This has been a question in my mind for quite a long time, and I can't help but wonder are all words with stress in their second part pronounced the same all the time? For example, OK, because, etc. I find it a little unusual to say 'That's bi'ka:z' rather than 'That's 'bika:z'. The same is true about 'OK'. Are there any conventions or rules about pronouncing such words? Or are they pronounced always the same way?
P.S. By being pronounced always the same way, I mean, are the words that have stress in the middle (according to dictionaries) always pronounced with stress on the middle part as in because and OK or might they be pronounced with stress on their first part as well?
Answer
No, there is a systematic tendency to move the end stress of words when this avoids two stressed syllables coming next to each other. A typical example is the change from "I love Chinese" to "I love the Chinese language". This is sometimes attributed to a rhythm rule (in The Sound Pattern of English), to alternating stress, or other causes.
There is a large literature on this, for instance Hayes (1984).
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