Imagine the English participles to be declined, and to possess cases, formed by the addition of fresh syllables. In this case the word len´gthening would become a quadri-syllable. But to throw the accent to the fourth syllable from the end is inconvenient. Hence a necessity of removing it from the radical, and placing it on an inflectional syllable.
The German word lében (to live) illustrates the foregoing sentence. Léb- is the root, léb-end=living, from whence lebéndig=lively (with the accent on an inflectional syllable), although this last word might without inconvenience have been accented on the first syllable; that being only the third from the end.
Confusion between the radical and inflectional syllables of a word, arising from the situation of the accent, may work the deterioration of a language.
[§ 237]. In týrant and presúme, we deal with single words; and in each word we determine which syllable is accented.
Contrasted with the sort of accent that follows, this may be called a verbal accent.
In the line,
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
(Pope's Essay on Man, I. 169.)
the pronoun us is strongly brought forward. An especial stress or emphasis is laid upon it, denoting that there are other beings to whom it might not appear, &c. This is collected from the context. Here there is a logical accent. "When one word in a sentence is distinguished by a stress, as more important than the rest, we may say that it is emphatical, or that an emphasis is laid upon it. When one syllable in a word is distinguished by a stress, and more audible than the rest, we say that it is accented, or that an accent is put upon it. Accent, therefore, is to syllables what emphasis is to sentences; it distinguishes one from the crowd, and brings it forward to observation."—(Nares' Orthoepy, Part II. Chap. I.)
[§ 238]. Accent plays an important part in determining the nature of certain compound words—For this, see the Chapter on Composition.