Fallacy of accent
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The fallacy of accent (also prosody, accentus, misleading accent) occurs when the meaning of a text is changed by what word or words are stressed, and either (1) a word different than the author's intent is stressed or (2) it's unknown which word should be stressed. The meaning of a word or set of words may be drastically changed by the way they are spoken, without changing the words themselves.
The fallacy was first coined by Aristotle, who pointed out that a word with one spelling could have different pronunciation and different meaning, which effectively created multiple words. Because the written Greek of Aristotle's time had no diacritical marks,
it was occasionally impossible to tell the author's intent.[1][2][3]
It is an informal fallacy and a fallacy of ambiguity, in that it removes context that is necessary to understand the statement.
Examples[edit]
Different sentences[edit]
Who took the test?[edit]
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took a different one.)
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)
- I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)[1]
Can you imagine?[edit]
Situation 1:
Amy: I can imagine Cal doing that; it's possible.
Bob: Yes, it's possible to imagine him doing that.
- Bob is flatly agreeing with Amy.
Situation 2:
Amy: I can imagine Cal doing that; it's possible.
Bob: Yes, it's possible to imagine him doing that.
- Bob is implying that it's possible, but unlikely, that Cal will do that.
Situation 3:
Amy: I can imagine Cal doing that; it's possible.
Bob: Yes, it's possible to imagine him doing that.
- Bob is implying that it's impossible that Cal will do "that" outside of Amy's imagination.[4]
Who does Amy love?[edit]
- Amy said "I don't really love you now."
- Amy is implying that she loves somebody else.
- Amy said "I don't really love you now."
- Amy is implying that her love is decreased, but still exists.
- Amy said "I don't really love you now."
- Amy is implying that she still feels something for the speaker, but not love.[2]
Not just one word[edit]
At an ice-cream parlour c.1982C.E.:
I've never seen a woman eat a banana like that.
- Spurred-on by the risqué implication of possible sex-acts, eleven or so of us seemingly exhausted the different sentences implied by accenting a single word in that ur-sentence, then proceeded on to accenting two or more words, ending with
I've never seen a woman eat a banana like that.
- The speaker claims to have experienced someone or something other than a woman literally or figuratively eating something other than a banana via some means other than vision. (In this case the speaker was a man likely claiming to have experienced unseen fellatio from another man.)
Size matters[edit]
It would be illegal to give away
Free Beer![5]
Different words[edit]
| Accent 1 | Meaning 1 | Accent 2 | Meaning 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| accent | an emphasis on a word | accent | to emphasize a word[3] |
| increase | the act of becoming larger | increase | to become greater[3] |
| insult | a disrespectful statement | insult | to speak disrespectfully[3] |
| invalid | an ill person | invalid | (of an argument) faulty[2] |
| record | a log of events | record | to keep track of events[3] |
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 See the Wikipedia article on Accent (fallacy).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/a/Fallacy-Accent-Ambiguity.htm
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 http://www.fallacyfiles.org/onaccent.html
- ↑ http://www.logicalfallacies.info/ambiguity/accent/
- ↑ http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/accent.htm