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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.
Most other dependencies in English are, however, head-initial as the tree shows. The mixed nature of head-initial and head-final structures is common across languages. In fact purely head-initial or purely head-final languages probably do not exist, although there are some languages that approach purity in this respect, for instance Japanese.
The direction of branching reflects the position of heads in phrases, and in this regard, right-branching structures are head-initial, whereas left-branching structures are head-final. [2] English has both right-branching (head-initial) and left-branching (head-final) structures, although it is more right-branching than left-branching. [3]
Whether a language is head-initial or head-final is regarded as a parameter which is either on or off for particular languages (i.e. English is head-initial, whereas Japanese is head-final). Principles and parameters was largely formulated by the linguists Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik. Many linguists have worked within this framework, and for ...
Prepositional and postpositional phrases differ by the order of the words used. Languages that are primarily head-initial such as English predominantly use prepositional phrases whereas head-final languages predominantly employ postpositional phrases. Many languages have both types, as well as circumpositional phrases.
Whether a language has primarily prepositions or postpositions is seen as an aspect of its typological classification, and tends to correlate with other properties related to head directionality. Since an adposition is regarded as the head of its phrase, prepositional phrases are head-initial (or right- branching ), while postpositional phrases ...
And to rub salt in the wounds, Head crunches the final ball of the over to the ropes for another four. Nine off the over and Australia need under 100 now. Australia 135-3 (25) Labuschagne 27, Head ...
The same sort of explanation works for the DG tree; it is both head-final (because the head saw follows its dependent she) and it is head-initial (because the head saw precedes its dependent him). When a structure is both head-initial and head-final like this, the head appears in a medial position. That doesn't seem so difficult to understand.