"Declaration"
Warning: this post makes what is arguably the most trivial observation possible about the Iraq WMD declaration.
I've noticed something strange about the pronunciation of the word "declaration." When it refers to something ordinary or unremarkable, as in a custom's declaration, it is pronounced exactly as you'd expect a word derived from "declare" to sound. Deh-clair-ation, rhyming with "narration" or "serration." Yet when the thing declared is unusually important or momentous, such as the Declaration of Independence, people tend to say deh-clor-ation, rhyming with "exploration." Say it aloud, and let me know if you get different results than I do. It seems like a difference in pronunciation that has a consistent semantic significance: a declaration is nothing special, while a decloration is a big deal.
Until this weekend, I had thought that the Declaration of Independence was the only case where declaration is pronounced decloration. Now, it turns out, the Iraqi government's recent scanty list of its WMD programs is a decloration as well. At least, that's how everyone is saying it on TV.
Testing it out on myself, I, like almost everyone else I've ever heard, say the Decloration of Independence. Reading it aloud, my eyes see the word "declaration," but "decloration" comes out of my mouth. I suppose my internal semantic-phonological calibrator is out of synch with that of all the TV people, though, because my inclination is to call the Iraqi WMD document a declaration. Rightly or wrongly, it doesn't seem to rise to the exalted level of a decloration. Maybe I instinctively understand something about this document that they don't; or maybe it's the other way around. Or maybe the whole thing is just a big insignificant coincidence or lack thereof. I'm not sure, and my brain is beginning to hurt.
Told you it would be trivial.
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 20, 2002 05:40 PM | TrackBack