Re: Weekly Vocab 6: to know

On Wed, May 07, 2003 at 02:29:21PM -0700, Joe Fatula wrote:
> > True enough.  Whenever an infinitive for "modal can" is called for,
> > "to be able to" is used.  "To can" refers to the process of putting things
> > in cans.  :)
>
> And it's pronounced differently, too, so it's certainly a different word.
> Just like "have" /h&v/ and "have" /h&_rf/, analogous to Spanish "tener" and
> "haber".
Maybe in your idiolect that's true, but I don't think it's true
generally.  At least, it's not true for me.  As I say them,
the only differences between the two uses of "have" and "can"
come from emphasis; most of the time, the main verb is emphasized,
not the modal, so the vowel in the modal gets reduced to a schwa or
even disappears.  But whenever the modal is emphasized, for whatever
reason, it sounds identical to the spelled-alike verb in my pronunciation.
So, for instance, all of these "can"s sound alike (specifically, like
[k&n]):

        Can you can?
        Yes, I can!
        Ah, but can you Can-Can?

As do both of these "have"s ([h&v]):

        I have done it.
        I have it.

-Mark

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