[stylist] What am I saying?

[Donna Hill]

Eve,
Chris is right; since there is no comma, it is someone announcing a guest to
a person they are calling "sister." Since you didn't capitalize "sister," it
can't be a nun. But, the term "guest sister" is so unfamiliar to me that the
sentence seems awkward. If you mean it in the sense that we call someone a
"guest speaker," I think I'd want to see a hyphen in there. A hyphen would
make a compound noun out of it and remove any confusion. We don't use the
hyphen in "guest speaker," but the term is commonly understood. "Guest
sister" isn't, hence the hyphen. I know some won't like "guest-sister," but
there is one compound noun that has retained its hyphen, despite the fact
that people universally understand what it means -- ice-cream.
Donna 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 11:41 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] What am I saying?

Eve,

Because there is no punctuation, the sentence means that we have a 'guest
sister', which can be considered an object (sister) with a modifier (guest),
although I don't really know what the term means. I picture the head nun at
a nunnery telling the other nuns, "We have a guest sister," meaning, a guest
who is also a sister. Likewise, it could be at a meeting of African American
women who speak that way. But, the sentence can only be interpreted this way
due to the lack of punctuation. It's exactly like saying 'We have a wooden
table', or, 'We have a blue thunderbird'.

chris


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