Regress (pronunciation)
From Hull AWE
Regress is most usually a verb. The rather less usual noun is pronounced differently.
- The verb 'to regress' is stressed on the second syllable: 'ri-GRESS', IPA: /riː ˈgrɛs/. Its general meaning is 'to go back'. There are some more specific and precise meanings.
- In Psychology, it means 'to return to an earlier stage [of mental development]'; psycho-therapists may do this to their patients transitively ("The doctor regressed her to a time before the abuse began"), or people may regress intransitively, as sometimes a sick child may regress to thumb-sucking and other baby-ish behaviour.
- In statistics, certain techniques are known as regressions. To employ such techniques on data can be said to be regressing: one may regress measurements of one sort against measurements of another sort.
- In genetics and other sciences where statistics play a large part, 'a population may regress to the mean'. This is the phenomenon whereby, although individuals may show extremes in a particular characteristic, the offspring of such individuals will tend to a more 'average' position.
- The (rarer) noun 'a regress' is stressed on the first syllable, 'REE-gress', IPA: /ˈriː grɛs/ is less often used than regression, which is the normal noun associated with the statistical and psychological uses of the verb. The noun regress itself is used in Law, in such phrases as 'ingress and regress' (~ going in and going out again); sometimes as an apparent slip for redress; in astronomy as a synonym for retrogradation, or the apparent moving backwards of the planets when seen against the stars; and other restricted technical meanings, in Philosophy, for example (for which see Infinite regress).
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.