box set

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:59 PM -0500 1/30/02, James A. Landau wrote:
>In a message dated 01/30/2002 5:24:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>einstein at FROGNET.NET writes:
>
>>  There are a number of well-established noun adjuncts like "baby carriage,"
>>   gas station," "government agency" which may be used as the models for "can
>>   food drive," "L. I. ice tea" and the like.  They are gaining acceptance
>>   although the individual ones like "box set" or "bottle water" may strike us
>>   as novel.
>
>I think that there are three separate processes that can contribute to the
>dropping of the past participle suffix.
>
>1) phonetic.  There is a limit to what even native speakers of English can
>accomplish.  In "boxed set", even by English language standards, the phonetic
>combination /ksts/ is preposterous.  Try saying it out loud.  You will either
>say /bahkset/ or have to insert a noticeable pause before the /s/ of set.
>Similarly with "iced tea".  To pronounce it as /aisdtee/ requires you to quit
>voicing a stop (plosive) halfway through, which I suppose can be done but
>which is not a normal phonetic pattern in English.
>

You're right about the phonetics, of course, but there's a stage of
reanalysis needed.  I would always have referred to those
three-in-one Vox Boxes some of my fellow ancients may remember as
"boxed sets" in writing, but I'm sure I'd have pronounced them as
"box sets" for the reason Jim gives.

>3) occasionally there is the influence of a similar-sounding expression.  For
>"box set" the speaker may unwittingly draw an analogy with "box seat".
>
Good point, as is the one not copied here about the semantic grounds
for reanalysis.  I'm just saying that there are speakers who delete
the /t/ in production but still have the participle in their mental
(and orthographic) representation.   Incidentally, I think the
undeleted version would have to be /aistti:/ with a geminate, not
/aisd/ with voicing:  compare "I'd like my coffee iced", which can
only  be /aist/.

larry