|
In linguistics, the head of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic type of that phrase. For example, the head of the noun phrase ''boiling hot water'' is the noun ''water''. Analogously, the head of a compound is the stem that determines the semantic category of that compound. For example, the head of the compound noun ''handbag'' is ''bag'', since a handbag is a bag, not a hand. The other elements of the phrase or compound modify the head, and are therefore the head's ''dependents''.〔For a good general discussion of heads, see Miller (2011:41ff.).〕 Headed phrases and compounds are called ''endocentric'', whereas ''exocentric'' ("headless") phrases and compounds (if they exist) lack a clear head. Heads are crucial to establishing the direction of branching. Head-initial phrases are right-branching, head-final phrases are left-branching, and head-medial phrases combine left- and right-branching. ==Basic examples== Examine the following expressions: :::big red dog :::birdsong The word ''dog'' is the head of ''big red dog'', since it determines that the phrase is a noun phrase, not an adjective phrase. Because the adjectives ''big'' and ''red'' modify this head noun, they are its ''dependents''.〔Discerning head from dependent is not always easy. The exact criteria that one employs to identify the head of a phrase vary, and definitions of "head" have been debated in detail. See the exchange between Zwicky (1985, 1993) and Hudson (1987) in this regard.〕 Similarly, in the compound noun ''birdsong,'' the stem ''song'' is the head, since it determines the basic meaning of the compound. The stem ''bird'' modifies this meaning and is therefore dependent on ''song''. The ''birdsong'' is a kind of song, not a kind of bird. Conversely, a ''songbird'' is a type of bird, since the stem ''bird'' is the head in this compound. The heads of phrases like the ones here can often be identified by way of constituency tests. For instance, substituting a single word in place of the phrase ''big red dog'' requires the substitute to be a noun (or pronoun), not an adjective. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Head (linguistics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|