| 词组 | incomparable |
| 释义 | incomparable A number of derivatives ending in -hie are accented on a syllable other than the one corresponding to the stressed syllable of the underlying verb. Thus incomparable, irrevocable, irrefutable, and irreparable are normally stressed on the second syllable. The disparity of stress often corresponds to a certain disparity of meaning. Incomparable, for example, typically does not mean literally "not subject to comparison" but "matchless, beyond compare." A few words of this type have not definitely settled on a single pronunciation style: lamentable varies widely between the specially stressed \\\\lam-ǝn-tǝ-bǝl\\\\ and \\\\lǝ-'ment-ǝ-bǝl\\\\, stressed by analogy with the verb lament. And a minority of educated speakers use verb-like pronunciations even for words like irrevocable, although such pronunciations are scorned by some. But we are not dealing here with mere error. Every so often we receive a letter from a correspondent consciously defending \\\\kǝm-'par-ǝ-bǝl\\\\ for comparable when the sense is not "roughly equal" but "suitable for comparison," a meaning more closely tied to the underlying verb. Thus, five cents and a billion dollars would be (in this view) \\\\kǝm-'par-ǝ-bǝl\\\\, whereas one hour and one acre would not be. There are similar cases of different pronunciations for different senses of a word. Ablative gets stress on its first syllable when it is used in the grammatical sense but is pronounced \\\\ǝ-'blāt-iv\\\\ when it means "tending to ablate." Protractor may be pronounced \\\\'prō-,trak-tǝr\\\\ when it designates the geometrical instrument and no longer, in the speaker's mind, has connection with any verb, but \\\\prō-'trak-tǝr\\\\ when it refers to "something that protracts." |
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