Hi,

Is it still 'the rule' to hyphenate multi-word modifiers when they occur
in front of their heads, but not after it, as in:

The child is six years old.
The six-year-old child ...

This is an extension for a laptop computer.
This is a laptop-computer extension. ?

I was recently compiling an editing-tips webpage (there it is again!) for
my students, and decided to spell-check it on Netscape. Netscape told me
to remove ALL hyphens in multi-word premodifiers. My word processor
doesn't do this. Is there confusion out there in Webworld? Or in my addled
brain?

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Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374                   ~
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Office hours Winter 1999: Mon/Wed 10:10-11am Thurs 2:10-3pm   ~
Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba                     ~
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