for the haplogical "unpacked" file

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Aug 5 15:02:27 UTC 2005


The ambiguity of "unpacked"--and in particular the existence of a
haplogical reading interpretable as 'ununpacked', i.e. 'packed'--has
long been recognized.  In a 1988 paper I gave the minimal pair

My suitcase is still unpacked, and my plane leaves in an hour!  [=not
yet packed]
My boxes are still unpacked, and I've been living here a month! [=not
yet unpacked]

and more recently the latter reading has been discussed on
LanguageLog.  Here's a new one on me, but clearly related:

NYT 8/5/05, D1
Judy Battista, "Injured Burress is Back on Waiting List"
[about recurring injuries sidelining New York Giants' free agent pickup]

===================
It is just the first week of training camp, but already receiver
Plaxico Burress, the Giants' biggest off-season acquisition, has
suffered two minor injuries. He hyperextended a knee during the first
practice, though he returned in time for the next session. Then a
sore hip flexor consigned him to an exercise bike and the sideline
for a few days.

  And so the big-play threat the Giants hoped he would provide
quarterback Eli Manning remains unveiled, the possibility of a
towering threesome of Burress (6 feet 5 inches), Amani Toomer (6-3)
and Jeremy Shockey (6-5) casting long shadows on defenders put off a
few more days.
===================

Googling "remains unveiled", "still remains unveiled", "is still
unveiled", etc. pulls in a whole bunch more, although some of them
have the compositional 'unveiled' meaning rather than (as above)
'veiled' or 'ununveiled'.

Larry



More information about the Ads-l mailing list