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/