Kirk Mahoney . com

I saw this in a television commercial.

Problem:
Hyphens and a comma are missing.

Explanation:
The noun “WOOD” and the noun “BASE” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “WOOD” and “BASE” must be hyphenated together.

The adjective “HIGH” and the noun “END” are used together as a modifier of the noun “FURNITURE”, so “HIGH” and “END” must be hyphenated together.

We end up with two modifiers — “WOOD-BASE” and “HIGH-END” — of the noun “FURNITURE”, so we insert a comma between the two modifiers to get the solution.

It seems that the advertising copywriter fell prey to today’s prevalent copywriting style of avoiding hyphens and commas at all costs.

I believe that this style is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to leave out the hyphens and comma than to include them.

Solution:
“WOOD-BASE, HIGH-END FURNITURE”