senātor, English by throwing the stress on the first syllable has converted them into órător and sénător, while Scots lawyers speak also of a cúrător. How far French influence plays a part here is not easy to say.
Besides the accent of the syllable and of the word, which have been already discussed, there remains the accent of the sentence. Here the problem is much more complicated. The accent of a word, whether pitch or stress, may be considerably modified in the sentence. From earliest times some words have become parasitic or enclitic upon other words. Pronouns more than most words are modified from this cause, but conjunctions like the Gr. τε (“and”), the Lat. que, have throughout their whole history been enclitic upon the preceding word. A very important word may be enclitic, as in English don’t, shan’t. It is to be remembered that the unit of language is rather the sentence than the word, and that the form which is given to the word in the dictionary is very often not the form which it takes in actual speech. The divisions of words in speech are quite different from the divisions on the printed page. Sanskrit alone amongst languages has consistently recognized this, and preserves in writing the exact combinations that are spoken.
Accent, whether pitch or stress, can be utilized in the sentence to express a great variety of meanings. Thus in English a sentence like You rode to Newmarket yesterday, which contains five words, may be made to express five different statements by putting the stress upon each of the words in turn. By putting the stress on you the person addressed is marked out as distinct from certain others, by putting it upon rode other means of locomotion to Newmarket are excluded, and so on. With the same order of words five interrogative sentences may also be expressed, and a third series of exclamatory sentences expressing anger, incredulity, &c., may be obtained from the same words. It is to be noticed that for these two series a different intonation, a different musical (pitch) accent appears from that which is found in the same words when employed to make a matter-of-fact statement.
In languages like Chinese, which have neither compound words nor inflection, accent plays a very important part. As the words are all monosyllabic, stress could obviously not be so important as pitch as a help to distinguish different senses attached to the same vocable, and in no other language is variety of pitch so well developed as in Chinese. In languages which, like English, show comparatively little pitch accent it is to be noticed that the sentence tends to develop a more musical character under the influence of emotion. The voice is raised and at the same time greater stress is generally employed when the speaker is carried away by emotion, though the connexion is not essential and strong emotion may be expressed by a lowering as well as by a raising of the voice. In either case, however, the stress will be greater than the normal.
Bibliography.—H. Sweet, Primer of Phonetics (1890, now in 3rd edition), § 96 ff., History of English Sounds (1888), § 110 ff., and other works; E. Sievers, Grundzüge der Phonetik (1893), § 532 ff.; O. Jespersen, Lehrbuch der Phonetik (1904), an abbreviated German translation of the author’s larger work in Danish, § 216 ff. The books of Sievers and Jespersen give (especially Sievers) full references to the literature of the subject. For the accent system of the Indo-European languages see “Betonung” in Brugmann’s Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen, vol. i. (1897), or, with considerable modifications, his Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der idg. Sprachen (1902), §§ 32-65 and 343-350. (P. Gi.)
ACCEPTANCE (Lat. acceptare, frequentative form of accipere, to receive), generally, a receiving or acknowledgment of receipt; in law, the act by which a person binds himself to comply with the request contained in a bill of exchange (q.v.), addressed to him by the drawer. In all cases it is understood to be a promise to pay the bill in money, the law not recognizing an acceptance in which the promise is to pay in some other way, e.g. partly in money and partly by another bill. Acceptance may be either general or qualified. A general acceptance is an engagement to pay the bill strictly according to its tenor, and is made by the drawee subscribing his name, with or without the word “accepted,” at the bottom of the bill, or across the face of it. Qualified acceptance may be a promise to pay on a contingency occurring, e.g. on the sale of certain goods consigned by the drawer to the acceptor. No contingency is allowed to be mentioned in the body of the bill, but a qualified acceptance is quite legal, and equally binding with a general acceptance upon the acceptor when the contingency has occurred. It is also qualified acceptance where the promise is to pay only part of the sum mentioned in the bill, or to pay at a different time or place from those specified. As a qualified acceptance is so far a disregard of the drawer’s order, the holder is not obliged to take it; and if he chooses to take it he must give notice to antecedent parties, acting at his own risk if they dissent. In all cases acceptance involves the signature of the acceptor either by himself or by some person duly authorized on his behalf. A bill can be accepted in the first instance only by the person or persons to whom it is addressed; but if he or they fail to do so, it may, after being protested for non-acceptance, be accepted by some one else “supra protest,” for the sake of the honour of one or more of the parties concerned in it, and he thereupon acquires a claim against the drawer and all those to whom he could have resorted.
ACCEPTILATION (from Lat. acceptilatio), in Roman and Scots law, a verbal release of a verbal obligation. This formal mode of extinguishing an obligation contracted verbally received its name from the book-keeping term acceptilatio, entering a receipt, i.e. carrying it to credit. The words conveying the release had to correspond to, or strictly cover, the expressed obligation. Figuratively, in theology, the word acceptilation means free remission or forgiveness of sins.
ACCESS (Lat. accessus), approach, or the means of approaching. In law, the word is used in various connexions. The presumption of a child’s legitimacy is negatived if it be proved that a husband has not had access to his wife within such a period of time as would admit of his being the father. (See Legitimacy.) In the law of easements, every person who has land adjoining a public road or a public navigable river has a right of access to it from his land. So, also, every person has a right of access to air and light from an ancient window. For the right of access of parents to children under the guardianship of the court, see Infant.
ACCESSION (from Lat. accedere, to go to, to approach), in law, a method of acquiring property adopted from Roman law, by which, in things that have a close connexion with or dependence on one another, the property of the principal draws after it the property of the accessory, according to the principle, accessio cedet principali. Accession may take place either in a natural way, such as the growth of fruit or the pregnancy of animals, or in an artificial way. The various methods may be classified as (1) land to land by accretion or alluvion; (2) moveables to land (see Fixtures); (3) moveables to moveables; (4) moveables added to by the art or industry of man; this may be by specification, as when wine is made out of grapes, or by confusion, or commixture, which is the mixing together of liquids or solids, respectively. In the case of industrial accession ownership is determined according as the natural or manufactured substance is of the more importance, and, in general, compensation is payable to the person who has been dispossessed of his property.
In a historical or constitutional sense, the term “accession” is applied to the coming to the throne of a dynasty or line of sovereigns or of a single sovereign.
“Accession” sometimes likewise signifies consent or acquiescence. Thus, in the bankruptcy law of Scotland, where there is a settlement by a trust-deed, it is accepted on the part of each creditor by a “deed of accession.”
ACCESSORY, a person guilty of a felonious offence, not as principal, but by participation; as by advice, command, aid or concealment. In certain crimes, there can be no accessories; all concerned being principals, whether present or absent at the time of their commission. These are treason, and all offences below the degree of felony, as specified in the Offences against the Person Act 1861.
There are two kinds of accessories—before the fact, and after it. The first is he who commands or procures another to commit felony, and is not present himself; for if he be present, he is a principal. The second is he who receives, harbours, assists, or comforts any man that has done murder or felony, whereof he has knowledge. An accessory before the fact is liable to the same punishment as the principal; and there is now indeed no practical difference between such an accessory and a principal in regard either to indictment, trial or punishment. Accessories after the fact are in general punishable with imprisonment (with or without hard labour) for a period not exceeding two years, but in the case of murder punishable by penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or by imprisonment (with or without hard labour) to the extent of two years.
