teacher's query

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 03:53 PM 11/29/00 -0600, you wrote:
>For what it's worth, it follows the pattern of 'concert' in my speech. The
>noun is stressed on the first syllable (DEE-tail), the verb on the second
>(duh-TAIL). As I think about it, actually, the noun can go either way.
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A similar set is AD-dress/ad-DRESS.  The verb (for me) is always ad-DRESS,
but the noun can go either way; prosody of the sentence usually dictates
which way I go:  What's your AD-dress?  Give me your
name and ad-DRESS.

I think the formal/informal distinction is less common, on "detail" too
(pace the dictionary).  But on the vowel distinction, I assume David is
thinking of schwa (or maybe lax /I/) vs. tense /i/ ?

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm