e-dress

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wasn't it P.T. Barmun who put up a sign at his Museum reading

                           This Way to the E-Dress?

Oh. "Egress." Right.

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: e-dress
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At 4:46 PM -0500 12/2/04, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Dec 2, 2004, at 4:02 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: Beverly Flanigan
>>Subject: Re: e-dress
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>In fact, I think it's pretty common here to stress the first syllable
>>for
>>the noun (what's your AD-dress?) and the second for the verb (a-DRESS
>>me
>>politely!). Do most of you agree?
>
>For me, the difference is slightly finer. I use the end-stressed
>version for any instance wherein "address," merely under other
>circumstances, *could* be a verb. E.g. Lincoln's Gettysburg [@DRES] :
>the speech vs. Lincoln's Gettysburgh [AEdres] : his summer home.
>There's a Wahnuh Brudduhs cahtoon in which Bugs Bunny, as Lincoln,
>says, "Write me at my Gettysburg [@DRES]" = "Write me at my speech."
>For me, this pun loses much of its punch, if Bugs says, instead, "Write
>me at my Gettysburgh [AEdres]" = "Write me at my house."
>
Nice one. For me too, a speech is always an [@'drEs], but the
location or printed directions to it can be either that or ['aedrEs],
in what might or might not be free variation. Given the optional
front stress, both the Bugs Bunny pun and the e-dress innovation work
nicely.

larry


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