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In Turkish, tense is denoted by a case marking suffix on the verb.
[TP [VP et][T -ti
In neutral prosody, Turkish verb phrases are primarily head-final, as the verb comes after its complement. Variation in object-verb ordering is not strictly rigid. However, constructions where the verb precedes the object are less common.
sub>VP [DP çikolataV sever">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_çikolata.html" ;"title="sub>VP [DP çikolata">sub>VP [DP çikolataV sever
In Turkish, definite determiners may be marked with a case marker suffix on the noun, such as when the noun is the direct object of a verb. They may also exist as free morphemes that attach to a head-initial determiner phrase, such as when the determiner is a demonstrative. Like other case markers in Turkish, when the morpheme carrying the demonstrative meaning is a case marker, they attach at the end of the word. As such, the head of the phrase, in this case the determiner, follows its complement like in the example below:
[DP [NP kitap-lar][D -ı
Turkish adpositions are postpositions that can affix as a case marker at the end of a word. They can also be a separate word that attaches to the head-final postpositional phrase, as is the case in the example below:
sub>PP [DP AhmetP için">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Ahmet.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP Ahmet">sub>PP [DP AhmetP için
1. Subject-Object-Verb (SOV, canonical word order)
However, several variations on this order can occur on matrix clauses, such that the subject, object, and verb can occupy all different positions within a sentence. Because Turkish uses a case-marking system to denote how each word functions in a sentence in relation to the rest, case-marked elements can be moved around without a loss in meaning. These variations, also called permutations, can change the discourse focus of the constituents in the sentence:
2. Object-Subject-Verb (OSV)
In this variation, the object moves to the beginning of the sentence, the subject follows, and the verb remains in final position.
3. Object-Verb-Subject (OVS)
In this variation, the subject moves to end of the sentence. This is an example of how verbs in Turkish can move to other positions in the clause, even though other head-final languages, such as Japanese and Korean, typically see verbs coming only at the end of the sentence.
4. Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)
In this variation, the object moves to the end of the sentence and the verb phrase now directly precedes the subject, which remains at the beginning of the sentence. This word order is akin to English word order.
5. Verb-Subject-Object (VSO)
In this variation, the verb phrase moves from the end of the sentence to the beginning of the sentence.
6. Verb-Object-Subject (VOS)
In this variation, the verb phrase moves to the beginning of the sentence, the object moves so that it directly following the verb, and the subject is at the end of the sentence.
: sub>TP [DP Ich[T werde">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Ich.html" ;"title="sub>TP [DP Ich">sub>TP [DP Ich[T werde[VP [DP es] [V finden]
Noun phrases containing complements are head-initial; in this example the complement, the CP ''der den Befehl überbrachte'', follows the head noun ''Boten''.
: sub>NP [N Boten[CP der den Befehl überbrachte">lt;sub>N<_sub>_Boten.html" ;"title="sub>NP [N Boten">sub>NP [N Boten[CP der den Befehl überbrachte
Adjective phrases may be head-final or head-initial. In the next example the adjective (''stolze'') follows its complement (''auf seine Kinder'').
:[AP [PP auf seine Kinder] [A stolze
However, when essentially the same adjective phrase is used predicative adjective, predicatively rather than attributively, it can also be head-initial:
: sub>AP [A stolz[PP auf seine Kinder">lt;sub>A<_sub>_stolz.html" ;"title="sub>AP [A stolz">sub>AP [A stolz[PP auf seine Kinder
Most adpositional phrases are head-initial (as German has mostly prepositions rather than postpositions), as in the following example, where ''auf'' comes before its complement ''den Tisch'':
:[PP [P auf] [DP den Tisch
German also has some postpositions, however (such as ''gegenüber'' "opposite"), and so adpositional phrases can also sometimes be head-final. Another example is provided by the analysis of the following sentence:
: sub>PP [DP das Dach[P hinauf">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_das_Dach.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP das Dach">sub>PP [DP das Dach[P hinauf
Like in English, determiner phrases and complementizer phrases in German are head-initial. The next example is of a determiner phrase, headed by the article ''der'':
:[DP [D der] [NP Mann
In the following example, the complementizer ''dass'' precedes the tense phrase which serves as its complement:
:[CP [C dass] [TP Lisa eine Blume gepflanzt hat
:[NP [KP Kɔ̀kú sín] [N ɖìdè
In the following example of an adjective phrase, Gbe follows a head-initial pattern, as the head ''yù'' precedes the intensifier ''tàùú''.
: sub>AP [A yù[Int tàùú">lt;sub>A<_sub>_yù.html" ;"title="sub>AP [A yù">sub>AP [A yù[Int tàùú
Gbe adpositional phrases are head-initial, with prepositions preceding their complement:
:[PP [P xlán] [DP Àsíbá
Determiner phrases, however, are head-final:
: sub>DP [NP àvɔ̀ àmàmú màtàn-màtàn[D ɖé
Complementizer phrases are head-initial:
:[CP [C ɖé] [TP Dòsà gb xwé ɔ̀ ɔ̀
In linguistics, head directionality is a proposed parameter that classifies languages according to whether they are head-initial (the
* Noun Phrase: the head of a noun phrase (NP) is a noun; various kinds of complementizer phrases (CPs) and adpositional phrases (PPs) can be complements.
* Adjective Phrase: the head of an adjective phrase (AP) is an adjective, which can take as a complement, for example, an 
* Adpositional Phrase: the head of an 
* Determiner Phrase: the head of a determiner phrase (DP) is a 
* Tense Phrase: the head of a tense phrase (TP) is tense; these are phrases in which the head is an abstract category representing tense; the complement is a verb phrase.
* Aspect Phrase: the head of an
:''eat an apple''
: sub>VP [V eat[DP an apple">lt;sub>V<_sub>_eat.html" ;"title="sub>VP [V eat">sub>VP [V eat[DP an apple
The head of the phrase (the verb ''eat'') precedes its complement (the determiner phrase ''an apple''). Switching the order to "[VP [DP an apple] [V eat" would be ungrammatical.
Nouns also tend to precede any complements, as in the following example, where the relative clause (or 
:''He married a girl who is from Texas.''
: sub>NP [N girl[CP who is from Texas">lt;sub>N<_sub>_girl.html" ;"title="sub>NP [N girl">sub>NP [N girl[CP who is from Texas
Nouns do not necessarily begin their phrase; they may be preceded by attributive adjectives, but these are regarded as 
:''a majority of eligible voters''
: sub>PP [P of[DP eligible voters">lt;sub>P<_sub>_of.html" ;"title="sub>PP [P of">sub>PP [P of[DP eligible voters
On the determiner phrase (DP) view, where a 
:''any book''
:[DP [D any] [NP book
English also has head-initial 
:''John has arrived''
:[AspP [Asp has] [VP arrived
The following example shows a sequence of nested phrases in which each head precedes its complement. In the
When examining Indonesian through a dependency perspective, it is considered head initial as the governor of both constituents are positioned before the 
In Indonesian, the number of constituencies affects the dependency direction. When there are 6 constituents — which is a relatively short sentence — there is a preference for head initial relation. However, when there are 11-30 constituents, there appears to be a balance of head-initial and head-final dependencies. Regardless, Indonesian displays an overall head-initial preference on all levels of dependency structure as it consistently attempts to position the head as early on in the sentence even though it produces a longer dependency distance rather than placing the head after its dependents. Furthermore, Indonesian has an overall preference towards head-initial when comparing head-initial and head-final relation on all levels of constituent length for both spoken and written data.
sub>CP [DP Perdana menteri[VP sudah pulang">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Perdana_menteri.html" ;"title="sub>CP sub>CP [DP Perdana menteri[VP sudah pulang
Grammatical number">Classifiers and Partitive">partitives can function as the head nouns of noun phrases. Below is an example of the internal structure of a noun phrase and its head-initial word order.
[CP[DP botol ini][VP retak
Head-initial word order is seen in the internal structure of the verb phrase in the following example where the V is in the head position of the verb phrase and thus appears before its complement:
sub>CP[DPDokterVP[V memeriksa">lt;sub>DP<_sub>Dokter.html" ;"title="sub>CP[DPDokter">sub>CP[DPDokterVP[V memeriksaDPmata says]
In Indonesian a noun can be followed by another modifiers, modifying noun whose primary function is to provide more specific information about the preceding head noun, such as indicating what the head noun is made of, gender, locative sense, and what the head noun does, etc. However, no other word is able to intervene between a head noun and its following modifying noun. If a word follows the modifying noun, then it provides reference to the head noun and not the modifying noun.
* Head noun: sub>N ''guru''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''bahasa''
* Head noun: sub>N ''guru''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''sekolah''+ Determiner sub>D ''itu''
* Head noun: sub>N''toko''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''buku''
* Head noun: sub>N''toko''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''buku''+ Determiner phrase sub>DP''yang besar''
* Head noun: sub>N ''sate''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''ayam''
sub>TP [VP [DP ringo-o[V tabe [T ru
Nouns also typically come after any complements, as in the following example where the PP ''New York-de-no'' may be regarded as a complement:
sub>NP [PP New York-de-no[N koogi">lt;sub>PP<_sub>_New_York-de-no.html" ;"title="sub>NP [PP New York-de-no">sub>NP [PP New York-de-no[N koogi
Adjectives also follow any complements they may have. In this example the complement of quantity, ''ni-juu-meetoru'' ("twenty meters"), precedes the head adjective ''takai'' ("tall"):
[AP [Q ni-juu-meetoru] [A takai
Japanese uses postpositions rather than prepositions, so its adpositional phrases are again head-final:
sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura[P ni">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Takasu-mura.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura">sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura[P ni
Determiner phrases are head-final as well:
[DP [NP dare] [D mo
A complementizer (here ''to'', equivalent to English "that") comes after its complement (here a tense phrase meaning "Mary did not swim"), thus Japanese complementizer phrases are head-final:
sub>CP [TP Mary-ga oyog-ana-katta[C to">lt;sub>TP<_sub>_Mary-ga_oyog-ana-katta.html" ;"title="sub>CP sub>CP [TP Mary-ga oyog-ana-katta[C to
is an agglutinative, head-final, and left-branching language that uses a head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
of a phrase precedes its complements) or head-final (the head follows its complements). The head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
is the element that determines the category of a phrase: for example, in a verb phrase, the head is a verb. Therefore, head initial would be "VO" languages and head final would be "OV" languages.
Some languages are consistently head-initial or head-final at all phrasal levels. English is considered to be strongly head-initial (verbs precede their objects, for example), while Japanese is an example of a language that is consistently head-final. In certain other languages, such as German and Gbe, examples of both types of head direction occur. Various theories have been proposed to explain such variation.
Head directionality is connected with the type of branching that predominates in a language: head-initial structures are ''right-branching'', while head-final structures are ''left-branching''. On the basis of these criteria, languages can be divided into head-final (rigid and non-rigid) and head-initial types. The identification of headedness is based on the following:
# the order of subject, object, and verb
# the relationship between the order of the object and verb
# the order of an adposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
and its complement
# the order of relative clause and head noun.
Types of phrase
In some cases, particularly with noun and adjective phrases, it is not always clear which dependents are to be classed as complements, and which asadjunct
Adjunct may refer to:
* Adjunct (grammar), words used as modifiers
* Adjunct professor, a rank of university professor
* Adjuncts, sources of sugar used in brewing
* Adjunct therapy used to complement another main therapeutic agent, either to impr ...
s. Although in principle the head-directionality parameter concerns the order of heads and complements only, considerations of head-initiality and head-finality sometimes take account of the position of the head in the phrase as a whole, including adjuncts. The structure of the various types of phrase is analyzed below in relation to specific languages, with a focus on the ordering of head and complement. In some cases (such as English and Japanese) this ordering is found to be the same in practically all types of phrase, whereas in others (such as German and Gbe) the pattern is less consistent. Different theoretical explanations of these inconsistencies are discussed later in the article. There are various types of phrase in which the ordering of head and complement(s) may be considered when attempting to determine the head directionality of a language, including:
* Verb Phrase: the head of verb phrase (VP) is a verb, and the complement(s) are most commonly objects of various types. The ordering here is related to one of the chief questions in the word order typology of languages, namely the normal order of subject
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
, verb and object within a clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
(languages are classed on this basis as SVO, SOV, VSO, etc.).
* Noun Phrase: the head of a noun phrase (NP) is a noun; various kinds of complementizer phrases (CPs) and adpositional phrases (PPs) can be complements.
* Adjective Phrase: the head of an adjective phrase (AP) is an adjective, which can take as a complement, for example, an adverbial phrase
In linguistics, an ''adverbial phrase'' ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divi ...
or adpositional phrase (PP).
* Adpositional Phrase: the head of an adpositional phrase
An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or circ ...
(PP) is an apposition. Such phrases are called prepositional phrases if they are head-initial (i.e. headed by a preposition), or postpositional phrases if they are head-final (i.e. headed by a postposition). For more on these, see Preposition and postposition. The complement is a determiner phrase (or noun phrase, depending on analytical scheme followed).
* Determiner Phrase: the head of a determiner phrase (DP) is a determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
. DPs were proposed under generative syntax; not all theories of syntax agree that they exist.
* Complementizer Phrase: the head of a complementizer phrase
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a ...
(CP) is a complementizer, like ''that'' in English. In some cases the C head is covert (not overtly present). The complement of C is generally agreed to be a tense phrase (TP).
* Tense Phrase: the head of a tense phrase (TP) is tense; these are phrases in which the head is an abstract category representing tense; the complement is a verb phrase.
* Aspect Phrase: the head of an aspect phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
(AspP) is aspect; these are phrases in which the head is an abstract syntactic category representing aspect. In more traditional analysis the entire phrase (including any elements denoting tense or aspect) is considered to be simply a verb phrase.
Head-initial languages
English
English is a strongly head-initial language. In a typical verb phrase, for example, the verb precedes its complements, as in the following example:
:''eat an apple''
: sub>VP [V eat[DP an apple">lt;sub>V<_sub>_eat.html" ;"title="sub>VP [V eat">sub>VP [V eat[DP an apple
The head of the phrase (the verb ''eat'') precedes its complement (the determiner phrase ''an apple''). Switching the order to "[VP [DP an apple] [V eat" would be ungrammatical.
Nouns also tend to precede any complements, as in the following example, where the relative clause (or complementizer phrase
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a ...
) that follows the noun may be considered to be a complement:
:''He married a girl who is from Texas.''
: sub>NP [N girl[CP who is from Texas">lt;sub>N<_sub>_girl.html" ;"title="sub>NP [N girl">sub>NP [N girl[CP who is from Texas
Nouns do not necessarily begin their phrase; they may be preceded by attributive adjectives, but these are regarded as adjunct
Adjunct may refer to:
* Adjunct (grammar), words used as modifiers
* Adjunct professor, a rank of university professor
* Adjuncts, sources of sugar used in brewing
* Adjunct therapy used to complement another main therapeutic agent, either to impr ...
s rather than complements. (For preceding determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
s, see below.) Adjectives themselves may be preceded by adjuncts, namely adverbs, as in ''extremely happy''. However, when an adjective phrase contains a true complement, such as a prepositional phrase, the head adjective precedes it:
:''a person happy about her work''
: sub>AP [A happy[PP about her work">lt;sub>A<_sub>_happy.html" ;"title="sub>AP [A happy">sub>AP [A happy[PP about her work
English adpositional phrases are also head-initial; that is, English has preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s rather than postpositions:
:''a majority of eligible voters''
: sub>PP [P of[DP eligible voters">lt;sub>P<_sub>_of.html" ;"title="sub>PP [P of">sub>PP [P of[DP eligible voters
On the determiner phrase (DP) view, where a determiner
A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
is taken to be the head of its phrase (rather than the associated noun), English can be seen to be head-initial in this type of phrase too. In the following example the head is taken to be the determiner ''any'', and the complement is the noun (phrase) ''book'':
:''any book''
:[DP [D any] [NP book
English also has head-initial complementizer phrase
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a ...
s, as in this example where the complementizer ''that'' precedes its complement, the tense phrase ''Mary did not swim'':
:''We saw that Mary did not swim''
: sub>CP [C that[TP Mary did not swim">lt;sub>C<_sub>_that.html" ;"title="sub>CP [C that">sub>CP [C that[TP Mary did not swim
Grammatical words marking tense and aspect generally precede the semantic verb. This indicates that, if finite verb phrases are analyzed as tense phrases or aspect phrases, these are again head-initial in English. In the example above, ''did'' is considered a (past) tense marker, and precedes its complement, the verb phrase ''not swim''. In the following, ''has'' is a (perfect aspect">perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection, completeness, excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film
* Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* Perfect (2018 f ...
) aspect marker; again it appears before the verb (phrase) which is its complement.
:''John has arrived''
:[AspP [Asp has] [VP arrived
The following example shows a sequence of nested phrases in which each head precedes its complement. In the complementizer phrase
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a ...
(CP) in (a), the complementizer (C) precedes its tense phrase (TP) complement. In the tense phrase in (b), the tense-marking element (T) precedes its verb phrase (VP) complement. (The subject of the tense phrase, ''the girl'', is a specifier, which does not need to be considered when analyzing the ordering of head and complement.) In the verb phrase in (c), the verb (V) precedes its two complements, namely the determiner phrase (DP) ''the book'' and the prepositional phrase (PP) ''on the table''. In (d), where ''a picture'' is analyzed as a determiner phrase, the determiner (D) ''a'' precedes its noun phrase (NP) complement, while in (e), the preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
(P) ''on'' precedes its DP complement ''your desk''.
:''You know that the girl will put a picture on your desk.''
:a. CP: sub>CP [C ''that'' [TP ''the girl will put a picture on your desk'' ] ]
:b. TP: [TP [T ''will'' ] [VP ''put a picture on your desk'' ] ]
:c. VP: [VP [V ''put'' ] [DP ''a picture'' ] [PP ''on your desk'' ] ]
:d. DP: sub>DP [D ''a'' [NP ''picture'' ">lt;sub>D<_sub>_''a''_.html" ;"title="sub>DP [D ''a'' ">sub>DP [D ''a'' [NP ''picture'' ]
:e. PP: [PP [P ''on'' ] [DP ''your desk'' ] ]
Indonesian
Indonesian is an example of an SVO head-initial language. The characteristic of it being a head-initial language can be examined through a dependency perspective or through a word order perspective. Both approaches lead to the conclusion that Indonesian is a head-initial language.Dependency perspective
When examining Indonesian through a dependency perspective, it is considered head initial as the governor of both constituents are positioned before the dependent
A dependant is a person who relies on another as a primary source of income. A common-law spouse who is financially supported by their partner may also be included in this definition. In some jurisdictions, supporting a dependant may enab ...
.
Placing the head before a dependent minimizes the overall dependency distance, which is the distance between the two constituents. Minimizing dependency distance allows for less cognitive demand as a head-final dependency requires the constituents in the dependent clause to be stored in working memory until the head is realized.
In Indonesian, the number of constituencies affects the dependency direction. When there are 6 constituents — which is a relatively short sentence — there is a preference for head initial relation. However, when there are 11-30 constituents, there appears to be a balance of head-initial and head-final dependencies. Regardless, Indonesian displays an overall head-initial preference on all levels of dependency structure as it consistently attempts to position the head as early on in the sentence even though it produces a longer dependency distance rather than placing the head after its dependents. Furthermore, Indonesian has an overall preference towards head-initial when comparing head-initial and head-final relation on all levels of constituent length for both spoken and written data.
Word order perspective
The subject of the sentence followed by the verb, representing SVO order. The following examples demonstrate head-initial directionality in Indonesian
sub>CP [DP Perdana menteri[VP sudah pulang">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Perdana_menteri.html" ;"title="sub>CP sub>CP [DP Perdana menteri[VP sudah pulang
Grammatical number">Classifiers and Partitive">partitives can function as the head nouns of noun phrases. Below is an example of the internal structure of a noun phrase and its head-initial word order.
[CP[DP botol ini][VP retak
Head-initial word order is seen in the internal structure of the verb phrase in the following example where the V is in the head position of the verb phrase and thus appears before its complement:
sub>CP[DPDokterVP[V memeriksa">lt;sub>DP<_sub>Dokter.html" ;"title="sub>CP[DPDokter">sub>CP[DPDokterVP[V memeriksaDPmata says]
In Indonesian a noun can be followed by another modifiers, modifying noun whose primary function is to provide more specific information about the preceding head noun, such as indicating what the head noun is made of, gender, locative sense, and what the head noun does, etc. However, no other word is able to intervene between a head noun and its following modifying noun. If a word follows the modifying noun, then it provides reference to the head noun and not the modifying noun.
* Head noun: sub>N ''guru''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''bahasa''
* Head noun: sub>N ''guru''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''sekolah''+ Determiner sub>D ''itu''
* Head noun: sub>N''toko''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''buku''
* Head noun: sub>N''toko''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''buku''+ Determiner phrase sub>DP''yang besar''
* Head noun: sub>N ''sate''+ Modifying noun: sub>N ''ayam''
Head-final languages
Japonic: Japanese
Japanese is an example of a strongly head-final language. This can be seen in verb phrases and tense phrases: the verb (''tabe'' in the example) comes after its complement, while the tense marker (''ru'') comes after the whole verb phrase which is its complement.
sub>TP [VP [DP ringo-o[V tabe [T ru
Nouns also typically come after any complements, as in the following example where the PP ''New York-de-no'' may be regarded as a complement:
sub>NP [PP New York-de-no[N koogi">lt;sub>PP<_sub>_New_York-de-no.html" ;"title="sub>NP [PP New York-de-no">sub>NP [PP New York-de-no[N koogi
Adjectives also follow any complements they may have. In this example the complement of quantity, ''ni-juu-meetoru'' ("twenty meters"), precedes the head adjective ''takai'' ("tall"):
[AP [Q ni-juu-meetoru] [A takai
Japanese uses postpositions rather than prepositions, so its adpositional phrases are again head-final:
sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura[P ni">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Takasu-mura.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura">sub>PP [DP Takasu-mura[P ni
Determiner phrases are head-final as well:
[DP [NP dare] [D mo
A complementizer (here ''to'', equivalent to English "that") comes after its complement (here a tense phrase meaning "Mary did not swim"), thus Japanese complementizer phrases are head-final:
sub>CP [TP Mary-ga oyog-ana-katta[C to">lt;sub>TP<_sub>_Mary-ga_oyog-ana-katta.html" ;"title="sub>CP sub>CP [TP Mary-ga oyog-ana-katta[C to
Turkic: Turkish
Turkish language">Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...SOV word order. As such, Turkish complements and adjuncts typically precede their head under neutral prosody, and adpositions
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') ...
are postpositional. Turkish employs a case marking system which affixes to the right boundary of the word it is modifying. As such, all case markings in Turkish are suffixes. For example, the set of accusative case marking suffixes ''-(y)ı-, -(y)i-, -(y)u-, -(y)ü-'' in Turkish indicate that it is the direct object of a verb. Additionally, while some kinds of definite determiners and Preposition and postposition">postpositions in Turkish can be marked by case, other types also exist as free morphemes. In the following examples, Turkish case marker suffixes are analyzed as complements to the head.
Head-final Tense Phrase
In Turkish, tense is denoted by a case marking suffix on the verb.
[TP [VP et][T -ti
Head-final Verb Phrase
In neutral prosody, Turkish verb phrases are primarily head-final, as the verb comes after its complement. Variation in object-verb ordering is not strictly rigid. However, constructions where the verb precedes the object are less common.
sub>VP [DP çikolataV sever">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_çikolata.html" ;"title="sub>VP [DP çikolata">sub>VP [DP çikolataV sever
Head-final Determiner Phrase
In Turkish, definite determiners may be marked with a case marker suffix on the noun, such as when the noun is the direct object of a verb. They may also exist as free morphemes that attach to a head-initial determiner phrase, such as when the determiner is a demonstrative. Like other case markers in Turkish, when the morpheme carrying the demonstrative meaning is a case marker, they attach at the end of the word. As such, the head of the phrase, in this case the determiner, follows its complement like in the example below:
[DP [NP kitap-lar][D -ı
Head-final Postpositional Phrase
Turkish adpositions are postpositions that can affix as a case marker at the end of a word. They can also be a separate word that attaches to the head-final postpositional phrase, as is the case in the example below:
sub>PP [DP AhmetP için">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Ahmet.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP Ahmet">sub>PP [DP AhmetP için
Word order variation in matrix clauses
Turkish employs a Grammatical case">case marking system that allows some constituents in Turkish clauses to participate in permutations of its canonical SOV word order, thereby in some ways exhibiting a 'free' word order. Specifically, constituents of an independent clause can be moved around and constituents of phrasal categories can occur outside of the Projection principle, projections they are elements of. As a result, it is possible for the major case-marked constituents of a clause in Turkish to appear in all possible orders in a sentence, such that SOV, SVO, OSV, OVS, VSO, and VOS word orders are acceptable. This free word order allows for the verbal phrase to occur in any position in an independent clause, unlike other head-final languages (such as Japanese and Korean, in which any variation in word order must occur in the preverbal domain and the verb remains at the end of the clause ). Because of this relatively high degree of variation in word order in Turkish, its status as a head-final language is generally considered to be less strict and not absolute like Japanese or Korean, since while embedded clauses must remain verb-final, matrix clauses can show variability in word order. In the canonical word order of Turkish, as is typical in a head-final language, subjects come at the beginning of the sentence, then objects, with verbs coming in last:
1. Subject-Object-Verb (SOV, canonical word order)
However, several variations on this order can occur on matrix clauses, such that the subject, object, and verb can occupy all different positions within a sentence. Because Turkish uses a case-marking system to denote how each word functions in a sentence in relation to the rest, case-marked elements can be moved around without a loss in meaning. These variations, also called permutations, can change the discourse focus of the constituents in the sentence:
2. Object-Subject-Verb (OSV)
In this variation, the object moves to the beginning of the sentence, the subject follows, and the verb remains in final position.
3. Object-Verb-Subject (OVS)
In this variation, the subject moves to end of the sentence. This is an example of how verbs in Turkish can move to other positions in the clause, even though other head-final languages, such as Japanese and Korean, typically see verbs coming only at the end of the sentence.
4. Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)
In this variation, the object moves to the end of the sentence and the verb phrase now directly precedes the subject, which remains at the beginning of the sentence. This word order is akin to English word order.
5. Verb-Subject-Object (VSO)
In this variation, the verb phrase moves from the end of the sentence to the beginning of the sentence.
6. Verb-Object-Subject (VOS)
In this variation, the verb phrase moves to the beginning of the sentence, the object moves so that it directly following the verb, and the subject is at the end of the sentence.
Mixed word-order languages
Indo-European: German
German, while being predominantly head-initial, is less conclusively so than in the case of English. German also features certain head-final structures. For example, in a nonfinite verb phrase the verb is final. In a finite verb phrase (or tense/aspect phrase) the verb (tense/aspect) is initial, although it may move to final position in asubordinate clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
. In the following example, the non-finite verb phrase ''es finden'' is head-final, whereas in the tensed main clause ''ich werde es finden'' (headed by the auxiliary verb ''werde'' indicating future tense
In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
), the finite auxiliary precedes its complement (as an instance of a verb-second construction; in the example below, this V2-position is called "T").
: sub>TP [DP Ich[T werde">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_Ich.html" ;"title="sub>TP [DP Ich">sub>TP [DP Ich[T werde[VP [DP es] [V finden]
Noun phrases containing complements are head-initial; in this example the complement, the CP ''der den Befehl überbrachte'', follows the head noun ''Boten''.
: sub>NP [N Boten[CP der den Befehl überbrachte">lt;sub>N<_sub>_Boten.html" ;"title="sub>NP [N Boten">sub>NP [N Boten[CP der den Befehl überbrachte
Adjective phrases may be head-final or head-initial. In the next example the adjective (''stolze'') follows its complement (''auf seine Kinder'').
:[AP [PP auf seine Kinder] [A stolze
However, when essentially the same adjective phrase is used predicative adjective, predicatively rather than attributively, it can also be head-initial:
: sub>AP [A stolz[PP auf seine Kinder">lt;sub>A<_sub>_stolz.html" ;"title="sub>AP [A stolz">sub>AP [A stolz[PP auf seine Kinder
Most adpositional phrases are head-initial (as German has mostly prepositions rather than postpositions), as in the following example, where ''auf'' comes before its complement ''den Tisch'':
:[PP [P auf] [DP den Tisch
German also has some postpositions, however (such as ''gegenüber'' "opposite"), and so adpositional phrases can also sometimes be head-final. Another example is provided by the analysis of the following sentence:
: sub>PP [DP das Dach[P hinauf">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_das_Dach.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP das Dach">sub>PP [DP das Dach[P hinauf
Like in English, determiner phrases and complementizer phrases in German are head-initial. The next example is of a determiner phrase, headed by the article ''der'':
:[DP [D der] [NP Mann
In the following example, the complementizer ''dass'' precedes the tense phrase which serves as its complement:
:[CP [C dass] [TP Lisa eine Blume gepflanzt hat
Sino-Tibetan: Chinese
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...
(whose syntax is typical of Chinese varieties
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
generally) features a mixture of head-final and head-initial structures. Noun phrases are head-final. Modifiers virtually always precede the noun they modify. For examples of this involving relative clauses, see .
In the case of strict head/complement ordering, however, Chinese appears to be head-initial. Verbs normally precede their objects. Both prepositions and postpositions are reported, but the postpositions can be analyzed as a type of noun (the prepositions are often called coverbs). For more details and examples of the relevant structures, see Chinese grammar. For a head-direction analysis of Chinese aspect phrases, see the theoretical section below.
Niger-Congo: Gbe
In Gbe, a mixture of head-initial and head-final structures is found. For example, a verb may appear after or before its complement, which means that both head-initial and head-final verb phrases occur. In the first example the verb for "use" appears after its complement: : sub>VP [DP àmí lɔ́[V zân">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_àmí_lɔ́.html" ;"title="sub>VP [DP àmí lɔ́">sub>VP [DP àmí lɔ́[V zân In the second example the verb precedes the complement: :[VP [V zán] [DP àmí lɔ́ It has been debated whether the first example is due to objectmovement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
to the left side of the verb or whether the lexical entry of the verb simply allows head-initial and head-final structures.
Tense phrases and aspect phrases are head-initial since aspect markers (such as ''tó'' and ''nɔ̀ '' above) and tense markers (such as the future marker ''ná'' in the following example, but that does not apply to tense markers shown by verb inflection) come before the verb phrase.
: sub>TP [T ná[VP xɔ̀ kɛ̀kɛ́">lt;sub>T<_sub>_ná.html" ;"title="sub>TP [T ná">sub>TP [T ná[VP xɔ̀ kɛ̀kɛ́
Gbe noun phrases are typically head-final, as in this example:
:[NP [KP Kɔ̀kú sín] [N ɖìdè
In the following example of an adjective phrase, Gbe follows a head-initial pattern, as the head ''yù'' precedes the intensifier ''tàùú''.
: sub>AP [A yù[Int tàùú">lt;sub>A<_sub>_yù.html" ;"title="sub>AP [A yù">sub>AP [A yù[Int tàùú
Gbe adpositional phrases are head-initial, with prepositions preceding their complement:
:[PP [P xlán] [DP Àsíbá
Determiner phrases, however, are head-final:
: sub>DP [NP àvɔ̀ àmàmú màtàn-màtàn[D ɖé
Complementizer phrases are head-initial:
:[CP [C ɖé] [TP Dòsà gb xwé ɔ̀ ɔ̀
Theoretical views
Tesnière: dependency grammar
The idea that syntactic structures reduce to binary relations was introduced by Lucien Tesnière in 1959 within the framework of dependency theory, which was further developed in the 1960s. Tesnière distinguished two structures that differ in the placement of the structurally governing element (head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
): centripetal structures, in which heads precede their dependent
A dependant is a person who relies on another as a primary source of income. A common-law spouse who is financially supported by their partner may also be included in this definition. In some jurisdictions, supporting a dependant may enab ...
s, and centrifugal structures, in which heads follow their dependents. Dependents here may include complements, adjuncts
In brewing, adjuncts are unmalted grains (such as corn, rice, rye, oats, barley, and wheat) or grain products used in brewing beer which supplement the main mash ingredient (such as malted barley). This is often done with the intention of cut ...
, and specifiers.
Greenberg: typology
Joseph Greenberg, who worked in the field of language typology, put forward an implicational theory of word order, whereby: *If a language has VO (verb-before-object) ordering, then it will also havepreposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s (rather than postpositions), and genitives and adjectives will be placed after the noun they modify.
*If a language has OV ordering, then it will also have postpositions, and genitives and adjectives will be placed before the noun they modify.
The first set of properties make heads come at the start of their phrases, while the second set make heads come at the end. However, it has been claimed that many languages (such as Basque) do not fulfill the above conditions, and that Greenberg's theory fails to predict the exceptions.
Lehmann: Fundamental Principle of Placement
Winfred P. Lehmann, expanding upon Greenberg's theory, proposed a Fundamental Principle of Placement (FPP) in 1973. The FPP states that the order of object and verb relative to each other in a language determines other features of that language's typology, beyond the features that Greenberg identified. Lehmann also believed that the subject is not a primary element of a sentence, and that the traditional six-order typology of languages should be reduced to just two, VO and OV, based on head-directionality alone. Thus, for example, SVO and VSO would be considered the same type in Lehmann’s classification system.Chomsky: principles and parameters
Noam Chomsky'sPrinciples and Parameters theory
Principles and parameters is a framework within generative linguistics in which the syntax of a natural language is described in accordance with general ''principles'' (i.e. abstract rules or grammars) and specific ''parameters'' (i.e. markers, sw ...
in the 1980s introduced the idea that a small number of innate principles are common to every human language (e.g. phrases are oriented around heads), and that these general principles are subject to parametric variation (e.g. the order of heads and other phrasal components may differ). In this theory, the dependency relation between heads, complements, specifiers, and adjuncts is regulated by X-bar theory, proposed by Jackendoff in the 1970s. The complement is sister to the head, and they can be ordered in one of two ways. A head-complement order is called a head-initial structure, while a complement-head order is called a head-final structure. These are special cases of Tesnière's centripetal and centrifugal structures, since here only complements are considered, whereas Tesnière considered all types of dependents.
In the principles and parameters theory, a head-directionality parameter is proposed as a way of classifying languages. A language which has head-initial structures is considered to be a head-initial language, and one which has head-final structures is considered to be a head-final language. It is found, however, that very few, if any, languages are entirely one direction or the other. Linguists have come up with a number of theories to explain the inconsistencies, sometimes positing a more consistent underlying order, with the phenomenon of phrasal movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
being used to explain the surface deviations.
Kayne: antisymmetry
According to the Antisymmetry theory proposed byRichard S. Kayne
Richard Stanley Kayne is Professor of Linguistics in the Linguistics Department at New York University.
Born in 1944, after receiving an A.B. in mathematics from Columbia College, New York City in 1964, he studied linguistics at the Massachus ...
, there is no head-directionality parameter as such: it is claimed that at an underlying level, all languages are head-initial. In fact, it is argued that all languages have the underlying order Specifier-Head-Complement. Deviations from this order are accounted for by different syntactic movement
Syntactic movement is the means by which some theories of syntax address discontinuities. Movement was first postulated by structuralist linguists who expressed it in terms of ''discontinuous constituents'' or ''displacement''. Some constituen ...
s applied by languages. Kayne argues that a theory that allows both directionalities would imply an absence of asymmetries between languages, whereas in fact languages fail to be symmetrical in many respects. Kayne argues using the concept of a probe-goal search (based on the ideas of the Minimalist program
In linguistics, the minimalist program is a major line of inquiry that has been developing inside generative grammar since the early 1990s, starting with a 1993 paper by Noam Chomsky.
Following Imre Lakatos's distinction, Chomsky presents minima ...
), whereby a head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
acts as a probe and looks for a goal, namely its complement. Kayne proposes that the direction of the probe-goal search must share the direction of language parsing and production. Parsing and production proceed in a left-to-right direction: the beginning of sentence is heard or spoken first, and the end of the sentence is heard or spoken last. This implies (according to the theory) an ordering whereby probe comes before goal, i.e. head precedes complement.
Some linguists have rejected the conclusions of the Antisymmetry approach. Some have pointed out that in predominantly head-final languages such as Japanese and Basque, the change from an underlying head-initial form to a largely head-final surface form would involve complex and massive leftward movement, which is not in accordance with the ideal of grammatical simplicity. Some take a "surface true" viewpoint: that analysis of head direction must take place at the level of surface derivations, or even the Phonetic Form (PF), i.e. the order in which sentences are pronounced in natural speech. This rejects the idea of an underlying ordering which is then subject to movement, as posited in Antisymmetry and in certain other approaches. It has been argued that a head parameter must only reside at PF, as it is unmaintainable in its original form as a structural parameter.
Some linguists have provided evidence which may be taken to support Kayne's scheme, such as Lin, who considered Standard Chinese sentences with the sentence-final particle ''le''. Certain restrictions on movement from within verb phrases preceding such a particle are found (if various other assumptions from the literature are accepted) to be consistent with the idea that the verb phrase has moved from its underlying position after its head (the particle ''le'' here being taken as the head of an aspect phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
). However, Takita (2009) observes that similar restrictions do not apply in Japanese, in spite of its surface head-final character, concluding that if Lin's assumptions are correct, then Japanese must be considered to be a true head-final language, contrary to the main tenet of Antisymmetry. More details about these arguments can be found in the Antisymmetry article.
Gradient classification
Some scholars, such as Tesnière, argue that there are no absolute head-initial or head-final languages. According to this approach, it is true that some languages have more head-initial or head-final elements than other languages do, but almost any language contains both head-initial and head-final elements. Therefore, rather than being classifiable into fixed categories, languages can be arranged on acontinuum
Continuum may refer to:
* Continuum (measurement), theories or models that explain gradual transitions from one condition to another without abrupt changes
Mathematics
* Continuum (set theory), the real line or the corresponding cardinal number ...
with head-initial and head-final as the extremes, based on the frequency distribution of their dependency directions. This view was supported in a study by Haitao Liu (2010), who investigated 20 languages using a dependency treebank-based method. For instance, Japanese is close to the head-final end of the continuum, while English and German, which have mixed head-initial and head-final dependencies, are plotted in relatively intermediate positions on the continuum.
Polinsky (2012) identified the following five head-directionality sub-types:
* Rigid head-final languages, including Japanese, Korean and Tamil;
* Non-rigid head-final languages, including Latin, German, Persian, Basque, Tsez and Avar;
* Clearly head-initial languages, including Irish, Malagasy, Tongan and most Mayan languages;
* "SVO/head-initial" languages, including Indonesian and Yucatec Mayan;
* "SVO sundry", including English, Russian, the Romance languages and Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The t ...
.
She identified a strong correlation between the head-directionality type of a language and the ratio of verbs to nouns in the lexical inventory. Languages with a scarcity of simple verbs tend to be rigidly head-final, as in the case of Japanese, whereas verb-rich languages tend to be head-initial languages.
See also
*Dependency grammar
Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesni ...
* Dependent-marking language
* Double-marking language
* Government (linguistics)
* Government and binding theory
* Head (linguistics)
*Head-driven phrase structure grammar Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) is a highly lexicalized, constraint-based grammar
developed by Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag. It is a type of phrase structure grammar, as opposed to a dependency grammar, and it is the immediate successor to ...
* Head-marking language
*Minimalist grammar
Minimalist grammars are a class of formal grammars that aim to provide a more rigorous, usually proof-theoretic, formalization of Chomskyan Minimalist program than is normally provided in the mainstream Minimalist literature. A variety of particula ...
* Transformational grammar
* Word order
* Zero-marking language
* Polish notation
Notes
Bibliography
* * * * * * Chomsky, Noam. (1981). '' Lectures on Government and Binding''. Foris Publications. * * * * * Dryer, Matthew S. (2009). The Branching Direction Theory of Word Order Correlations Revisited. In S. Scalise, E. Magni, & A. Bisetto (Eds.), ''Universals of Language Today'' (pp. 185–207). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Springer. * * * * * * * * Jackendoff, Ray. (1977). X Syntax: A Study of Phrase Structure. Cambridge: MIT Press. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Refend Linguistic typology Word order Generative syntax