Head (linguistics)

About: Head (linguistics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2540 publications have been published within this topic receiving 29023 citations. The topic is also known as: nucleus.

How nominal compounds are modified by two adjectives

Abstract: Basing itself on a corpus of one thousand complex NPs, this study investigates the relationships that two attributive adjectives contract with the constituents of nominal compounds of varying size in English (e.g. new basic safety standards). Essentially, there are four logically possible relationships: (i) both adjectives modify the nominal head, (ii) both adjectives modify the nominal modifier, (iii) the first adjective modifies the head and the second adjective the modifier and (iv) the first adjective modifies the modifier and the second adjective the head (crossed modification). While options (i) and (iii) are strongly represented in the data, crossed modification is not at all present. Across all compound sizes, at least three factors shape the empirical patterns: a functional factor whereby major heads are more easily singled out than minor heads, which in turn are more available than modifiers; a structural factor whereby more deeply embedded constituents are less available than more independent constituents; and a proximity effect which encourages the modification of the first noun by the second adjective. There may be an additional saturation effect which discourages the modification of one noun by two adjectives. On the face of it, the non-occurrence of crossed modification may be connected to the well-known ban on crossing association lines. However, despite its descriptive adequacy, this principle is unconvincing. Instead, a functional explanation is proposed which centres on the possibility of working out modification relationships. Initial steps are taken towards developing a model of when (and why) the no-crossing constraint is inviolable, violable or non-existent

The body in anatomy: Looking at “head” for the mind-body link in Chinese

Abstract: This chapter presents a linguistic study of the Chinese body-part terms for the “head” and its parts, looking at their major metonymic and metaphorical extensions that constitute a unique linguistic pattern embedded in Chinese culture but, at the same time, display some possibly universal experiences derived from the common characteristics and functions of the human body. That is, the linguistic phenomena studied reflect the embodied nature of cognition as situated in the Chinese cultural context. The linguistic data show that our body, with its parts and their functions contributing to an operating system as a whole, serves as a semantic and cognitive template for our abstraction and imagination. In analyzing the linguistic evidence, the study applies an analytical instrument called a Decompositional Approach to Metaphorical Compound Analysis (DAMCA). It is hoped that this analytical tool can show in some detail how universal experiences with the body and culturally-constructed understandings of the body interact resulting in culturally-situated embodiment in human language and cognition. Ning Yu: Pennsylvania State University

-So- and -No-: Aged parents in new garb

Abstract: In this article the use of the formatives -so- and -no- is investigated in words like usokhaya ‘head of the household’ (< ikhaya ‘home’), uSobantu ‘Father of the people’ (< abantu ‘people’), uNomkhubulwane ‘Princess of the rain/harvest’ (< khubula ‘to rereap, resow’), and unompempe ‘referee’ (< impempe ‘whistle’). I also look at the way in which these formatives have been treated by scholars, debate their status as compound nouns, and examine the relationship between marking for sex and noun classes 1(a) and 3(a). The specific use of these morphemes in the formation of personal names and clan-names, as opposed to common nouns, is also investigated. Finally, I look at the productivity of these formatives in the developing Zulu language, particularly in relationship to adopting words from other languages.