extrametricality (n.)

A principle in METRICAL PHONOLOGY which allows certain ELEMENTS in a given STRING not to count when assigning metrical structure, i.e. the RULES of STRESS ASSIGNMENT ignore such elements; also called extraprosodicity. Proposals for English include consonant extrametricality (applying to the final CONSONANT in a word), noun extrametricality (applying to the final SEGMENT in certain types of NOUN, such as museum and elephant), and adjective extrametricality (applying to certain ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES). Extrametricality, which is restricted to PERIPHERAL elements, enables the analysis to avoid rare or unknown FOOT types at word EDGES, to handle the stresslessness of peripheral syllables, and to mark exceptions to the stress RULES.