ modifies ‘station’. Other
examples are boy school, school boy. Most
compound are subordinate, with the first
element modifies the second
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• Possessive Compounds: the relationship
between the parts of that of ‘possession’. A
‘green back’ is an object that has a green
back, in this case ‘a dollar bill’
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• Synthetic Compounds: have a complete
sentence for their derivation. A ‘pick pocket’ is
a parallel to ‘a person who picks pocket’.
Other examples are ‘good-for-nothing’ means
a person who is not of any value. A ‘top-dog’
is a person occupying a foremost place. A
‘under-dog’ is a person who has to succeed or
some who is badly treated by others.
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Compound nouns
We usually make compound nouns with a noun +
noun, with a verb (or a word made from a verb) +
noun, or with an adjective + noun:
• noun + noun: earphones
• verb -ing form + noun: parking ticket, wedding cake
• verb base form + noun: rescue team
• Verb + noun: cut-water
• adjective + noun: blackboard
• Noun + verb: hairdo, haircut…..
The usual spoken stress pattern is with stress on the first item
(earphones, blackboard).
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In a compound noun, we can combine different elements.
These include:
• subject + verb: earache (an ear that aches), rainfall
(rain that falls)
• verb + subject: cleaning products (products that clean)
• verb + object: know-all (person who thinks they know
everything)
• object + verb: shoe-polish (polishes shoes), dishwasher
(washes dishes)
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Writing compound nouns
Many compound nouns are written as one word, but some
are written with hyphens or spaces. In modern English,
hyphens are less common than they were in the past. A good
learner’s dictionary will tell you how each compound is
usually written.
Examples of one word
• Bathroom, sheepdog, windscreen
Examples of hyphens
• check-in, fire-fighter, son-in-law
Examples of spaces
• bottle opener. New Year’s Day, Prime Minister
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Plurals of compound nouns
We form the plural of most compounds by adding a
plural ending to the last part of the compound:
• We saw some large greenhouses with vegetables
growing in them.
• They’re building two new car parks in town.
Note:
The compounds mother-in-law, brother-in-law, etc.
form their plurals on the first noun:
• I’ve got one brother-in-law and two sisters-in-law
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Compound nouns and spoken stress
Compound nouns normally have the spoken stress on the
first part:
• CAR park, BATHroom, WEBsite, BROther-in-law,
DOORbell, CHECK-in
However, not all compound nouns follow this rule. Some
have spoken stress on the second part, especially in
proper names and titles:
• Mount EVerest, Prime MINister, New YORK
A good learner’s dictionary will tell you where to put the
stress.
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Compound adjectives
Compound adjectives most commonly end in an
adjective (e.g. homesick), or in an -ing or –ed
adjective form (e.g. ground-breaking, short
sighted).
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•
•
•
•
•
Adj + adj: dark-brown, dark-blue
N + adj: sea green, snow-white, homesick
Adv participle: home-made, peace-loving
Participle adv: made up, grown up
Numeral noun: a three-minute talk, a twostory building, a five-year plan
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Compound verbs
Compound verbs are far less common than
compound nouns or adjectives. They can be
made by making a verb from another word
class, normally from an already existing
compound noun (e.g. a daydream – to
daydream).
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• N + V: kidnap, to hen pick, baby-sit
• Adv + V: to double charge, overdo, overcut,
sidestep
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Writing compound words
Sometimes compound words are written
separately (nail polish), sometimes with a
hyphen (short-sighted) and sometimes as one
word (eyelashes). Often new compounds are
written as two separate words and, as they
become more familiar, they are either connected
with a hyphen (-) or made into one word
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There are some general rules and guidelines for
when to use hyphens:
• when there is a prefix (e.g. post-war, pre-lunch,
self-interest, semi-skilled)
• when a compound adjective comes before a head
noun (e.g. a well-known singer, an angrysounding email)
• when the pre-head item in a compound is a
single capital letter (e.g. U-turn, X-ray, D-day)
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when words are difficult to recognize as
compounds and could be confused
• The band has decided to re-form. (form again)
• The Government promise to reform the health
system. (improve)
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when compound adjectives containing numbers
appear before a noun
• A twenty-two-year-old cyclist won the race.
• From here to Tokyo, that’s a twelve-hour flight
at least.
• If you’re not sure about whether to use a
hyphen, a good dictionary will tell you.
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Hyphens
Hyphens are a form of dash (-) which we use between
words or parts of words.
• We can use hyphens to make compound words, most
commonly compound nouns:
French lorry-drivers have blockaded three ports.
• Compound nouns formed with prepositions and
particles are also usually separated by hyphens:
Come and meet my father-in-law.
Don’t wear too much make-up if you are planning to be in
the sun.
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• We use hyphens with compound verbs and
with adverb + adjective compounds:
I’m phoning to ask if you can baby-sit for us this
evening.
It’s a well-known fact that Labradors have a
very nice temperament.
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• We often use hyphens to separate words and
prefixes:
The vice-president will speak to the company on
Monday.
She met her ex-husband at a party last week.
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• We also use hyphens to separate compound modifiers:
The oven was red-hot when she touched it.
A twelve-year-old girl was found alone in the large
house.
• We also sometimes use hyphens when we write out
figures:
There were sixty-eight people who applied for the job.
Three-quarters of the voters did not reply to the
questionnaire.
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• However, hyphens are becoming less common
and people often write several of the above
words without hyphens or do not separate
compound words at all. A common word with a
hyphen such as post-box will also be seen as post
box and postbox.
• It is important to check the spelling of compound
words in a good learner’s dictionary.
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