英语重音的流变

Evolution of English Stress

现代英语重音源自日耳曼语重音规则和罗曼语重音规则,前者趋向于左端指派,对音节值敏感,对形态不敏感;后者趋向于右端指派,对形态敏感,对音节值不敏感。外来词,尤其是法语词的大量借入使英语沦为一种没有根性的杂交语言,而英语重音的流变不仅见证了罗曼语重音规则与某些日耳曼语重音规则之间复杂而又微妙的制约关系,而且体现出二者之间既相互冲突又相互整合的特征。其结果,罗曼语重音规则的影响与渗透大大推动了英语重音系统的转向和发展,使英语最终演变为一种“自由重音”语言,并导致了英语重音指派的复杂性和不规则性。

The modern English stress originates both from the Germanic Stress Rule （ GSR）, which is left-hand assignment, sensitive to morphology and insensitive to syllable weight, and the Romance Stress Rule（ RSR）, which is right-hand assignment, sensitive to syllable weight and insensitive to morphology. The eventual being of English as a rootless hybrid language is due to foreign loans, especially a large number of French ones, and the evolution of English stress not only witnesses a complex and subtle modification of RSR with some GSR, but also demonstrates their mutual conflict as well as their adjustment and integation of two sets of contrary stress rules, as a result of which the influence and infiltration of RSR promotes geatly the turn and development of English stress system, makes English evolved into a ＂free stress＂ language and brings about complexity and irregularity of English stress assignment.