Re: Ice tea and Robin Hood

Paul Bennett wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:04:23 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
> wrote:
>
>> Paul Bennett scripsit:
>>
>>> I'd say it's verging on compoundhood, but it has the stress pattern
>>> of a
>>> full NP, and not a compound.
>>
>>
>> Indeed.  These things can change, of course: "ice cream" has completely
>> displaced earlier "iced cream".
>
>
> Huh. Yeah. I'd never noticed that, either. This seems like some kind of
> weak evidence that GA and RP have different rates of compund-formation
> from "Adj/Noun" (or "(Noun->Adj)/Noun"?) pairs[*]. The stress pattern on
> (rural North Carolingian) /'a:skr\im/ compares to the UK /'Ajs 'kri:m/ in
> much the same way as in the Robin Hood example. Hmm. There might be a
> thesis in there somewhere, for a suitably determined student.

Not in my dialect (RP-oid English, with hints of Estuary).  Or anyone I
know's.  The /kr\i:m/ is stressed  significantly less than the /Ajs/.

Oh, and, just for the toilet humor value: /a:skr\im/ would be understood
by me as 'arse cream'.  A slight difference in meaning, I think,