Re: Country Names -- Local Pronunciations

And Rosta scripsit:

> The great linguist Haj Ross, a great inventor of terminology (him being
> an artist who happened to have a surpassing talent for syntax), called
> this phenomenon "scanting out", named as a result of trying to make
> acceptability judgements about the word _scant_.
This may be related to the effect whereby, on looking into a page in
the dictionary, one becomes irrationally convinced that there is something
very peculiar about words beginning "str-", and starts to wonder if
the whole page is a massive misprint.

> Secondly, although it is true that AmE has "guess" where BrE has
> "suppose" (or "spose"),
For me to say [s@pouz] rather than [spouz] would indicate that the
word was to be taken in its unbleached lexical sense, or else that I
was in a state of barely suppressed rage.

> "suppose" can involve a greater element of deduction ("In the absence
> of evidence to the contrary, I conclude that"), whereas "guess" means
> "guess", even if it is an informed guess.
I don't think this is true for me.  I would have no problem with
"I guess there must be a misprint on page 343", for example, where in
fact I am deducing rather than guessing, but in a situation where a
plain assertion would be inappropriate (because it would embarrass
someone, e.g.).

Can you construct two sentences, one of which takes "guess" but not
"suppose" and the other per contra?

> redundancy get exapted into a meaningful contrast.
I am very happy to see a non-biologist talk of exaptation!

--
John Cowan                                   jcowan@reutershealth.com
        "You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
                --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know

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