Re: "Fair Use" Not                in OED

RonButters at AOL.COM RonButters at AOL.COM
Wed Feb 15 20:20:29 UTC 2006


In a message dated 2/15/06 2:09:14 PM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:


> Ron,
>
> But wouldn't this compounding (and hence stress assignment) use have
> followed from the establishment of the "term"? On the other hand,
> that's a historical question (the one I had in mind primarily), and
> you are quite right, learned colleague, to have guided David into
> distinguishing the current uses by pointing out this difference.
>
> dInIs
>

Thank you, fellow learned colleague. I suppose it is true that compounds
always have a social history, else they would not have become compounds?

It is also the case that stress placement is not quite so simple as the intro
texts make it out to be. See Fudge, for example. Thus one could place the
stress in the following in various ways:

Sending Jones to the Yankees in exchange for Smith was, it seems to me, a
fair use of a morally rotten scoundral.

Also, FAIR USE in the legal sense is quite often used as an adjunct (FAIR USE
LAWS) which messes up the stress.

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