Designated terminal element

Designated terminal element is a in a tree the designated terminal element (DTE) is that terminal element in a given constituent that is exclusively dominated by strong nodes; it is the most prominent element of a given constituent.

Example

in the English word achromatic the syllable -ma- is the designated terminal element:

	   / \
	  w   s
 	 / \  /\
	s   w s w
	achromatic

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Liberman, M. and A. Prince 1977. On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm, Linguistic Inquiry 8, pp. 249-336