Hyphens

“CAUTION Large Trucks”

Commas, Hyphens, Imperatives

My wife and I saw this yesterday while exiting a parking facility.

Problem:
The significance of the caution sign was unclear.

Explanation:
The sign was a landscape-oriented sign above the exit from an underground parking structure, and “CAUTION Large Trucks” — with absolutely no punctuation — appeared in a single line on the sign.

My wife and I had just left a department store, and we were waiting in a queue of automobiles that were exiting the parking structure.

The sign appeared above an opening through which we had to pass and then make a sharp right turn (no left turns allowed) so as to travel up a one-way ramp that let cars enter a street.

The ramp began to the left of the opening.

What therefore became unclear was what the sign maker intended to say.

A possible but unlikely meaning was “Please caution the drivers of large trucks.”, but I could not tell you why I as a reader of the sign should caution the drivers of large trucks.

Here are two possible, rational meanings:

  1. “Take caution! Large trucks are approaching from your left as you focus on turning right onto this one-way ramp that leads up to the street.”
  2. “If you are driving a large truck, then take caution while turning to your right so as to avoid scraping the walls surrounding this exit ramp that leads up to the street.”

If I were to rewrite the first rational meaning in as few words as I could, then I would write, “CAUTION: Large Trucks Approaching from Left!”

If I were to rewrite the second rational meaning in as few words as I could, then I would write, “CAUTION: Turn Large Trucks Carefully!”

Notice that both rewritten forms had to include additional words but also had to include punctuation, which the original sign lacked.

In other words, brevity taken to the extreme can lead to confusion.

Solution:
Use punctuation on a sign such as this one to ensure that readers know what they are supposed to do.

“poorly-written piece”

Adverbs, Hyphens

I saw this the other day.

Problem:
No hyphen should appear in this phrase.

Explanation:
When an adverb, such as “poorly”, that ends in L-Y together with another word, such as the past participle “written”, occur before and modify a noun, no hyphen should appear between the -ly adverb and the other word that together form a compound word.

This is in contrast to adverbs that do not end in L-Y.

For example, a “well-written piece” — with a hyphen between “well” and “written” — is correct.

I tried to compare “poorly-written piece” — with the hyphen — to “poorly written piece” — without the hyphen — in Google, but I did not determine how to force Google to retain the hyphen in the requested search for the hyphenated phrase, even though I put the quotation marks around the hyphenated phrase.

If you know how to force Google to retain punctuation — such as a hyphen — in a search phrase, then please contact me. Thanks!

Solution:
“poorly written piece”

“… promising lightening quick data rates …”

Hyphens, Mispronunciations, Misspellings

I saw this two days ago in a news article about a new mobile phone.

Problems:
1. A word is misspelled.
2. A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
The news article was about the BlackBerry Storm.

One of the Web pages in the article discussed the data-related features of the Storm.

While discussing the data technology, the article author wrote “The smart phone operates on Verizon Wireless’ 3G EV-DO Rev A. network in the U.S., promising lightening quick data rates and Internet surfing.”

First, while trying to play on the “Storm” model name, the author misspelled “lightning” as “lightening”.

I believe that this first problem relates to sloppy pronunciation of the noun “lightning”.

Second, while trying to modify “data rates” to indicate a high speed, the author failed to put a hyphen between (sic) “lightening” and “quick”.

I suspect that this second problem relates to a general decline in skill with hyphenation.

Solution:
“… promising lightning-quick data rates …”