Re: USAGE: Stress in English

Roger Mills wrote:

>Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
>
>
>>On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 11:21:22AM -0500, Shreyas Sampat wrote:
>>
>>
>>>There are several interacting regularities, but I don't think you can
>>>argue convincingly that stress is phonemic.
>>>
>>>
>>Sure I can.  Here's a minimal pair: /'pr=.mIt/ (n) a document entitling
>>someone to perform some task.   /pr='mIt/ (v) to allow someone (to do
>>something).
>>
>>
>>
>This is "phonemic" in the old-fashioned sense, viewing only the surface
>manifestations.  Consider Shreyas' further statement (which also applies to
>_ínvalid ~inválid_ cited by Teoh)---
>
>
I interpret "phonemic" to mean not only providing distinction, but also,
crucially, unpredictable. Here there's a systematic alternation; that
doesn't do any work to prove phonemicity in this sense. If you were to
have two nouns /'pr=mIt/ and /pr='mIt/, then I'd be persuaded.

--
Sometimes, I stick my hand in a box full of spiders to remind myself
that I can do anything.
Shreyas

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