Re: Ambiguity
| From: | Paul Kershaw <ptkershaw@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 20:45 |
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----- Original Message ----
From: Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
> which IIANM also could be disambiguated with stress in English:
> _Mary will feed her 'own baby_
> vs.
> _Mary will feed 'her (own) baby_.
I believe this is what you're saying, but to confirm/clarify:
Child: Why doesn't Jimmy have to help me pick up my toys?
Parent: Because Jimmy has to pick up his 'own toys.
Child: But I don't want to pick up my toys!
Parent: Well, Jimmy picks up 'his own toys. Don't you want to be like him?
In general, in English, exceptional stress placed on a word creates a contrast
between that word and alternatives for the same syntactic location. While this
doesn't apply in the first case, since "his 'own" contrasts with "your," it
does in the second, where "his" contrasts with "your."
-- Paul