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Is this the correct term for words which are nouns when the first syllable is stressed, and verbs when the second syllable is stressed? Examples include PERmit and perMIT, and CONtract, and conTRACT.

There are frequently-occurring suffixes such as '-ject' and '-tract', but are there any other relevant rules and patterns?

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    Sorry, but as a native BrE speaker I do not recognise this stress pattern. I pronounce permit and contract without any stress whether they be as nouns or verbs. – Peter Jennings May 30 '23 at 01:08
  • @PeterJennings — In BrE, does one really sign a CONtract and CONtract a disease? In AmE, we sign a CONtract and conTRACT a disease. We buy a PERmit that perMITs us to park. – Tinfoil Hat May 30 '23 at 02:52
  • @TinfoilHat No I personally would say "sign a contract and contract a disease". However I will concede that some may put stress on either of the syllables. It's probably a matter of personal preference, dialect or opinion. – Peter Jennings May 30 '23 at 10:32
  • @TinfoilHat As a native AmE speaker, my experience is that the stress pattern is often so subtle as to be unnoticeable, especially in cases like permit where the noun and verb are very closely related. Contract as in contract a disease is pronounced distinctly, but contract as in sign an agreement to do something is usually indistinguishable from contract as in the agreement signed. – Ryan Jensen May 30 '23 at 15:09
  • @RyanJensen That other sense of the verb "contract" is different. It is worth noting that stress is phonemic in English; pairs like insight and incite would be homophones if not for the difference in syllable stress. – alphabet May 30 '23 at 19:43
  • ("Record," "permit,," "suspect" and "insult" might be better examples.) – alphabet May 30 '23 at 19:45
  • @alphabet That distinction is exactly what I was trying to highlight. When the noun and verb have closely linked meanings as in permit and suspect, the difference in stress tends to be subtle or absent, though it is more pronounced in homophones without directly related meanings, like incite/insight or contract/contract (with regard to disease). – Ryan Jensen May 30 '23 at 19:55
  • @PeterJennings To me the difference in "permit" and "suspect" is very sharp; I don't think I'd ever pronounce them with any other stress pattern, and I don't think I've heard other people do that either, in any dialect. – alphabet May 30 '23 at 20:01
  • @RyanJensen — What’s interesting is that we might say I bought a PERmit so now I am PERmitted [adjective from passive meaning] vs. I bought a PERmit, so now I am perMITTED [allowed] to park here. – Tinfoil Hat Jun 01 '23 at 03:18

1 Answers1

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Is this the correct term for words which are nouns when the first syllable is stressed, and verbs when the second syllable is stressed?

Yes. Wikipedia has more on initial-stress-derived nouns.

There are far too many of these to identify more specific patterns. That Wikipedia article has a long list that is nowhere close to being complete.

alphabet
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  • Also as Wikipedia notes, most of these stress patterns vary based on region/dialect; very few are universal rules of English, a non-tonal language. – Ryan Jensen May 30 '23 at 15:15