Abstract
This article seeks to identify general principles for the mechanisms of suprasegmental change by investigating innovative accent patterns in Japanese and English. First, recent accent changes are reported for Japanese nouns, followed by an account of variation in the pitch patterns of the conjugational forms of adjectives. Two principles of accent change are proposed for nouns and adjectives. In the case of nouns derived from adjectives, a conflict between these two principles is observed. Based on a similar kind of conflict that can be observed in English, parallels between Japanese and English are discussed with respect to the impetus for variation and change in word accent.
