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Gary Eickmeier
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 7:31 am
Post subject: Produce |
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Just a tidbit that I hadn't thought about before, in my many heady years
of being an unqualified language expert.
We pronounce "produce" with the accent on the second syllable. "I have
produced a document second to none." However, when we go to the grocery
store, we enter a department with lots of fruits and vegetables that is
generally known as the "produce" department, with the accent on the
first syllable. And I can't see it otherwise.
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
Gary Eickmeier
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Michael DeBusk
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 1:06 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 01:31:17 GMT, Gary Eickmeier
<geickmei@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
| Quote: | So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
|
It's an interesting question. What you're talking about is called
"lexical ambiguity". Another is "record".
--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet? |
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John Flynn
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:13 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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Michael DeBusk wrote:
| Quote: | Gary Eickmeier wrote:
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
It's an interesting question. What you're talking about is called
"lexical ambiguity". Another is "record".
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And "insult".
And "rebel".
--
johnF
"To call oneself a reductionist will sound, in some circles, a bit like
admitting to eating babies." -- _The Blind Watchmaker_, Richard Dawkins
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:30 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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Gary Eickmeier typed thus:
| Quote: | Just a tidbit that I hadn't thought about before, in my many heady years
of being an unqualified language expert.
We pronounce "produce" with the accent on the second syllable. "I have
produced a document second to none." However, when we go to the grocery
store, we enter a department with lots of fruits and vegetables that is
generally known as the "produce" department, with the accent on the
first syllable. And I can't see it otherwise.
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
|
It's common where the same word is used for both verb and noun.
Here's a list:
http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/pronunciation/nv02.html
--
David
=====
replace the first component of address
with the definite article. |
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Alan Jones
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 4:43 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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"Michael DeBusk" <m_debusk@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:e8odd.3441$ta5.837@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
| Quote: | On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 01:31:17 GMT, Gary Eickmeier
geickmei@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
It's an interesting question. What you're talking about is called
"lexical ambiguity". Another is "record".
|
Also "conduct" and perhaps "research",among others. For some such words
there may be a Pondian difference. In BrE "adDRESS" is both noun and verb,
but I believe in AmE the noun is "ADDress", at least for the "where one
lives" sense. Sometimes the stress varies according to the rhythm of a
phrase: I would say "reSEARCH facilities" but "REsearch fellow of a
college", because (I suppose) of a wish to avoid two consecutive stressed
syllables (my default is "reSEARCH" for both noun and verb).
Alan Jones |
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Odysseus
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:47 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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Gary Eickmeier wrote:
| Quote: |
Just a tidbit that I hadn't thought about before, in my many heady years
of being an unqualified language expert.
We pronounce "produce" with the accent on the second syllable. "I have
produced a document second to none." However, when we go to the grocery
store, we enter a department with lots of fruits and vegetables that is
generally known as the "produce" department, with the accent on the
first syllable. And I can't see it otherwise.
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
I don't know why either, but there are several noun/verb homonyms |
that are distinguished in speech by a similar change in stress. Other
examples, off the top of my head, include "convert", "dispatch",
"forearm", "pervert", "retard", and "subject". Sometimes the earlier
stress marks an adjective instead of (or in addition to) a noun, e.g.
"perfect", but there are also noun/adjective pairs, like "content",
in which the adjective has the later stress. (This last is actually a
noun/adjective/verb triplet, with the adjective matching the verb
instead of the noun.)
--
Odysseus |
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Pat Durkin
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:58 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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"Alan Jones" <atj@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Ijrdd.118804$BI5.37654@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
| Quote: |
"Michael DeBusk" <m_debusk@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:e8odd.3441$ta5.837@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 01:31:17 GMT, Gary Eickmeier
geickmei@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
So why the difference? Or is this the way it commonly is?
It's an interesting question. What you're talking about is called
"lexical ambiguity". Another is "record".
Also "conduct" and perhaps "research",among others. For some such words
there may be a Pondian difference. In BrE "adDRESS" is both noun and
verb,
but I believe in AmE the noun is "ADDress", at least for the "where one
lives" sense. Sometimes the stress varies according to the rhythm of a
phrase: I would say "reSEARCH facilities" but "REsearch fellow of a
college", because (I suppose) of a wish to avoid two consecutive stressed
syllables (my default is "reSEARCH" for both noun and verb).
|
I think that in the US, adDRESS as a noun is almost as frequent as ADDress
(especially in the request "What is your name and adDRESS, please?" And
let's not get into the is/are issue.
In AUE about 4 months ago we had a long thread with lists of verb-noun
stress shifting.
I think it was begun with a discussion of reSEARCH v REsearch, as well as
ofFEND/ ofFENSE/ OFfense (and the range for defense/deFENSE/DEfense) |
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Gary Eickmeier
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:03 pm
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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the Omrud wrote:
Wow. Thanks. Didn't know what I was uncovering.
Gary Eickmeier |
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Michael DeBusk
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:16 am
Post subject: Re: Produce |
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On 20 Oct 2004 04:13:08 -0400, John Flynn <johnpf@lineone.net> wrote:
| Quote: | "lexical ambiguity". Another is "record".
And "insult".
And "rebel".
|
I wanted to list a whole bunch of them, but for some reason only the
one came to mind. :)
--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet? |
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