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In
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, head directionality is a proposed
parameter A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when ...
that classifies languages according to whether they are head-initial (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 ani ...
of a
phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
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 ani ...
is the element that determines the category of a phrase: for example, in a
verb phrase In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntax, syntactic unit composed of a verb and its argument (linguistics), arguments except the subject (grammar), subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quic ...
, 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 mainly 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
and Gbe, examples of both types of head directionality 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 Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...
and its
complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...
# the order of
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence ''I met a man who wasn ...
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 as adjuncts. 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 In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntax, syntactic unit composed of a verb and its argument (linguistics), arguments except the subject (grammar), subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quic ...
(VP) is a
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
, and the complement(s) are most commonly
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...
s of various types. The ordering here is related to one of the chief questions in the
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
typology of languages, namely the normal order of subject, verb and object within a
clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...
(languages are classed on this basis as SVO, SOV, VSO, etc.). * Noun Phrase: the head of a
noun phrase A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently ...
(NP) is a
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
; various kinds of complementizer phrases (CPs) and adpositional phrases (PPs) can be complements. * Adjective Phrase: the head of an
adjective phrase An adjective phrase (or adjectival phrase) is a phrase whose Head (linguistics), head is an adjective. Almost any grammar or syntax textbook or dictionary of linguistics terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar way, e.g. Kesner Bland ( ...
(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. Some grammars use the ...
or adpositional phrase (PP). * Adpositional Phrase: the head of an
adpositional phrase An adpositional phrase is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or circumposition) as he ...
(PP) is an
adposition Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...
. 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). The complement is a determiner phrase (or noun phrase, depending on analytical scheme followed). * Determiner Phrase: the head of a
determiner phrase In linguistics, a determiner phrase (DP) is a type of phrase headed by a determiner such as ''many''. Controversially, many approaches take a phrase like ''not very many apples'' to be a DP, Head (linguistics), headed, in this case, by the determin ...
(DP) is a
determiner Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...
. 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), a 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 In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a complementizer or complementiser (list of glossing abbreviations, glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause in ...
, like ''that'' in English. In some cases the C head is
covert Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controver ...
(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 Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...
representing tense; the complement is a verb phrase. * Aspect Phrase: the head of an aspect phrase (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 mainly 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 A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence ''I met a man who wasn ...
(or
complementizer phrase In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a 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 adjuncts rather than complements. Adjectives themselves may be preceded by adjuncts, namely
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
s, 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 adposition">preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
s rather than postpositions: :''a majority of eligible voters'' :[PP [P of] [DP eligible voters On the
determiner phrase In linguistics, a determiner phrase (DP) is a type of phrase headed by a determiner such as ''many''. Controversially, many approaches take a phrase like ''not very many apples'' to be a DP, Head (linguistics), headed, in this case, by the determin ...
(DP) view, where a
determiner Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...
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'' : sub>DP [D any[NP book">lt;sub>D<_sub>_any.html" ;"title="sub>DP [D any">sub>DP [D any[NP book English also has head-initial
complementizer phrase In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a 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'' :[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 The past is the set of all Spacetime#Definitions, events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human ...
) tense marker, and precedes its complement, the verb phrase ''not swim''. In the following, ''has'' is a ( perfect) aspect marker; again it appears before the verb (phrase) which is its complement. :''John has arrived'' : sub>AspP [Asp has[VP arrived">lt;sub>Asp<_sub>_has.html" ;"title="sub>AspP [Asp has">sub>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), a 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 linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntax, syntactic unit composed of a verb and its argument (linguistics), arguments except the subject (grammar), subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quic ...
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 adposition">preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
(P) ''on'' precedes its DP complement ''your desk''. :''You know that the girl will put a picture on your desk.'' :a. CP: [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'' ] sub>DP ''a picture'' sub>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 A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of both constituents are positioned before the dependent. 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 (note that "prime minister" is unusually being ''head-final''): sub>CP [DP [VP ">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>CP sub>CP [DP [VP Grammatical number">Classifiers and partitive">sub>DP ">sub>CP [DP [VP Grammatical number">Classifiers and 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 ][VP 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[DPVP[V ">lt;sub>DP<_sub>.html" ;"title="sub>CP[DP">sub>CP[DPVP[V DP] In Indonesian a noun can be followed by another grammatical modifier, 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 + Modifying noun: sub>N * Head noun: sub>N + Modifying noun: sub>N + Determiner sub>D * Head noun: sub>N+ Modifying noun: sub>N * Head noun: sub>N+ Modifying noun: sub>N + Determiner phrase sub>DP * Head noun: sub>N + Modifying noun: sub>N


Head-final languages


Japanese

Japanese is an example of a strongly head-final language. This can be seen in verb phrases and tense phrases: the verb ( in the example) comes after its complement, while the tense marker () comes after the whole verb phrase which is its complement. sub>TP [VP [DP [V ">lt;sub>VP<_sub>_[<sub>DP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>TP [VP [DP ">sub>TP [VP [DP [V [T Nouns also typically come after any complements, as in the following example where the PP may be regarded as a complement: sub>NP [PP [N ">lt;sub>PP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>NP [PP ">sub>NP [PP [N Adjectives also follow any complements they may have. In this example the complement of quantity, ("twenty meters"), precedes the head adjective ("tall"): [AP [Q ] [A Japanese uses postpositions rather than prepositions, so its adpositional phrases are again head-final: sub>PP [DP [P ">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP ">sub>PP [DP [P Determiner phrases are head-final as well: [DP [NP ] [D A complementizer (here , 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 [C ">lt;sub>TP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>CP [TP ">sub>CP [TP [C


Turkish

Turkish language">Turkish is an agglutinative, head-final, and left-branching language that uses a SOV word order. As such, Turkish complements and adjuncts typically precede their head under neutral prosody, and
adposition Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...
s 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, accusative case marking suffixes in Turkish indicate that it is the direct object of a verb. Additionally, while some kinds of definite determiners and 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. sub>TP [VP T ">lt;sub>VP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>TP [VP ">sub>TP [VP T


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. [VP [DP ][V


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: sub>DP [NP D ">lt;sub>NP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>DP [NP ">sub>DP [NP D


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: [PP [DP ][P


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 In traditional grammar, an independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself. Independent clauses can be joined ...
can be moved around and constituents of phrasal categories can occur outside of the 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 Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
, 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 is directly following the verb, and the subject is at the end of the sentence.


Mixed word-order languages


German

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, 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 a
subordinate clause A dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, subclause or embedded clause, is a certain type of clause that juxtaposes an independent clause within a complex sentence. For instance, in the sentence "I know Bette is a dolphin", the claus ...
. In the following example, the non-finite verb phrase is head-final, whereas in the tensed main clause (headed by the
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
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 ''achètera'', mea ...
), 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 [T ">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>TP [DP ">sub>TP [DP [T [VP [DP ] [V ] Noun phrases containing complements are head-initial; in this example the complement, the CP , follows the head noun . :[NP [N ] [CP Adjective phrases may be head-final or head-initial. In the next example the adjective () follows its complement (). : sub>AP [PP [A ">lt;sub>PP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>AP [PP ">sub>AP [PP [A However, when essentially the same adjective phrase is used predicative expression">predicatively rather than attributively, it can also be head-initial: :[AP [A ] [PP Most adpositional phrases are head-initial (as German has mostly prepositions rather than postpositions), as in the following example, where comes before its complement : : sub>PP [P [DP ">lt;sub>P<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>PP [P ">sub>PP [P [DP German also has some postpositions, however (such as "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 [P ">lt;sub>DP<_sub>_.html" ;"title="sub>PP [DP ">sub>PP [DP [P 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 : :[DP [D ] [NP In the following example, the complementizer precedes the tense phrase which serves as its complement: :[CP [C ] [TP


Chinese

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...
(whose syntax is typical of
Chinese varieties There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China ...
generally) features a mixture of head-final and head-initial structures. Noun phrases are head-final. Modifiers virtually always precede the noun they modify. 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).


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 object movement 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 In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
) 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


Dependency grammar

The idea that syntactic structures reduce to binary relations was introduced by
Lucien Tesnière Lucien Tesnière (; May 13, 1893 – December 6, 1954) was a prominent and influential French linguist. He was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan on May 13, 1893. As a senior lecturer at the University of Strasbourg (1924) and later professor at the ...
in 1959 within the framework of
dependency theory Dependency theory is the idea that resources flow from a " periphery" of poor and exploited states to a " core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. A central contention of dependency theory is that poor states ...
, 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 ani ...
): centripetal structures, in which heads precede their dependents, and centrifugal structures, in which heads follow their dependents. Dependents here may include
complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...
s,
adjuncts In brewing, adjuncts are unmalted grains (such as barley, wheat, maize, rice, rye, and oats) 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.


Typology

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...
, who worked in the field of language typology, put forward an implicational theory of
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
, whereby: *If a language has VO (verb-before-object) ordering, then it will also have
prepositions Adpositions are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositions (which precede their complemen ...
(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 Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
) do not fulfill the above conditions, and that Greenberg's theory fails to predict the exceptions.


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.


Principles and parameters

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
's Principles and Parameters theory 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 In linguistics, X-bar theory is a model of phrase structure and a theory of syntactic category formation that proposes a universal schema for how phrases are organized. It suggests that all phrases share a common underlying structure, regardless ...
, 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 In finance, a derivative is a contract between a buyer and a seller. The derivative can take various forms, depending on the transaction, but every derivative has the following four elements: # an item (the "underlier") that can or must be bou ...
order, with the phenomenon of phrasal movement being used to explain the surface deviations.


Antisymmetry

According to the
Antisymmetry In linguistics, antisymmetry, is a theory of syntax described in Richard S. Kayne's 1994 book ''The Antisymmetry of Syntax''. Building upon X-bar theory, it proposes a universal, fundamental word order for phrases (Branching (linguistics), branchin ...
theory proposed by Richard S. Kayne, 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 Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...
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 ani ...
acts as a probe and looks for a goal, namely its
complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...
. Kayne proposes that the direction of the probe-goal search must share the direction of language
parsing Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a String (computer science), string of Symbol (formal), symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal gramm ...
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 Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, 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 In the field of linguistics, specifically in syntax, phonetic form (PF), also known as phonological form or the articulatory-perceptual (A-P) system, is a certain level of mental representation of a linguistic expression, derived from surface stru ...
(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 . 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 here being taken as the head of an aspect phrase). 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 In linguistics, antisymmetry, is a theory of syntax described in Richard S. Kayne's 1994 book ''The Antisymmetry of Syntax''. Building upon X-bar theory, it proposes a universal, fundamental word order for phrases (Branching (linguistics), branchin ...
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 a continuum 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 In linguistics, a treebank is a parsed text corpus that annotates syntactic or semantic sentence structure. The construction of parsed corpora in the early 1990s revolutionized computational linguistics, which benefitted from large-scale empi ...
-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 Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
and
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
; * Non-rigid head-final languages, including
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, Tsez and Avar; * Clearly head-initial languages, including Irish, Malagasy, Tongan and most
Mayan languages The Mayan languages In linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and a ...
; * "SVO/head-initial" languages, including Indonesian and Yucatec Mayan; * "SVO sundry", including English,
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
, the
Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
and
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
. 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 Grammar, grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of Phrase structure grammar, phrase structure) and that can be traced back prima ...
*
Dependent-marking language A dependent-marking language has grammatical markers of agreement and case government between the words of phrases that tend to appear more on dependents than on heads. The distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking was first explored ...
*
Double-marking language A double-marking language is one in which the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on both the heads (or nuclei) of the phrase in question, and on the modifiers or dependents. Pervasive ...
*
Government (linguistics) In grammar and theoretical linguistics, government or rection refers to the relationship between a word and its dependents. One can discern between at least three concepts of government: the traditional notion of case government, the highly specia ...
*
Government and binding theory Government and binding (GB, GBT) is a theory of syntax and a phrase structure grammar in the tradition of transformational grammar developed principally by Noam Chomsky in the 1980s. This theory is a radical revision of his earlier theories and was ...
*
Head (linguistics) In linguistics, the head or nucleus of a phrase is the word that determines the syntax, syntactic category of that phrase. For example, the head of the noun phrase "boiling hot water" is the noun (head noun) "water". Analogously, the head of a c ...
*
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 t ...
*
Head-marking language A language is head-marking if the grammatical marks showing agreement between different words of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads (or nuclei) of phrases, rather than on the modifiers or dependents. Many languages employ both head-marki ...
*
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 In linguistics, the minimalist program is a major line of inquiry that has been develo ...
*
Transformational grammar In linguistics, transformational grammar (TG) or transformational-generative grammar (TGG) was the earliest model of grammar proposed within the research tradition of generative grammar. Like current generative theories, it treated grammar as a sys ...
*
Word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
*
Zero-marking language A zero-marking language is one with no grammatical marks on neither the dependents (or the modifiers) nor the heads (or the nuclei) that show the relationship between different constituents of a phrase. Pervasive zero marking is very rare, b ...
*
Polish notation Polish notation (PN), also known as normal Polish notation (NPN), Łukasiewicz notation, Warsaw notation, Polish prefix notation, Eastern Notation or simply prefix notation, is a mathematical notation in which Operation (mathematics), operator ...


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Refend Linguistic typology Word order Generative syntax