hyphenation - Compounds involving compounds



Consider the following use of a hyphen:



There are many bear-like animals.



Now, how does the hyphenation change if "bear" is replaced by "grizzly bear"? Which of the following would be appropriate:



There are many grizzly bear-like animals.


There are many grizzly bear -like animals.



The intended meaning is not "There are many grizzly (gray-haired) animals that resemble bears," but rather "there are many animals that resemble grizzly bears (Ursus arctos)".



Answer



There is no convention that uses a gap followed by a hyphen in a compound.


The construction 'grizzly bear-like animals' would be read as using two premodifiers, 'grizzly' and 'bear-like', as you fear.


One is left with the construction using a single compound premodifier needing two hyphens:



There are many grizzly-bear-like animals.



Mark Nichol explains about the need to tack together the cohesive parts of some premodifiers; though he doesn't give an exactly similar example, just as bear-like needs the tacking together* (even if used as a postmodifier), so do grizzly-bear-like and sabre-toothed-tiger-like.


I'll add a (not very elegant, I admit) variant of a classic example of the need for disambiguation where the premodifiers may possibly be grouped in ways with different meanings:


She gave him one of those sweet shop-girl smiles.


She gave him one of those sweet-shop-girl smiles.


*bearlike is given as a solid compound in most dictionaries, but this doesn't seem to be the favoured web spelling. In any case, I'd certainly opt for grizzly-bear-like over grizzly-bearlike or grizzlybearlike.


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