Initial-stress-derived Noun

Initial-stress-derived Noun

Initial-stress derivation is a phonological process in English, wherein stress is moved to the first syllable of any of several dozen verbs when they become nouns or adjectives. This is called a suprafix in linguistics. It is gradually becoming more standardized in some English dialects, but is not present in all, and the list of affected words differs from area to area, and whether a word is used metaphorically or not. At least 170 verb-noun (or adjective) pairs exist. Some examples are:

• conflict.

as a verb, "I hope that won't conflíct in any way."

as a noun, "There will be no cónflict."

• record.

as a verb, "Remember to recórd the show!".

as a noun, "I'll keep a récord of that request."

• permit.

as a verb, "I won't permít that."

as a noun, "We already got a pérmit."