Questions about Unusual Hyphenations, Adjectives, and Expletive It/There.
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I hope you are all well today. :)
I have a few questions about two topics; so, let's begin!
First topic: We all know that hyphenation is used in English in order to clear any confusion in a phrase or sentence. However, hyphens should not be used with 'ly' and "very" adverbs, such as: "The finely tuned engine is roaring." My question is: What if instead of: (ly adverb + past participle) formula we have a (noun+adverb) formula? For example, "That noise was ear piercingly loud!" Should we use a hyphen between 'ear' and 'piercingly'? My grammatical sense tells me so because 'noun+adverb' is a very weird sight to me. Further, would you extend the same rule of non-hyphenation for "very" to the adverb "so"? Meaning, would you write the following phrase with a hyphen or not, "The not so/(very) silent night?"
Second topic: What is the function and category of "headless" in the following sentences, "You scared me headless," and in "Johnny is scared headless." To me, the former one is a bit obvious, that is, 'headless' is an objective complement. However, in the latter instance, I'm very doubtful. Normally, 'head+less' is an adjective, but in the the latter sentence it seems as if it were modifying "scared," an adjective, which is rather weird because adjectives cannot modify adjectives, only adverbs do that. So, I was thinking, maybe it now functions as an adverb in this instance? That is to say, "how scared is Johnny?" "Headless."
Third topic: From my reading in Grammar, I have discovered that we tend to use the Expletive it/there a lot. For example, "There are many trees in the backyard," and "There is a fly in my soup." Fixing such sentences can very easy and direct. Their correct form would be, "Many trees are in the backyard," and "A fly is in my soup." However, not all expletives can be removed swiftly. For example, "There are no shortcuts to mastery" is quite difficult to fix without adding a new main verb to make it complete. I'd instinctively correct it as, "No shortcuts to mastery exist." Do you see this a valid way of re-constructing the sentence and what are your suggestions?
Thank you all so much for reading.
I apologise for the long topic, but I'm very passionate about grammar and I love knowing all its tid bits.
I'll update my topic if I'm permitted to.
adjectives hyphenation it
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
I hope you are all well today. :)
I have a few questions about two topics; so, let's begin!
First topic: We all know that hyphenation is used in English in order to clear any confusion in a phrase or sentence. However, hyphens should not be used with 'ly' and "very" adverbs, such as: "The finely tuned engine is roaring." My question is: What if instead of: (ly adverb + past participle) formula we have a (noun+adverb) formula? For example, "That noise was ear piercingly loud!" Should we use a hyphen between 'ear' and 'piercingly'? My grammatical sense tells me so because 'noun+adverb' is a very weird sight to me. Further, would you extend the same rule of non-hyphenation for "very" to the adverb "so"? Meaning, would you write the following phrase with a hyphen or not, "The not so/(very) silent night?"
Second topic: What is the function and category of "headless" in the following sentences, "You scared me headless," and in "Johnny is scared headless." To me, the former one is a bit obvious, that is, 'headless' is an objective complement. However, in the latter instance, I'm very doubtful. Normally, 'head+less' is an adjective, but in the the latter sentence it seems as if it were modifying "scared," an adjective, which is rather weird because adjectives cannot modify adjectives, only adverbs do that. So, I was thinking, maybe it now functions as an adverb in this instance? That is to say, "how scared is Johnny?" "Headless."
Third topic: From my reading in Grammar, I have discovered that we tend to use the Expletive it/there a lot. For example, "There are many trees in the backyard," and "There is a fly in my soup." Fixing such sentences can very easy and direct. Their correct form would be, "Many trees are in the backyard," and "A fly is in my soup." However, not all expletives can be removed swiftly. For example, "There are no shortcuts to mastery" is quite difficult to fix without adding a new main verb to make it complete. I'd instinctively correct it as, "No shortcuts to mastery exist." Do you see this a valid way of re-constructing the sentence and what are your suggestions?
Thank you all so much for reading.
I apologise for the long topic, but I'm very passionate about grammar and I love knowing all its tid bits.
I'll update my topic if I'm permitted to.
adjectives hyphenation it
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
add a comment |
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
up vote
0
down vote
favorite
I hope you are all well today. :)
I have a few questions about two topics; so, let's begin!
First topic: We all know that hyphenation is used in English in order to clear any confusion in a phrase or sentence. However, hyphens should not be used with 'ly' and "very" adverbs, such as: "The finely tuned engine is roaring." My question is: What if instead of: (ly adverb + past participle) formula we have a (noun+adverb) formula? For example, "That noise was ear piercingly loud!" Should we use a hyphen between 'ear' and 'piercingly'? My grammatical sense tells me so because 'noun+adverb' is a very weird sight to me. Further, would you extend the same rule of non-hyphenation for "very" to the adverb "so"? Meaning, would you write the following phrase with a hyphen or not, "The not so/(very) silent night?"
Second topic: What is the function and category of "headless" in the following sentences, "You scared me headless," and in "Johnny is scared headless." To me, the former one is a bit obvious, that is, 'headless' is an objective complement. However, in the latter instance, I'm very doubtful. Normally, 'head+less' is an adjective, but in the the latter sentence it seems as if it were modifying "scared," an adjective, which is rather weird because adjectives cannot modify adjectives, only adverbs do that. So, I was thinking, maybe it now functions as an adverb in this instance? That is to say, "how scared is Johnny?" "Headless."
Third topic: From my reading in Grammar, I have discovered that we tend to use the Expletive it/there a lot. For example, "There are many trees in the backyard," and "There is a fly in my soup." Fixing such sentences can very easy and direct. Their correct form would be, "Many trees are in the backyard," and "A fly is in my soup." However, not all expletives can be removed swiftly. For example, "There are no shortcuts to mastery" is quite difficult to fix without adding a new main verb to make it complete. I'd instinctively correct it as, "No shortcuts to mastery exist." Do you see this a valid way of re-constructing the sentence and what are your suggestions?
Thank you all so much for reading.
I apologise for the long topic, but I'm very passionate about grammar and I love knowing all its tid bits.
I'll update my topic if I'm permitted to.
adjectives hyphenation it
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
I hope you are all well today. :)
I have a few questions about two topics; so, let's begin!
First topic: We all know that hyphenation is used in English in order to clear any confusion in a phrase or sentence. However, hyphens should not be used with 'ly' and "very" adverbs, such as: "The finely tuned engine is roaring." My question is: What if instead of: (ly adverb + past participle) formula we have a (noun+adverb) formula? For example, "That noise was ear piercingly loud!" Should we use a hyphen between 'ear' and 'piercingly'? My grammatical sense tells me so because 'noun+adverb' is a very weird sight to me. Further, would you extend the same rule of non-hyphenation for "very" to the adverb "so"? Meaning, would you write the following phrase with a hyphen or not, "The not so/(very) silent night?"
Second topic: What is the function and category of "headless" in the following sentences, "You scared me headless," and in "Johnny is scared headless." To me, the former one is a bit obvious, that is, 'headless' is an objective complement. However, in the latter instance, I'm very doubtful. Normally, 'head+less' is an adjective, but in the the latter sentence it seems as if it were modifying "scared," an adjective, which is rather weird because adjectives cannot modify adjectives, only adverbs do that. So, I was thinking, maybe it now functions as an adverb in this instance? That is to say, "how scared is Johnny?" "Headless."
Third topic: From my reading in Grammar, I have discovered that we tend to use the Expletive it/there a lot. For example, "There are many trees in the backyard," and "There is a fly in my soup." Fixing such sentences can very easy and direct. Their correct form would be, "Many trees are in the backyard," and "A fly is in my soup." However, not all expletives can be removed swiftly. For example, "There are no shortcuts to mastery" is quite difficult to fix without adding a new main verb to make it complete. I'd instinctively correct it as, "No shortcuts to mastery exist." Do you see this a valid way of re-constructing the sentence and what are your suggestions?
Thank you all so much for reading.
I apologise for the long topic, but I'm very passionate about grammar and I love knowing all its tid bits.
I'll update my topic if I'm permitted to.
adjectives hyphenation it
adjectives hyphenation it
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
edited 5 mins ago
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
asked 17 mins ago
J.Kar
63
63
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