s. 419. "Subject to four classes of exceptions, it may be laid down that _there is no true composition unless there is either a change of form or a change of accent_."--Such is the statement made in p. 359. The first class of exceptions consists {363} of those words where the natural tendency to disparity of accent is traversed by some rule of euphony. For example, let two words be put together, which at their point of contact form a combination of sounds foreign to our habits of pronunciation. The rarity of the combination will cause an effort in utterance. The effort in utterance will cause an accent to be laid on the latter half of the compound. This will equalize the accent, and abolish the disparity. The word _monkshood_, the name of a flower (_aconitum napellus_), where, to my ear at least, there is quite as much accent on the _-hood_ as on the _monks-_, may serve in the way of illustration. Monks is one word, hood another. When joined together, the _h-_ of the _-hood_ is put in immediate opposition with the _-s_ of the _monks-_. Hence the combination _monkshood_. At the letters _s_ and _h_ is the point of contact. Now the sound of _s_ followed immediately by the sound of _h_ is a true aspirate. But true aspirates are rare in the English language. Being of rare occurrence, the pronunciation of them is a matter of attention and effort; and this attention and effort creates an accent which otherwise would be absent. Hence words like _monksh['o]od_, _well-h['e]ad_, and some others. Real reduplications of consonants, as in _hop-pole_, may have the same parity of accent with the true aspirates: and for the same reasons. They are rare combinations that require effort and attention. The second class of exceptions contains those words wherein between the first element and the second there is so great a disparity, either in the length of the vowel, or the length of the syllable _en masse_, as to counteract the natural tendency of the first element to become accented. One of the few specimens of this class (which after all may consist of double words) is the term _upst['a]nding_. Here it should be remembered, that words like _haph['a]zard_, _foolh['a]rdy_, _uph['o]lder_, and _withh['o]ld_ come under the first class of the exceptions. The third class of exceptions contains words like _perch['a]nce_ and _perh['a]ps_. In all respects but one these are double words, just as _by chance_ is a double word. _Per_, however, differs from _by_ in having no separate existence. This sort of words {364} we owe to the multiplicity of elements (classical and Gothic) in the English language.