"culturally-specifc"

Question

why is it "culturally-SPECIFIC" instead of cuturally-exclusive?Is there any other example of a compound term consisted of the word "specific"?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

maelstromwhy is it "culturally-SPECIFIC" instead of cuturally-exclusive?

Because it may not be exclusive to that culture, but only specific to it.

maelstromIs there any other example of a compound term consisted of the word "specific"?

I think it's reasonably common. Here are the number of instances from COCA:

1 SITE-SPECIFIC 298
2 GENDER-SPECIFIC 247
3 DOMAIN-SPECIFIC 227
4 AGE-SPECIFIC 195
5 NON-SPECIFIC 123
6 SPORT-SPECIFIC 96
7 TASK-SPECIFIC 93
8 DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC 91
9 SPECIES-SPECIFIC 88
10 CULTURE-SPECIFIC 87
11 INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC 74
12 CONTEXT-SPECIFIC 73
13 SITUATION-SPECIFIC 61
14 COUNTRY-SPECIFIC 58
15 SUBJECT-SPECIFIC 58
16 ***-SPECIFIC 56
17 PROSTATE-SPECIFIC 53
18 VISION-SPECIFIC 49
19 RACE-SPECIFIC 40
20 CONTENT-SPECIFIC 39
21 CAUSE-SPECIFIC 35
22 DISEASE-SPECIFIC 35
23 SECTOR-SPECIFIC 34
24 FIRM-SPECIFIC 32
25 DISABILITY-SPECIFIC 31
26 WOMEN-SPECIFIC 31
27 CLASS-SPECIFIC 29
28 REGION-SPECIFIC 29
29 TISSUE-SPECIFIC 29
30 CANCER-SPECIFIC 27
31 LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC 24
32 APPLICATION-SPECIFIC 23
33 JOB-SPECIFIC 23
34 STATE-SPECIFIC 23
35 CASE-SPECIFIC 21
36 COMPANY-SPECIFIC 21
37 ISSUE-SPECIFIC 21
38 PATIENT-SPECIFIC 21
39 PLACE-SPECIFIC 21
40 COURSE-SPECIFIC 20
41 FREQUENCY-SPECIFIC 20
42 ACCULTURATION-SPECIFIC 19
43 EVENT-SPECIFIC 19
44 HOST-SPECIFIC 19
45 COMMUNITY-SPECIFIC 17
46 PRODUCT-SPECIFIC 17
47 SCHOOL-SPECIFIC 17
48 ITEM-SPECIFIC 16
49 PROJECT-SPECIFIC 16
50 TIME-SPECIFIC 16
51 AREA-SPECIFIC 15
52 ETHNIC-SPECIFIC 15
53 LOCATION-SPECIFIC 14
54 CHILD-SPECIFIC 13
55 GENRE-SPECIFIC 13
56 GROUP-SPECIFIC 13
57 MUSCLE-SPECIFIC 13
58 STUDY-SPECIFIC 13
59 CYCLING-SPECIFIC 12
60 FACT-SPECIFIC 12
61 HOSPITAL-SPECIFIC 12
62 PROGRAM-SPECIFIC 12
63 SOCCER-SPECIFIC 12
64 STAGE-SPECIFIC 12
65 WOMEN'S-SPECIFIC 12
66 CLIENT-SPECIFIC 11
67 CONDITION-SPECIFIC 11
68 FEMALE-SPECIFIC 11
69 SOURCE-SPECIFIC 11
70 TAXON-SPECIFIC 11
71 TUMOR-SPECIFIC 11
72 CROP-SPECIFIC 10
73 CULTURALLY-SPECIFIC 10
74 INTRA-SPECIFIC 10
75 MARKET-SPECIFIC 10
76 MEDIUM-SPECIFIC 10
77 MODEL-SPECIFIC 10
78 MORE-SPECIFIC 10
79 OFFENSE-SPECIFIC 10
80 SMOKE-SPECIFIC 10
81 ACTIVITY-SPECIFIC 9
82 DRUG-SPECIFIC 9
83 GRADE-SPECIFIC 9
84 POPULATION-SPECIFIC 9
85 PROFESSION-SPECIFIC 9
86 SIZE-SPECIFIC 9
87 SKI-SPECIFIC 9
88 BIKE-SPECIFIC 8
89 CITY-SPECIFIC 8
90 DISC-SPECIFIC 8
91 ECOSYSTEM-SPECIFIC 8
92 EXERCISE-SPECIFIC 8
93 HABITAT-SPECIFIC 8
94 IMPLEMENTATION-SPECIFIC 8
95 MALE-SPECIFIC 8
96 MISSION-SPECIFIC 8
97 NON-GENDER-SPECIFIC 8
98 SAMPLE-SPECIFIC 8
99 SPORTS-SPECIFIC 8
100 STATUS-SPECIFIC

GPY · Answer

maelstromwhy is it "culturally-SPECIFIC" instead of cuturally-exclusive?

On an incidental point, I would not hyphenate "culturally specific" (or any other compound with an -ly adjective), though I would hyphenate the compounds where the first element was a noun, such as most (all?) of the ones in Mister Micawber's list.

Philip · Answer

GPY maelstromwhy is it "culturally-SPECIFIC" instead of cuturally-exclusive?On an incidental point, I would not hyphenate "culturally specific" (or any other compound with an -ly adjective), though I would hyphenate the compounds where the first element was a noun, such as most (all?) of the ones in Mister Micawber's list.

Yes. Even though I rather like the idea of connecting, the reference I use says not to hyphenate the -ly words. It doesn't say why, but someone else pointed out to me on a recent post that it's because the -ly words are easily recognized as adverbs.

"culturally-specifc"

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