408:. The dependent-marking type is found everywhere but rare in the Americas, possibly another result of founder effects. In the Americas, all four types are found along the Pacific Coast, but in the East, only head-marking is common. Whether the diversity of types along the Pacific Coast reflects a great age or an overlay of more recent Eurasian colonizations on an earlier American stratum remains to be seen.
274:, or vice versa, and it has been argued that the subject rather than the verb is the head of a clause so "head-marking" is not necessarily a coherent typology. Still, languages that are head-marking in both noun and verb phrases are common enough to make the term useful for typological description.
111:
Heads and dependents are identified by the actual hierarchy of words, and the concepts of head-marking and dependent-marking are indicated with the arrows. Subject-verb agreement, shown in the tree on the left, is a case of head-marking because the singular subject
103:
160:
The distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking shows the most in noun phrases and verb phrases, which have significant variation among and within languages.
361:
and
Himalayan mountain enclaves), and it is particularly favored in Australia and the westernmost Americas. The zero-marked object is unsurprisingly common in
310:, the only area in which both types overlap appreciably. Double-marked possession is rare but found in languages around the Eurasian periphery such as
353:, and rare in North America. In New Guinea, it clusters in the Eastern Highlands and in Australia in the south, east, and interior with the very old
75:. There are, however, a few types of agreement in English that can be used to illustrate those notions. The following graphic representations of a
357:
family. Double-marking is moderately well attested in the
Americas, Australia, and New Guinea, and the southern fringe of Eurasia (chiefly in the
124:, the head of the clause. The determiner-noun agreement, shown in the tree in the middle, is a case of dependent-marking because the plural noun
501:
is dedicated in part to documenting the distribution of head-marking and dependent-marking in noun and verb phrases among the world's languages.
71:
The concepts of head-marking and dependent-marking are commonly applied to languages that have richer inflectional morphology than
345:, Australia, New Guinea, and the Bantu languages but is very rare elsewhere. The dependent-marked clause is common in Eurasia and
439:
389:
498:
180:
488:
Dependency grammar trees similar to the ones that are shown can be found in, for instance, Ágel et al. (2003/6).
294:
and infrequent elsewhere. Dependent-marked noun phrases have a complementary distribution and are frequent in
586:
140:, shown in the tree on the right, is also an instance of dependent-marking because the head preposition
423:
48:
400:
has traces in the
Himalayas, and there are Caucasian enclaves, both of which are perhaps remnants of
370:
92:
270:
Languages may be head-marking in verb phrases and dependent-marking in noun phrases, such as most
428:
52:
28:
102:
460:
327:
283:
405:
84:
555:Ágel, V., L. Eichinger, H.-W. Eroms, P. Hellwig, H. Heringer, and H. Lobin (eds.) 2003/6.
8:
445:
401:
358:
60:
44:
433:
418:
287:
88:
40:
36:
248:
397:
311:
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72:
381:
and South
America, among languages of average or higher morphological complexity.
393:
378:
346:
271:
206:
137:
56:
374:
366:
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simplicity, but it is also very common in New Guinea and moderately common in
580:
350:
323:
319:
230:
557:
Dependency and
Valency: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research.
354:
282:
Head-marked possessive noun phrases are common in the
Americas, Melanesia,
541:
521:
510:
455:
385:
242:
219:
188:
80:
307:
202:
315:
303:
198:
16:
Grammar where inflection "agrees" with primary components of phrases
562:
Nichols, J. 1986. "Head-marking and dependent-marking grammar," in
342:
330:
possession is also uncommon, with instances mostly found near the
87:
involve agreement. The three tree structures shown are those of a
331:
299:
24:
128:
requires the dependent determiner to appear in its plural form,
450:
338:
295:
258:
235:
212:
76:
32:
59:
in 1986 and has come to be widely used as a basic category in
390:
population movements beginning tens of thousands of years ago
144:
requires the dependent pronoun to appear in its object form,
253:
225:
193:
55:. The concept of head/dependent-marking was proposed by
511:WALS - Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
578:
542:WALS - Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
155:
47:. Many languages employ both head-marking and
277:
51:, and some languages double up and are thus
39:(or nuclei) of phrases, rather than on the
334:, but it does not form any true clusters.
388:distribution of head-marking may reflect
259:Marking in the Clause: Dependent-marking
571:Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time.
136:. The preposition-pronoun agreement of
579:
440:Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time
573:Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
522:WALS - Locus of Marking in the Clause
406:interior Eurasian language families
236:Marking in the Clause: Head-marking
13:
499:World Atlas of Language Structures
213:Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
14:
598:
116:requires the inflectional suffix
101:
535:
526:
515:
504:
491:
482:
473:
1:
549:
156:Noun phrases and verb phrases
120:to appear on the finite verb
66:
31:between different words of a
132:, not in its singular form,
7:
411:
148:, not in its subject form,
91:, as opposed to those of a
10:
603:
559:Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
424:Dependent-marking language
404:preceding the spreads of
278:Geographical distribution
179:Global distribution map (
35:tend to be placed on the
467:
93:phrase structure grammar
429:Double-marking language
284:Afro-Asiatic languages
461:Zero-marking language
85:prepositional phrase
587:Linguistic typology
532:See Nichols (1992).
479:See Nichols (1986).
446:Linguistic typology
359:Caucasian languages
61:linguistic typology
569:Nichols, J. 1992.
419:Dependency grammar
288:status constructus
89:dependency grammar
369:, two centers of
341:is common in the
264:
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49:dependent-marking
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544:
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337:The head-marked
318:, and along the
292:Turkic languages
207:relative clauses
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394:founder effects
379:Central America
347:Northern Africa
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272:Bantu languages
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138:case government
69:
57:Johanna Nichols
17:
12:
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5:
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566:62, 1, 56-119.
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375:Eastern Africa
367:Western Africa
363:Southeast Asia
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231:verb arguments
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109:
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68:
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53:double-marking
27:marks showing
19:A language is
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2:
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371:morphological
368:
364:
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351:South America
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329:
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324:North America
321:
320:Pacific Coast
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570:
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355:Pama-Nyungan
349:, sparse in
336:
281:
269:
159:
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145:
141:
133:
129:
125:
121:
117:
113:
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70:
21:head-marking
20:
18:
456:Verb phrase
386:Pacific Rim
328:Zero-marked
243:Verb phrase
220:Verb phrase
203:possessives
189:Noun phrase
170:Phrase type
81:noun phrase
25:grammatical
550:References
308:New Guinea
245:(theory B)
222:(theory A)
199:adjectives
176:Dependents
67:In English
45:dependents
316:Himalayas
314:, in the
304:Australia
41:modifiers
29:agreement
581:Category
564:Language
412:See also
402:typology
343:Americas
83:, and a
398:Kusunda
332:equator
312:Finnish
300:Eurasia
249:Subject
73:English
23:if the
451:Phrase
339:clause
306:, and
296:Africa
290:) and
209:, etc.
126:houses
122:cheats
77:clause
33:phrase
468:Notes
254:verbs
194:Nouns
130:these
37:heads
497:The
434:Head
392:and
384:The
377:and
365:and
226:Verb
181:WALS
173:Head
142:with
134:this
114:John
79:, a
322:of
146:him
43:or
583::
396:.
326:.
302:,
298:,
205:,
201:,
183:)
152:.
150:he
118:-s
95::
63:.
286:(
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