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