Adjetivos Compostos

 

Esta explicação sobre adjetivos compostos surge através de uma pergunta enviada pelo trainee  (LEP-Light)  Daniel Rocha, de Uberlândia: 

"Dear Rosangela,

I was reading a text online and I had this doubt: why the words 'science-fiction movie' appear with hyphen and later it appears without? Please see the text below:

'Science-fiction movies seem to appeal to a large audience, however science fiction is still an undeveloped genre for most authors.'

Thank you,

Daniel"

Here is the explanation to all of you who may  have the same  question (NOT  'DOUBT'!)

In the first instance (occurrence), 'scince-fiction' is a compound adjective with hyphen because both words together have one quality (o "tipo" de ficção é ficção científica - só "ficção" ou só "científica" não caracterizariam o substantivo "movie" neste contexto).  'Science' gives characteristic to 'fiction', and in this context they belong to each other.

In the second instance (science fiction), 'science' is a single adjective modifying the noun 'fiction'.

Observe that the grammatical structure of the words change - the function changes. At first, in "science-fiction" 'fiction' has a function of adjective and it pairs with another adjective ('science') to give a characteristic to the noun 'movie'.  (Of course "science" and "fiction" in another context can be nouns, too. But not here.)

Second, in "science fiction"  'fiction'  works as a noun - receiving its characteristic by the adjective 'science'.

So, it's not only the grammar rules we have to keep an eye at, but also we must observe what's the function of the words.

Words that together give one characteristic to a noun  are hyphenated compound adjectives.

Observe the noun  ice cream. It's not hyphenated because ice (single adjective)  is the adjective of the cream (noun). The two words form a compound noun (sorvete).

But if I say: ice-cream cake, now it's hyphenated because ice-cream becomes the compound adjective of cake.

What if I add one  more adjective:

pink ice cream cake

There are two different ways to use the hyphen in this phrase, and accordingly, they change the meaning. Where do the hyphens go?

In  pink-ice-cream cake I am saying that the ice cream is pink.  The words pink/ice/cream belong together here and form one characteristic of the cake. Thus, the hyphens.

In pink ice-cream cake I am saying that the cake is pink, regardless the color of the ice cream (it could be a chocolate ice cream, but the cake is pink!). The word pink is not linked by an hyphen to ice-cream, because it doesn't refer to the ice cream, but to the noun cake.

 
 

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