Retail
From Hull AWE
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The word retail can have different stresses.
- The adjective (more rarely used as a substantive) retail is stressed on the first syllable: 'REE-tail', IPA: /ˈriː teɪl/.
- The verb 'to retail' has two separate meanings.
- When it means 'to sell [in individual amounts]' (the equivalent of the adjective above) 'to retail' is stressed like it on the first syllable: 're-TAIL', IPA: /ˈriː teɪl/.
- When 'to retail' means 'to tell the story of', 'to recount', it is stressed on the second syllable: 're-TALE', IPA: /ri ˈteɪl/. (This meaning appears to have developed under the influence of the homophone of its second syllable, 'tale'
Note
- This pattern of shifting stress in words that look identical but belong to two separate word classes is quite common in English.
- Quirk (1985) (Appendix I.56 B) describes the most common: "When verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the second to the first syllable. The first syllable, typically a Latin prefix, often has a reduced vowel /ə/ in the verb but a full vowel in the noun: He was con-VICT-ed (IPA: /kən ˈvɪkt ɪd/) of theft, and so became a CON vict (IPA: /ˈkɒn vɪkt/)" [AWE's rendition of IPA].
- There follows a list of some 57 "words having end-stress as verbs but initial stress as nouns in Br[itish] E[nglish]." Note that "in Am[erican] E[nglish], many have initial stress as verbs also". Quirk's list is the foundation of AWE's category:shift of stress. Additions have been made from, amongst others, Fowler, 1926-1996.
- Quirk (1985) (Appendix I.56 B) describes the most common: "When verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the second to the first syllable. The first syllable, typically a Latin prefix, often has a reduced vowel /ə/ in the verb but a full vowel in the noun: He was con-VICT-ed (IPA: /kən ˈvɪkt ɪd/) of theft, and so became a CON vict (IPA: /ˈkɒn vɪkt/)" [AWE's rendition of IPA].
- This pattern of shifting stress in words that look identical but belong to two separate word classes is quite common in English.