adjectives - When is "marked" pronounced with 2 syllables?


I have heard "marked" pronounced with 2 syllables, like "mar-ked": http://forvo.com/word/marked_(adj_-_distinctive_character) but online dictionaries show only the 1-syllable pronunciation.


When should it be pronounced with 2, and is it a mistake to use swap their use?


What about the word "aged"?



Answer



Marked only has two syllables in poetic or archaic usage.


Aged has two syllables when used as a noun (some of the aged need motorised shopping trolleys), or as a "standalone" adjective (an aged relative). It's only one syllable when used as part of a compound adjective (middle-aged relative), or as a verb (I've aged a year since then).


Some words occur in "set phrases" where the extra syllable is effectively part of an archaic contruction (blessed are the meek).


EDIT: Per John Lawler's answer, and comments to mine and his, the word "aged" seems particularly weird. Some people use the one-syllable version for all contexts, but for those who do use the two-syllable version, the precise boundaries as to where this is appropriate seem somewhat hard to pin down.


Speaking for myself, I read this usage of an aged map as being the one-syllable version, but if my "mental lips" were moving while I read, I would say this one as "an agéd map". I can't easily articulate the distinction, but the agéd version seems more appropriate to people, or where the attribution of antiquity implies venerable rather than old and tatty, ravaged by time.


In the case of aged cheese, wine, etc, they're not normally that old anyway - the word just means they've been matured for the appropriate length of time, not that they are ancient.


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