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Examples phrases:

  * 料理自体
  * みそ自体
  * アメリカ自体
  * 鼻自体
  * 男自体
  * 食べたこと自体

My intuition is that the noun and 自体 are said as two separate words, both of
their accents being preserved. (I guess this would make sense
grammatically...?) Is this correct?

Is there any strong, predictable tendency? Are certain combinations more prone
to the initial word losing its accent?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-05T02:54:28.373
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2021-04-06T00:56:34.687
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question
pitch-accent
How does adding 自体 to a noun affect the accent?
自体 is not a suffix but an independent word, so you pronounce them as two
separate words, like:

  * りょうりじたい【HLLLHLL】
  * みそじたい【HLHLL】
  * アメリカじたい【LHHHHLL】
  * はなじたい【LHHLL】
  * おとこじたい【LHHHLL】
  * たべたことじたい【HLLLHHLL】 or たべたことじたい【HLLLLHLL】

In other words, 自体 has nothing to do with [this
phenomenon](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/56960/5010).
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2021-04-05T16:02:04.583
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answer
Actually, both separated (みそ{HL}じたい{HLL}) and compound (みそじたい{LHHLL}; fall on
じ) accents are heard, though the latter is arguably colloquial. The same
applies to ～自身.

There is no apparent tendency in usage as I observe, except that the separated
accent sounds more like an emphasis, so it is (slightly) more suitable for
saying "the very —" than "— proper". (The same effect can be achieved by
stressing 自体 when there is no accent change.)

When you use the compound accent, the last accent block before 自体 is under its
dependent scope, which is the last noun or everything after the last
verb/adjective.

> 脱出を考えなければいけないこと自体

In this case, いけないことじたい{LHHHHHHLL} usually makes one accent phrase.
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answer