0

A juxtaposition of two of today's questions, Hyphenate or not and What does "zazzy" mean?, prompts this one. Shouldn't one use a hyphen? Or is there a pun I'm missing?

Community
  • 1
anemone
  • 6,216
  • This is general reference. You can easily find all rules about when to use hyphens in the web. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/hyphen and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen for instance. – Centaurus Jan 21 '15 at 13:05
  • I asked because the rule of when-to-hyphen seems to be clarity, or a likelihood of confusion, so in a great part subjective. I do not quite see how general reference could help me distinguish the level of clarity of 'pedestrian detection algorithm' vs 'big bang theory'. – anemone Jan 21 '15 at 17:42

2 Answers2

2

You shouldn't use a hyphen.

In your 'hyphenate or not' link, pedestrian-detection is hyphenated in order to indicate that the noun pedestrian (which is what is being detected) is here being linked to detection. It is NOT being used in its adjectival sense, ie it is not a detection algorithm which is slow moving or plodding. The hyphen helps clarify this.

In Big Bang Theory there is no such confusion. Big is an adjective and it describes the size of the Bang. Big table, big shoe, big dog. And the Theory is a theory whose name is Big Bang. (cf. Quantum Theory, Game Theory).

Mynamite
  • 7,743
  • 3
  • 25
  • 36
  • Thank you. Dim witted as I clearly am, I still do not see the difference. Never heard of a "pedestrian algorithm", so the likelihood of a confusion (without the hyphen) for me is nil. This being the case, the likelihood of confusion in "big bang theory" cannot be smaller than that. – anemone Jan 21 '15 at 19:02
  • There is no such thing as a 'pedestrian algorithm' (as far as I know!) but the rule stands because there are plenty of instances where it could be misunderstood. Compare: "I saw a man-eating shark" (I saw a shark of a species known to eat people) and "I saw a man eating shark" (I saw a man enjoying a plate of shark meat). Does that help? :) – Mynamite Jan 21 '15 at 23:27
  • The rule is more clear when the first word is unambiguously a noun. What your answer failed to take into account (and thereby failed to satisfy the OP), is that "pedestrian" is NOT unambiguously a noun. – Brian Hitchcock Feb 02 '15 at 23:31
  • Yes, "pedestrian" is a noun here, but it IS being used in an adjectival sense, to modify "detection". Your answer is right, but for the wrong reasons. – Brian Hitchcock Feb 02 '15 at 23:41
  • @BrianHitchcock What do you mean by 'the wrong reasons'? I clearly said that pedestrian, when used singly, can be both a noun and an adjective. I also clearly said that when hyphenated it was linked to 'detection'. – Mynamite Feb 06 '15 at 00:06
  • Yes, but you said it was NOT being used here in an adjectival sense. Yet it is, in that it qualifies "detection". (What kind of detection? Pedestrian detection. What kind of algorithm? Pedestrian-detection algorithm.) – Brian Hitchcock Feb 06 '15 at 08:07
1

A hyphen is one way of specifying or clarifying that it is the bang and not the theory that is being called big. Capitalization, italicization, or enclosure within quotation marks can all effect the requisite grouping without hyphen. As the title of a television show, however, the phrase should simply be rendered as it is on the title cards (eccentric capitalization excepted), and italicized: The Big Bang Theory. If some sexual double entendre is intended for the word bang (as when Eccentrica Gallumbits terms Zaphod Beeblebrox “the best bang since the Big One”), it hardly affects the grouping or compound-adjective issue.

Brian Donovan
  • 16,289
  • I'm not sure I understand your thesis. Are you saying that it is rather desirable to avoid hyphenating compound adjectives (where the purpose of hyphenation would be to change the implicit dependency) if the meaning is clear without the hyphen? Of course I do not dispute that the collocation is fixed now as the name of the television show, but suppose we're talking pre-show: Big Bang theory. Is this the capitalization that can do the job in the stead of the hyphen? – anemone Feb 23 '15 at 17:37
  • @anemone Yes and yes. – Brian Donovan Feb 23 '15 at 19:08