困难众所周知,如何确定英语复合词的重音相当困难。这部分因为什么是复合词不易界定,部分因为这不单是个重音(stress)的问题,而且是个重读(accent)的问题。后者是重音和语调的有意义组合,用来表明在特定的单词群和语调群中什么被看作是“新的”或重要的信息。假如我们不仅注意重音规则而注意重读规则,就能更好地设法解释英语复合词的重音了。什么是复合词? 在后面我们将较详细地讨论重音问题,这里我们先来讨论什么是复合词。从某种意义上说,给复合词下定义并不难。所谓复合词就是由两个或两个以上的独立单词组成的一个词。但有人会问:“我们怎么知道两个或两个以上的单词在哪种情况下不构成复合词,在哪种情况下构成复合词呢?”我们不 Difficulties As we all know, how to determine the stress of English compound words is quite difficult. This is partly because it is not easy to define what a compound word is, partly because it is not just a stress problem, but an accenting problem. The latter is a meaningful combination of accents and intonations to indicate what is considered “new” or important information in a particular group of words and intonation. If we pay attention not only to accent rules but also to re-read rules, we can better try to explain the accent of compound words in English. What is a compound? In the following we will discuss in more detail accent problems, here we first discuss what is a compound word. In a sense, it’s not hard to define compound words. The so-called compound word is composed of two or more independent words a word. However, some people may ask, “How do we know when two or more words do not form a compound word and in which case form a compound word?” We do not