Post by Horace LaBadiePost by l***@hotmail.comThe dictionary does not give me clear idea what is the difference
between these 2 words. But it seems to me there is sort of difference.
Could you give me a hint?
Living things congregate. Inanimate objects aggregate.
That's the primary meaning difference between the verbs. There are also
differences in usages, pronunciation, and derivation as well.
The verbs are both stressed on the first syllable, with a secondary stress
on the last syllable, which is therefore pronounced /geyt/. The derived
noun 'aggregate', on the other hand, has an unstressed final syllable, so
it's pronounced /***@t/. The noun is also used as an adjective (or else it's
a derived adjective used also as a noun; you pays your money and you takes
your choice), and it's pretty common in both uses, often with special
senses:
Add the aggregate right after the rebar is positioned.
[= concrete sp.]
The aggregate sum of the receipts will be posted tomorrow.
[= total]
There is no similar noun(~adjective) 'congregate', by contrast;
*He spoke seriously to the congregate.
*The congregate sum of parishioners is 2,506.
There *is* a derived noun 'congregation', which refers either to a cluster
of people (by convention, the members of a particular church or the audience
at a particular religious service) or the act of congregating. And also
'aggregation', which refers similarly to a cluster of things or the act of
aggregating.
Since the normal subject of 'congregate' is human, it doesn't have a
causative, while 'aggregate' does:
*Mr. Smith congregated the worshippers in the sacristy.
Mr. Smith aggregated the hymnals together in one cabinet.
As Peter points out elsethread, the verb 'congregate' is pretty common,
while 'aggregate' is rarer. There's another use of the verb 'aggregate'
that I've heard, though, which gets mixed up (or blended, or eggcorned)
with 'arrogate':
The President has aggregated those powers to himself.
So there's a few differences.
No doubt there are more.
There always are.
-John Lawler www.umich.edu/~jlawler Michigan Linguistics
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"A linguist deaf to the poetic functions of language and
a literary scholar indifferent to linguistics are equally
flagrant anachronisms." -- Roman Jakobson