4.6.5. Compounds

Compounds are composed of more than one root morpheme but function grammatically as a single word. In most cases the two roots are free morphemes themselves. Compounds are grammatically unitary when com­binations of the grammatical classes of the two elements would not nor­mally function as the type of constituents which the compound does, e.g. daybreak is composed of the noun day plus the verb breakbut such a com­bination does not always constitute a noun phrase functioning as the subject of a sentence as in Daybreak comes early in summer. A compound is semantically unitary because it has a meaning representing a specialized conjunction of the meanings of its two components, e.g. glasshouse is indeed loosely a type of house and is made of glass but the compound can­not be used to describe any sort of glasshouse.

Compounds may be written as one word as with daybreak and glasshouse, or with a hyphen as in clear-cut, or with the space between the two elements, as in working party: there is no systematic practice in the choice among these three ways, although there is a tendency for compounds with primary stress on the first element to be written as one word or with a hyphen, and for those with primary stress on the final element to be written as two words.

The primary stress in compound nouns is most commonly on the first element, e.g. 'daybreak, 'glasshouse, and in some cases this stress type will distinguish the compound from a more productive phrasal pattern, e.g. a 'glass 'house. Compound verbs and adjectives have the same pattern as phrases, i.e. with a primary accent on the second element: plear-'cut, stage-manage.

There are also differences between the stress patterns of compounds in RP and in GA, e.g. RP 'season ticket, compared with GA season 'ticket. Where the primary stress is on the second element, a secondary stress is usual on the first element. Where the primary stress in on the first element, a full vowel is usually retained in the final element.

4.7. Word accentual instability

The accentual patterns of words are liable to change. Considerable changes of this kind have taken place within the last 300 years, in addition to a large-scale stress shifts affecting French borrowings in ME. Thus, in the seventeenth century, and still in American English, a secondary stress with a strong vowel fell on the penultimate syllable of words such as necessary, adversary, momentary; the earlier distinction between the noun abuse (with primary stress on the first syllable) and the verb abuse (with primary stress on the second syllable) has been lost although in this pair of words a distinction is maintained by the occurrence of/s/ or /z/ finally; we no longer place the primary stress on the second part of revenue, illustrate, confiscate, character, etc., or on the first syllable of humidity, convenient, prosperity etc.

Hesitancy and variation of stress patterns occurring at the present time are the result of rhythmic and analogical pressures, both of which entail in addition considerable changes of sound pattern in words.

(1) Rhythmic changes. In some words containing more than two syllables there appears to be a tendency to avoid a succession of weak syllables, especially if these have /a/ or /i/. Thus, in words of three syllables, there is variation between [' - -] and [- ' -] patterns, e.g. exquisite ['ekskwizit] or [iks'kwizit], deficit ['dehsit] or [di'fisrt], integral ['mtigral] or [m'tegral], mis­chievous ['mistjivas] or ['mistjevas] (or even [mis'tjivias]), kilometer ['kilnmita] or [ki'romita], sonorous ['snnaras] or [sa'ra.ras], premature ['prematja] or [prema'tjua].

Similarly, in words of four syllables, there is variation between first and second syllable accenting, e.g. controversy ['krjntrav3:si] or [kan'trnvasi], hospitable ['hrjspitabl] or [htfspitabl], despicable [di'splkabl] or ['despikabl], formidable [fa'midabl] or ['fomidabl], capitalist ['kaepitalist] or [ka'pitahst], aristocrat ['aenstakraet] or [a'nstakraet]; variation in second and third syllable accenting in words such as centrifugal [sen'tnfjugl] or [sentn'fju:gl], metallurgy [ma'taelad3i] or [met^My]. Television now has the pattern [teh-Vt3h] predominantly, the variant [tehVi3n] being less common.

Longer words, too, often exhibit a tendency towards the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables with various rhythmic patterns, e.g. tuberculosis [,tju:b9kju'lausis] or [tju,b3:kju'lau'sis], articulator [a:'tikjolatn] or [,a:tikju'leitan], Caribbean [ka'nbian] or [кгеп'Ьюп], necessarily [hesasarah] or [.nesa'serili], inexplicable [miks'plikabl] or [m'eksphkabl].

Primary stress is also unstable in some compounds, e.g. camp-fire, life-size, man-handle, overcast. However, the number of truly unstable compounds is relatively small, although many maybe subject to the accentual shift, e.g. after'noon but 'afternoon tea. Many others may vary in their stress pattern between RP and GA, e.g. Adam's 'apple(RP) vs. 'Adam's apple (GA), peanut 'butter (RP) vs. 'peanut butter (GA), shop 'steward (RP) vs. 'shop steward (GA), stage 'manager (RP) vs. 'stage manager (GA), vocal'cords (RP) vs. 'vocalcords (GA), 'season ticket (RP) vs. season 'ticket (GA). As can be seen, most of these involve a shift from final stress in RP to initial stress in GA.

(2) Analogical changes. It sometimes happens that a word's stress pattern is influenced not only by rhythmic pressure but also by the stress structure of a related word of frequent occurrence. Thus, the analogy of the root forms apply [a'plai], prefer [pn'fs:], compare [kam'pea] is responsible for the realization of applicable, preferable, comparable as [a'plikabl, ргЛзтэЫ, kam'pearabl] instead of ['aeplikabl, 'prefrabl, 'квтргэЫ]. Again, the existence of contribution, distribution [krjntn'bju:Jn, distn'bjuijh] may account for the pronunciation ['krtntnbjuit, 'distnbju:t] (contribute, distribute) instead of more usual [kan'tnbju:t, dis'tnbju:t], where the first syllable is totally weakened and the last retains only a certain qualitative prominence. The case of a word such as dispute (п.), for which [di'spju:t] is now more common than ['dispju:t], illustrates stress patterning of the noun by analogy with the related verb (see the stressing of pairs of disyllabic nouns and verbs like ['aeksent] and [aek'sent].