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    -- Jean-Paul Sartre
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    Are you—Nobody—Too?
    Then there's a pair of us!
    Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know!

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    How public—like a Frog—
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    To an admiring Bog!
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    « Random comments on the 1L year: I shouldn't even blog this for fear of jinxing it | Main | Be my cheap therapy »

    Friday, May 15, 2009

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    Comments

    Well, I would hyphenate...

    Huh. Maybe I'm too used to reading/talking about crime categories (and/or my grammar is off), because I think first-degree murder is weird-looking and wrong.

    It also amazes me how judicial opinions and statutory law are filled with run on sentences!

    Yes, grammatically, noun phrases used as adjectives get hyphens. But legal discourse has its own grammar rules.

    Does first modify degree? It seems like in the law, it doesn't--that is, "first degree" is a two-word adjective, rather than an adjectival phrase like "sixteenth-century legal theory," etc.

    Legal English: Not Normal English.

    When in doubt, head to the CMS, where the rul is, I think, a lot more complicated than Historiann said, but that's the basic rule.

    What Historiann said. I want to hyphenate, too.

    Coming very late to this. @Historiann, first obviously modifies degree. It doesn't modify murder, does it? @Tree of Knowledge, yes, but specifically noun phrases used as adjectives in the predicative position, as here, get hyphenated, but not, or only in a restricted set of cases, when used in the predicative position (i.e. after a linking verb).

    In other words, NK is right.

    Yes, I have been proofreading for the last hour. Sorry.

    I have worked as a proof reader for court reporters on and off for years for extra money (you know-- for grad school luxuries like... heat and food). Anyway, yeah, I have found that lawyers are generally the most poorly-spoken people (see... hyphenating) in the world with the least understanding of grammar and the functions of the English language. I hope you can bring some clarity and change to the legal world.

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    • Anything posted here represents my personal opinions and does not in any way reflect the opinions or policies of my law school. And this should go without saying, but just to be clear: I am a law student. Nothing here should be taken to remotely constitute anything like legal advice.
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