Who is Rosetta Stone?

[Wilson Gray]

Larry, I agree with you that "RoSETta Stone" is contrastive. But, I
also agree with Paul's intuition that it is also the proper intonation
pattern.

-Wilson


On 1/22/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Who is Rosetta Stone?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >?There is a radio commercial for a language learning program called
> >"Rosetta Stone".  The enthusiastic radio announcer pronounces the
> >program like the name of a person, "RoSETta STONE", not like the
> >name of a famous archaeological artifact, the "RoSETta stone".  I
> >just saw a television commercial for the same product.  This time,
> >the announcer pronounces the term correctly as "RoSETta stone",
> >but the two or three satisfied customers who refer to the product by
> >name intone it like the personal name "RoSETta STONE", as does
> >another announcer at the end who tells the viewer how to buy the
> >product.  I wonder whether this commercial, on radio and television,
> >is increasing the proportion of Americans who think that Rosetta
> >Stone is a person.
> >
> >In checking the Buffalo telephone directory, I find there are five
> >people named "R Stone", none of whom will spell out her first name.
> >Hey, an idea:  The next time linguists hold a convention, offer free
> >admission or some other goody to anyone who can produce I.D. as
> >Rosetta Stone.
> >
> >-- Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY)
> >
> >P.S.  According to the Wikipedia article
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone,
> >the Rosetta Stone acquired its name because it was found near the
> >Egyptian port city
> >of Rosetta (present-day Rashid).
> >
> Actually, I've always pronounced it (the artifact, not the language
> learning program) "the Rosetta STONE".  Maybe it's just me.  ("The
> RoSETta Stone" strikes me as contrastive.)
>
> Larry
>
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