Why do nouns and verbs which are stressed differently all exhibit the same variation?


I recently stumbled upon an interesting quirk regarding words that are both nouns and verbs. They seem to all follow the same stress pattern. Here are a few examples:


NOUNS



  • I have a really long address.

  • There is a huge contrast between winter and spring.

  • Not a single object is blue.

  • I'm not very good at creating produce.


VERBS



  • Make sure you address him properly.

  • I try to contrast the two twins in my head.

  • He will object to any change you propose.

  • Produce the paper right this instant!


Why do the nouns have stresses on the first syllable and the verbs have stresses on the last syllable? Is there a good reason for this, or is it just coincidence?


These are just the examples I thought of - I'm sure there are more. There are also some "noun/verb"s that have the same stress:


That was a huge surprise! Next time I'll surprise you!


But I've yet to find a counterexample - one where the noun has an ending stress and the verb has a starting stress.




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