It's not just the pause that helps differentiate the adjectival from the
 nominal reading, but intonation would also play a part. Under the
adjectival reading 'decision' would have relatively even, mid-level
intonation and 'job' would have a high-low contour while under the
nominal reading both 'decision' and 'job' would have high-low contours.

Students often don't realize that intonation is a cue in matters like
this. Similar facts hold for differentiating non/restrictive modifiers.

Though I must say I hear a lot of newsreaders these days who don't
differentiate the two. Perhaps it's the time pressure. Or the news copy
is incorrectly punctuated!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/