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Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006Culture-neutral or culturally-neutral way?
Hello. Which of the following two forms would be more appropriate when referring to something that is done without regard to one or other particular culture? 1) culture-neutral way 2) culturally-neutral way My initial impulse led me to write 1), but I would like to be sure. Thank you,  SignatureNey André de Mello Zunino > Which of the following two forms would be more appropriate when > referring to something that is done without regard to one or other > particular culture? > > 1) culture-neutral way This is perfectly grammatical, but > 2) culturally-neutral way this should be written as "culturally neutral way", and then it is also perfectly grammatical. I would prefer 2) to 1) were I forced at gunpoint to choose between the two; however, if it appeared in a sentence such as "The performance was done in a culturally neutral way", I would prefer "The performance was culture-neutral": "way" is not essential for understanding and is, in fact, a verbosity. > My initial impulse led me to write 1), but I would like to be sure. It would be better if you gave us some context. It's almost impossible to make a decent judgment without a context. SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com "Impatience is the mother of misery." > It would be better if you gave us some context. It's almost > impossible to make a decent judgment without a context. Thanks for your remarks. Here is the context: "The fundamental elements of the UNL are the Universal Words or UWs. Each UW represents a real-world concept in a culture-neutral way." Regards, SignatureNey André de Mello Zunino >> It would be better if you gave us some context. It's almost >> impossible to make a decent judgment without a context. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > the Universal Words or UWs. Each UW represents a real-world > concept in a culture-neutral way." A "culturally neutral way" is my choice. SignatureFranke: EFL teacher & medical editor Native speaker of American English; posting from Taiwan. Unmunged email: /at/easypeasy.com "Impatience is the mother of misery." > A "culturally neutral way" is my choice. I agree. If we can express it without the hyphenated compound, then we should. And in 'culturally neutral way', a hyphen wouldn't be required. Cheers, Peter Ney André de Mello Zunino asks the question in the subject line. "Franke": > > A "culturally neutral way" is my choice. Peter Tan: > I agree. If we can express it without the hyphenated compound, then > we should. And in 'culturally neutral way', a hyphen wouldn't be > required. On the other hand, "culturally" has several related meanings: - relating to sophisticated, "cultured" behavior - relating to the way things are done in the one relevant culture - relating to the differences between cultures So there is a momentary ambiguity until the word "neutral" makes it clear that the third sense is intended. The use of the hyphenated "culture-neutral" avoids this by forcing the words to be taken as a unit. In addition, it's two syllables shorter than "culturally neutral". Finally, there are other expressions of this form, such as "gender-neutral" and "race-neutral", and it makes sense to parallel these usages. So I think "culture-neutral" is the better choice. SignatureMark Brader "It's simply a matter of style, and while there Toronto are many wrong styles, there really isn't any msb@vex.net one right style." -- Ray Butterworth My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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