Beth,

I think that I had better make an ammendment to my former post on the contrast between the gerund and imperfect participle.  I find that I myself vacilate between the two pronunciations.  There is more going on here.  I am inclined now to think that the distinction between the two meanings in "Flying planes can be dangerous" is not so much in the formation of "ng", but in the stress contour of the two words.  If I give greater stress to the first word, it is likely a gerund contrasting the phrase with "planes on the ground."  If I give greater stress to the second word, it is likely a participle contrasting the phrase with "riding in planes."  Of course the larger context of the speech act can be decisive. (The "ng" seems to be in free variation.)

Thanks for the gentle nudge your post gave me in this direction.  (Algeo might have gone with ESP. :) )

Bruce

--- [log in to unmask] wrote:

From: Beth Young <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Take me fishing - Make me smile - Reed-Kellogg diagrams
Date:         Wed, 5 Jan 2011 15:54:24 -0500

Ah, I understand this better now--thanks, Bruce.  You're right that the difference is a subtle one.

Sometimes I assign students to test these sorts of ambiguous statements on a friend, e.g., old maid meaning "spinster" vs old maid meaning "aged servant."  They are to just speak the words with different meanings in mind and see if their listener can guess the correct meaning.  After that, we discuss the extent to which writing and speech overlap.  Which differences are more apparent in speech vs writing, and why?  

I think one of the HEL workbooks (Algeo?) has an exercise like this.  I was also inspired by the fact that one of my children's favorite Christmas gift is a Snoopy with chocolate balls.  In speech, it is easy to tell whether Snoopy is accompanied by a box of ball-shaped chocolates, or whether he has chocolate testicles.  :)

Beth

>>> Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]> 01/05/11 3:45 PM >>>

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