Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

The following is (more or less) verbatim from a recent email exchange at our offices on a freezing cold June day when the heating wasn’t working too well.

Writer (who shall remain nameless):

A small matter. When going through some proofs I corrected ‘governor general’ to ‘governor-general’. I now see that the Te Ara style guide specifies ‘governor general’. I’ve always used ‘governor-general’ because that’s how it appears in the letters patent defining the office [PDF 157KB], in general usage and on sites such as the GG, DPMC. Perhaps the style guide should be changed before we hit the governance theme?

Equally nameless editor (self-righteously):

This style was inherited from the DNZB, which eschewed hyphens in such compounds as governor general and also lieutenant governor, or lieutenant general, or sergeant major and others too numerous to mention.

Also the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (10th ed, revised), which we use as our authority for hyphenation at Te Ara, leaves out the hyphen in governor general.

The DNZB applied house style across the board in titles and proper names, as actual usage varied and would be seen as inconsistent. It also meant that editors did not have to research every instance of a name like this, but could confidently apply the consistent style.

I am not in favour of making an exception because 19th-century letters patent used a certain style. I do not believe that legislation and editorial decisions make good bedfellows! It’s not a question of an incorrect fact, merely a stylistic preference. Most arguments along these lines reflect an individual’s familiarity with or personal preference for a particular style of usage.

As it is not an error, and there is a substantial body of pre-existing content, I do not support any change here.

(Personally I also think it’s old fashioned, pretentious and pompous in a way that is not appropriate in egalitarian NZ in the 21st century. Like a blind insistence on capitalisation, it’s a legacy of empire and too much reading of the King James Version!)

Writer (patiently):

Far from being C19th legislation, it’s the 1983 letters patent, the one that ‘indigenised’ the office, so it’s about as antiquated as the DNZB. Curious that we slavishly follow that creaking old relic of empire, the OED.

Ed (sheepishly):

Touché! That’ll teach me for not even looking at the reference!

But I don’t care anyway. And the later revisions of the OED are remarkably forward-looking (given its heritage). Always seemed a pretty conservative and safe choice as arbiter (obviating innumerable arguments and mind-numbing ‘scholarly’ discussions).

The main argument for not changing the style is the implication for the many similar compounds. And the retrospective work.

As someone once said: ‘If you think too long about hyphens, you will surely go mad.’ QED. I rest my case, m’lud.

[Scholarly aside for pedants: 'If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad.' This dire warning was issued by John Benbow in his book Manuscript & proof: the preparation of manuscript for the printer and the handling of the proofs, published by Oxford University Press in New York in 1937.]

General Editor (judiciously):

Yep, consistency and extra work are pretty powerful arguments to me, but its probably worth a blog!

Writer (provocatively):

Probably better (and more enjoyably) done over drinks. I don’t read institutional blogs and from the response rates to them, don’t think many non-institutional people do. With a second glass of the grape, I may even let fly at macrons (the typographical equivalent of skidmarks on underpants, a friend said recently), grocers’ apostrophes, the current journalistic fad of replacing ‘will’ and ‘shall’ with ‘is set to’ and … Gawd, this could go on forever!

Ed (cowering):

No, not forever, please, make it stop!

Writer (graciously):

OK, I’ll hang up my pith helmet.

Postscript for the insane:

Those sad souls like me who find this kind of thing fascinating may be reassured to know that we are not alone: it hit world headlines when the sixth edtion of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary knocked the hyphens out of 16,000 compounds. Mind you, those with an excessive fascination with what is ‘good’ style do run the risk of being labelled ‘grammar fascists’ (see Wikipedia). Like  Lynne Truss, whose rather smug little book has been accused of laying down the law as if there is some moral superiority involved in speaking and writing ‘proper’. Though her worst crime is that she bowdlerised the classic definition of the Kiwi bird (or the male) in her book’s title. We all have our hobby horses, sigh.