1. A minor matter of confusion I have
frequently noticed among users of English as a foreign or second
language has been the problem of realising what are the appropriate
stressings of certain words which exist in one spelling but belong to
different word classes. Quite a large group of such words may or may
not when they are adjectives or nouns exhibit forestress yet show
post-initial stress when they are verbs. These include the following
over one hundred items. Only about one in five of them can contain
exactly the same set of phonemes in both versions (in some variant forms), notably import and torment.
absent, abstract, accent, addict,
advert, affix, affront, alloy, allure, ally, annex, attribute; collect,
combat, combine, commune, compound, compress, concert, conduct,
confine, conflict, conscript, console, consort, content, contest,
contract, contrast, converse, convert, convict; decrease, defect,
defile, descant, desert, detail, dictate, digest, discard, discount,
discourse, dislike, dispute; entrance, escort, essay, excise, expert,
exploit, extract; ferment, frequent; impact, import, impress, imprint, incense,
incline, increase, indent, insult; intern, intrigue, invite, object,
overflow, overhaul, overlap; perfect, perfume, permit, pervert,
present, produce, progress, project, prolapse, prospect, protest,
purport; rampage, rebel, rebound, recap, recoil, record, redress,
refill, refit, reflect/reflex, refund, refuse, rehash, reject, remit,
research, retail; secret(e), subject, survey, suspect; torment,
transfer, transplant, transport, upset.
2. Although the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary has not at the time of writing (October 2012) got
around to putting on record the forestressed variant of the noun dispute
that version was probably at least
as commonplace among younger people by the end of the seventies. Its
currency was very possibly due largely to its use, frequently
observable in his television appearances, by the late
Maurice MacMillan (1921-1984) Secretary of State for Employment
1972-73 (who seemed to have adopted it to harmonise with the usage of
the (preponderantly northern) trade union officials he had various
negotiations with). It was an
item in the Wells 1988 LPD questionaire for which
respondents showed as the quite large minority of 38% preferring the
forestressed form. The invitation to express an opinion extended to
people from the whole of Britain.
The forestressed version of the noun defect, not given by Murray in the
OED in 1894, and recognised only as a subvariant in the EPD by Jones
from 1917 to 1956, was given priority by Gimson in 1977, and as an item
in the Wells 1988 LPD questionnaire was preferred by 86% of his respondents. It was included in OED2 in 1989.
One such expression,
envelop(e), has a minor
spelling difference. Some other homographic pairs show a stress
difference not between verb and non-verb but between noun and adjective
or verb and other verb with different senses eg alternate, compact, invalid, minute and
conjure. Here is a list:
abuse, access, acclaim, accord,
account, address, advance, advice/advise, advocate, affront, ambush,
amend(s), animate, answer, appeal, aspirate, assault, assign(s),
attire, attack, avail; cement, collapse, command, comment, complement,
consent, control; debate, decay, deceive/ceit, decline, decree, defeat,
defend/nce, delay, delight, demise, demur, deposit, desire, despatch,
device/devise, disdain, disguise, disgust, display, dissolve, distance,
distrust, divide, divorce, effect, embrace, excuse, exchange, exhaust,
exhibit, gazette, grimace, implement, index, institute, interest,
mistake, offer, preface, profit, prostitute, receipt, recede/cess,
recourse, recruit, redress, refrain, release, relish, reprieve,
respect, neglect, relay, remand, remark, remove, repair, repeal,
report, reprieve, request, reserve, resolve, resort, respect, revenge,
reverse, review, revolt, salute, surmise.
3. Dialectally one also
finds noted in Webster's Third New
International Dictionary of 1961 or (under "Recessive Accent")
in H. Wentworth's American Dialect
Dictionary 1944 or in both `debate, `delay, “`deevorce” [ibid],
`mistake, `recruit [ibid], `repair [ibid], `report [ibid], `request,
`review, `reward. Whether authentically used or not this last has
featured in various cowboy films. So has "`deemise" heard from John Wayne, like `deevorce, heard in The Searchers.
By contrast com`ment occurs in some
British regional accents.
4. That forestressing for nouns seems to be the "natural" habit seems to be confirmed by the fact that, when I come across new words of the kind which I have no memory of ever having met before in print, leave alone heard uttered, my automatic tendency seems to be to give them front stress. Recent examples have been the words reverb and percept. One can surely not put this down to analogy alone because there are so many examples of the contrary as our lists show.
5. Approximately equally many identically
spelt verb and noun pairs need have no difference of stressing,
including the following:
abuse, access,
acclaim, accord, account, address [$ `--] advance, advice/advise,
advocate, affront, ambush, amend(s), animate, answer, appeal, aspirate,
assault, assign(s), attire, attack, avail; cement, collapse, command,
comment [LPD "§"-`-], complement, consent, contact, control; debate,
decay, deceive/ceit, decline, decree, defeat, defend/nce, delay,
delight, demise, demur, deposit, desire, despatch, device/devise,
disdain, disguise, disgust, display, dissolve, distance, distrust,
divide, divorce, effect, embrace, excuse, exchange, exhaust [cf
Northern `exam], exhibit [also `---], gazette, grimace, implement,
index, interest, mistake, offer, preface, profit, receipt, recede/cess,
recourse, recruit, redress, refrain, relapse, release, relish, repose,
reprieve, respect, neglect, relay, remand, remark, remove, repair,
repeal, report, reprieve, request, reserve, resolve, resort, respect,
revenge, reverse, review, revolt, salute, surmise.
Verbs with forestress are not common eg
contact, conjure, promise, perjure,
forfeit.