In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
, extrametricality is a tool for
prosodic analysis
In linguistics, prosody () is concerned with elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, str ...
of words in a language. In certain languages, a particular
segment or
prosodic unit
In linguistics, a prosodic unit, often called an intonation unit or intonational phrase, is a segment of speech that occurs with a single prosodic contour ( pitch and rhythm contour). The abbreviation IU is used and therefore the full form is o ...
of a word may be ignored for the purposes of determining the stress structure of the word. For example, in a language like classical
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
, where polysyllabic words never have stress on their final syllables, and the position of stress in a word is determined by looking at the penultimate and antepenultimate syllables only, it simplifies the linguistic formulation of the stress-assignment rules of Latin to say that the final syllable of a polysyllabic word is invisible to rules which determine stress.
[ Bruce Hayes, "Extrametricality and English Stress", '']Linguistic Inquiry
''Linguistic Inquiry'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in generative linguistics published by the MIT Press since 1970. Ever since its foundation, it has been edited by Samuel Jay Keyser
Samuel Jay Keyser (born 7 July 1935) is an American ...
'', Volume 13, issue 2 (Spring 1982), pp. 234-235. Such invisibility is called "extrametricality" in linguistic terminology. This is purely a theoretical device — an extrametrical sound or syllable is not observed to have any special pronunciation, and extrametricality can only be determined by analyzing the prosodic patterns of the language as a whole.
Most typically, extrametricality affects one specified segment or prosodic unit (
mora, syllable, etc.) at the edge of a word (usually the end). Final-segment or final-mora extrametricality can be invoked to account for the phenomenon that word-final syllables often count as "lighter" than other syllables of the same
rime type for purposes of determining the position of stress in a word.
English
According to some analyses, an example of extrametricality is found in English, in which the final consonant of every word may be analysed as extrametrical. This explains the licensing of what would otherwise be superheavy (
trimoraic) syllables in English as long as they are word-final (an example of this would be any final syllable containing a long vowel or diphthong and one or more coda consonants, e.g. ''main'' ) but the lack of certain 4-mora syllables (such as those containing a long vowel or diphthong followed by a bimoraic ). However, other analyses of these patterns which avoid the need for extrametricality are possible: it may be posited that Weight By Position on English applies only preconsonantally (although this leaves words ending in a long vowel and a coda cluster problematic); another analysis might propose that all English words end in a
catalectic syllable, and the apparently word-final consonant(s) are parsed in the onset of this syllable.
See also
*
Anacrusis
In poetic and musical meter, and by analogy in publishing, an anacrusis (from , , literally: 'pushing up', plural ''anacruses'') is a brief introduction (distinct from a literary or musical introduction, foreword, or preface).
It is a set of s ...
References
Phonology
Prosody (linguistics)
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