Who is Rosetta Stone?

[Wilson Gray]

Damn it, Larry! You're scaring me! Once I start to doubt my own
intuitions, I'm through. Or should that be, "I'm done"? IAC, I am in
complete agreement with you WRT Plymouth ROCK.

-Wilson

On 1/22/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Who is Rosetta Stone?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:46 PM -0500 1/22/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >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
>
> I also say "Plymouth ROCK", so it's not just poor Rosetta I'm
> slighting.  I think it's that these are more like "Fifth AVenue" or
> "Raglan ROAD" than like "Forty-SECond Street", in that neither stones
> nor rocks are semantically empty or unmarked enough to warrant the
> stress retraction.
>
> Larry
>
> >
> >
> >On 1/22/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>  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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