vise

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:39 AM +0000 2/22/11, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>I doubt if I'm the only one who found odd Leslie Stahl's
>pronunciation of the word "vise" on "Sixty Minutes" last night (she
>was speaking figuratively):  She said [vaIz].
>
>Is that pronunciation common in some dialect?  Where?  Or was she
>emulating the pretentious pronunciation of "vase" as [vaz]?
>
>--Charlie
>
Maybe if she saw it as "vise" [vaIz] would be a spelling
pronunciation, influenced by "advise" (vs. advice), "revise", etc.  I
do like the idea that it's influenced by [vaz] for "vase",
though--based on what some have claimed about their pecuniary grounds
for pronouncing the latter item (< $100 it's a "vace", over $100 it's
a "vahzz"), maybe a [vaIz] is just an expensive [vaIs].

But what's with this "vise" spelling in the first place?  That wipes
out the treasured ambiguity (cited by H. P. Grice and I'm sure many
others) of "He's caught in the grip of a vice."

LH

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