Writing under the nom de clavier of “Sharontastrophe” (a name no doubt inspired by our last post about the quotastrophe), a faithful reader asks the question, “Should ‘top of mind’ have hyphens?” A wonderful question, and a wonderful opportunity to wax poetic on the subject of the predicative. While our friends across the pond may have come across this somewhat obscure grammatical term before, it’s rather unlikely that the U.S. educated among us have been exposed to this particular element.

What, then, is the predicative? In the simplest terms, the predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence (you remember, the part containing the verb) that supplements the subject or object by means of (i.e., by linking through) the verb. That word—linking—might set of an alarm bell of recognition for anyone who took English classes back in the days before the U.S. educational system fell all to hell. At one time, it was common to actually teach the concept of “linking verbs,” or as they are properly called, “copulative verbs,” or simply copulas (more correctly, copulae).

(I know, by now you’re almost certainly thinking, What the hell is wrong with this guy that he can’t just answer a simple grammar question and be done with it? But honestly, what fun would that be? If I merely answer the question, I may have given you a fish, but I haven’t taught you to fish, now have I? So, let’s cast our net and see what we can haul up from the depths, shall we?)

To best understand the copulative verb (gosh, that is fun to type, although it makes me a bit jealous of that lucky verb!), we should first examine the categories of verbs in English: transitive, or action verbs, and intransitive verbs (often called “linking verbs” by those well-meaning 1960s grammar teachers—but as we shall see, not quite correctly so). This part of the discussion is not extremely obtuse. Transitive verbs have a subject and an object; intransitive verbs have only a subject and do not take an object. A couple of examples should grease the intellectual skids nicely:

Xavier threw the ball. [transitive or “action” verb with “ball” as the object]

Harry complains all the time. [“complains” cannot have an object, so it is intransitive]

Pretty simple stuff. Now, the intellectually curious among you might already be thinking, I remember that object stuff, but I remember something about direct and indirect objects—what’s up with that? Here’s where it gets a little dicey, but stay with me. It turns out that there is a class of transitive verbs called ditransitive verbs. As you might guess from the nomenclature, ditransitive verbs take two objects, viz:

Klaus gave the poison to Sunny. [“poison” = direct object, “Sunny” = indirect object]

If you’re already positively giddy with excitement about transitive and ditransitive verbs, you’ll really love what comes next. There are actually ambitransitive verbs, which can be either transitive or intransitive depending on usage and context. Try this on for size:

The twins played in the snow. [intransitive, no object]

Django Reinhardt played the guitar. [transitive, “guitar” being the object]

Other ambitransitive verbs include understand, read, and break. “Break” in fact falls into an even more special category of ambitransitive verbs called ergative verbs. Ergative verbs are extra delicious because not only can they be transitive or intransitive, but the change occurs when you make the direct object of the transitive verb into the subject of the intransitive verb. For example: 

Susan broke the cup. [transitive]

The cup broke. [the former object, “cup,” is now the subject, and the verb becomes intransitive]

This is all good and well, but didn’t we start off talking about copulation of some sort? Indeed—and now it’s time for the climax! (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) You’re probably wondering whether those copulative verbs are transitive or intransitive, right? Well, the disappointing answer (and believe me, no one knows more about copulation and disappointment than me) is that copulative verbs are usually thought of as neither transitive nor intransitive. Simply put, a copula (or copulative verb) links or equates the subject of a sentence with the predicate. The main English copula is the verb to be. Some others are become, get, seem, and feel. For example:

Bob is an accountant.

The tiger seemed hungry and ready to pounce.

Now consider the words following the copulae in the above examples: accountant, angry, hungry. Are these direct or indirect objects?  Nope, because as you remember only transitive (”action”) verbs can have an object. What are they then? Ah . . . didn’t we start off talking about something called the “predicative”? Indeed we did, and like the chorus in Journey’s epic “Don’t Stop Believin’,” it finally makes its long-awaited appearance only moments before the conclusion! Those words are predicatives, because they supplement or amplify the subject by means of the verb. If the predicative is a noun, it’s called a predicate nominative of the subject, and if it’s an adjective, it’s the predicate adjective of the subject. So in the above examples, “accountant” is a predicate nominative, and “angry” and “hungry” are both predicate adjectives.

(”Daddy, are we there yet? I have to go potty.” “Yes, children, we are almost there.”)

So how does this all relate to our original question, namely, whether “top of mind” needs to be hyphenated or not? Well, when used as an ordinary, garden-variety adjective, i.e., to modify a noun, “top of mind” should be hyphenated for the sake of clarity, as should all compound adjectives, just like “garden-variety” in this very sentence. This is simply to make matters easier for the reader, who may have to reread the sentence if the first word of the compound adjective is mistakenly parsed as a standalone noun. But when used as a predicate adjective, i.e., after a copulative or linking verb, the words should not be hyphenated as there is no possibility of misinterpreting the phrase. Hence:

The analysis included a number of top-of-mind initiatives that were important to the CEO. [adjective, hyphenated]

The marketing team discussed the five product attributes that the research showed to be top of mind for customers. [predicate adjective, no hyphens]

So now, when a friend, coworker, or angst-ridden teenaged English student asks you, “Should ‘top of mind’ be hyphenated?”, you can reply authoritatively, “If it’s a compound adjective, then yes. But if it’s a predicate adjective following a copulative verb, then no.” Or even more simply: hyphenate before a noun, don’t hyphenate after a verb. And of course, this rule by no means applies only to “top of mind.” It’s the general rule of thumb for all compound adjectives:

The black-and-blue mark was visible even under the tattoo.
                             -but-
The bruise was completely black and blue.

A fifteen-minute break will occur between the acts of the play.
                             -but-
The duration of the intermission was fifteen minutes.

Sometimes, compound adjectives become so commonplace and easily understood that the hyphen disappears completely, as in wallpaper, lawsuit, and housewife. In this case there is no difference between the adjective and predicate adjective forms. For example:

Homemade pie is especially delicious with punch.
                             -and-
The pie Dolores served at Bob’s wake was clearly homemade.

One last thing: The hyphenation rule only applies to compound adjective, not to a combination of an adverb ending in -ly and a participle: fully formed, aptly named, scantily clad, etc. Since the -ly removes any possibility of confusion, these forms are never hyphenated, regardless of whether they come before a noun and function as an adjective, or after a verb and function as a predicate adjective. So:

The scantily clad woman at the post office appeared to be an ecdysiast.
                             -and-
The stripper was scantily clad.

And there you have it—the copulative verb and the hyphenated compound adjective demystified. Happy copulating!