Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2024 January 10

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January 10

Phrase construction with alone adjectives

Hello. From Size-asymmetric competition#Definition of size asymmetry. This kind of construction is frequent in Latin languages but it is correct and a good choice in English? "Resource competition can vary from completely symmetric... to perfectly size symmetric"?Pierpao (talk) 13:39, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Not sure what an "alone adjective" is, but the sentence itself is perfectly fine and well-constructed (if a bit long). Clarityfiend (talk) 15:18, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Pierpao (talk) 16:05, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

I'd have written "size-symmetric", with a hyphen. The spelling in the article is inconsistent; there are 16 occurrences of hyphenated noun–adjective compounds (12 × "size-asymmetric" including that in the title of the article; 3 × "size-symmetric"; 1 × "undersize-asymmetric") against 3 of unhyphenated compounds (1 × "size asymmetric"; 2 × "size symmetric" including the use in the sentence quoted above).  --Lambiam 09:49, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

I've regularized the usage in Size-asymmetric competition, retaining the hyphen in prepositive compound adjectives and dropping it in postpositive ones (where it was present). Deor (talk) 00:41, 12 January 2024 (UTC)