RECREATION : RE-CREATION, REPRESENT : RE-PRESENT, AND LEEWARD : LEE#WARD
© 2006 by Orchid Land Publications
[20070402]
There is a growing phenomenon in English, a sort of off-beat kind of
overcorrection in pronunciation that is compounding words erroneously─putting
what linguists call word boundaries where they do not belong because of the way
they affect the sense. . . as in the two items in the first line of the title of
this page. The difference in leeward :
lee#ward is a different sort of over- correction.
Although strictly "un-natural," this re(-)compounding often takes place in
languages. (What is statistically normal can also be unnatural.)
Unlike the items in the first line of the title,
re(-)compounding in leeward does not get rid of important distinctions in
meaning. In this respect, it differs from the other examples.
Recreation─linguistic re+creat+ion
(where + represents a distinct item in word-formation─is
an uncompounded word whose sense is that of taking time off from work to do
something (more) enjoyable. Hyphenated re-creation
(re#creation in linguistic
notation) is, however, a compound word in
which re# means "again." The situation in re-present
(re#pre+sent) is the same; the word means "present again," and thus has a
meaning that contrasts with the sense of uncompounded
re(+)present. The syllabic boundary of both uncompounded words is
indicated by ~: the forms are therefore re+c~reat+ion,
re+p~re+sent (historically: re+p~re+s+ent); their first
syllables sound like wreck and rep, respectively.
In the writer's youth, lee+w~ard rhymed with ste+w~ard. Younger speakers now frequently have re-compounded lee+ward ≈ lee~ward.
Ignorance exhibits itself when one thinks recompounding is a sophisticated approach to pronouncing English, even if the ignorance becomes fashionable. And educated speakers should do better. (One occasionally hears to#wárd re-stressed on the second syllable . . . which is as bad as it gets!.)