Re: Invention of the Alphabet

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

       Perhaps we use stress in English to clear up syntactic
ambiguity.  How about German Bundesnachrichtdienst, Federal
Intelligence Agency (their version of the US CIA).   In
English you could say *Federal* Intelligence Agency to
emphasize that it's a federal agency and not a regional one,
Federal *Intelligence* Agency to emphasize that it's an
intelligence agency and not a social services agency, or put
about equal stress on all words and say them quickly (I
think) to refer to that specific organization. So, does that
mean that English "Federal Intelligence Agency" is one word?
  I've no idea how that would all come out in German,
though obviously the name of the organization itself is a
single word.

       I read about this in an old book that I know is outdated,
and I wondered what the current thinking is.  Can't think of
any examples from that book.


As Greg and I mentioned yesterday, there's no universal definition of
"word."

I guess that's my answer, that it would depend how you define "word". So, the Germans think of the name BND as one word, but the Federal Intelligence Agency, in English, isn't one word, even though stress patterns give further information.

Can you think of the name of the book?

I think it was Hall, Robert A., Jr. "There's Nothing Wrong with Your Language." Linguistics and Your Language. 1960. Bloomfield was the state of the art in this book. I had just started reading about linguistics.

Dennis

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Invention of the Alphabet
    ... German word "Bundesrepublik" "Federal Republic". ... I've heard that in English, stress patterns in some word combinations indicate that they are one word, such that in something like German they would be written as such. ... In English you could say *Federal* Intelligence Agency to emphasize that it's a federal agency and not a regional one, Federal *Intelligence* Agency to emphasize that it's an intelligence agency and not a social services agency, or put about equal stress on all words and say them quickly to refer to that specific organization. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Invention of the Alphabet
    ... >>>that in English, stress patterns in some word combinations ... The standard example in the olden days was "lighthouse ... > Intelligence Agency. ...
    (sci.lang)