Syntax and Context

One World Government

By Ken Hutchins

Recently, I’ve encountered much mention of a futuristic world wherein there is only one entity to govern everyone. The written phrase to describe this is usually:

 one world government

Note that this phrase, as commonly written, has no hyphen, but when spoken it is almost always verbalized as though the words one and world constitute a combined-form adjective that should be written:

one-world government

[Also note that the same contrivance is sometimes applied to religion and should be written: one-world religion.

I do not have the same concern for new world order. New, as it is not enumerative, and is, thus, exempt from my criticism. I am incessantly reconsidering this.

So what would be a two-world or a three-world government? This rhetorical question draws out what I call the enumerative issue of one-world government (unless we populate other worlds).

Furthermore, I don’t know of a country that is not governed by a one-world government. All governments are confined to be in this one world and have no jurisdictions in other worlds. Hence every government is a so-called one-world government.]

If you say this aloud you may experience its practical effect. The fact that world is one syllable makes this natural to verbalize as one and world are rapidly uttered almost as if they form a single word, oneworld.

The hyphen, when the phrase is written, confirms its adjective role. And if we were to move the hyphen to between world and government, we would produce a hyphenated noun, thus altering the meaning again. In fact, contriving the hyphenated noun improves the meaning when written, and when spoken, the speaker would place a brief pause between one and world. Thus, world and government would sound closer together as if a single word: worldgovernment.

And replacing one with single improves the verbiage yet more:

We expect to someday have a single world government.

Some might go so far as to use two hyphens, thus making the whole phrase work as a noun… and serving no good distinctive purpose for the hyphen, as in:

one-world-government

This would still be spoken as if the first two words were a combined-form adjective and still indicate the incorrect idea.

I believe that the original phrase (without the hyphen) is intended to mean:

one-government world (as opposed to: one-world government).

And since government is multi-syllabic, the combined-form adjective of one-government does not as easily roll off the tongue, but it ensures accuracy. I believe that a cognizant speaker and writer uses this phraseology instead of the presently ubiquitous one-world government.

Again, at least in my experience—perhaps in yours as well—the original phrase (without the hyphen) is commonly spoken with a quick enunciation of the first two words (one and world). This provides the preponderance of weight to my opinion that the two words are intended to be expressed as a combined-form adjective. If equal weight were to be given to all three words of the phrase when spoken, it might render a different (improved) effect, but even so, this does not assure accuracy with the written word.

This change of meaning is facilitated by the syntax but is also context dependent. And we must expand into a complete sentence to consider the context.

If we consider:

The sovereignty of our federal government, our state government, our county government, and our municipal government will be superseded by one world government.  

We now have no need of a hyphen as one world is neither verbalized or written as a combined-form adjective. Instead of being adjective, it is now enumerative but with respect to government, not to world. And note that world government is consistent with the usage of federal government, state government, county government, and municipal government in this sentence.

[My usage of adjective in the previous paragraph is as a noun in the first instance and as an adjective in the second.]

Still, the sentence is improved by replacing one with a single. And the proper conveyance of the sentence is defeated by inserting an a in front of one. Granted, both one and single are enumerative, but again, they are enumerative with respect to government, not to world.

[Note: In the 1970s, language research with chimpanzees revealed that even the chimpanzees distinguished the difference between “me give” and “give me.”]

[This is a tedious discussion. Please comment if you have insight on this subject. I may not the best to sort this.]

Books by Ken Hutchins