Language desk
< January 9	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 11 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

January 10[edit]

Phrase construction with alone adjectives[edit]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]