A grammatical construction (for instance, a phrase or compound) is said to be endocentric if it fulfils the same linguistic function as one of its parts, and exocentric if it does not. The distinction reaches back at least to Bloomfield 's work of the 1930s, who based it on terms by Pāṇini and Patañjali in Sanskrit grammar.
What is the difference between endocentric and exocentric?
An endocentric construction is also known as a headed construction, where the head is contained "inside" the construction. An exocentric construction consists of two or more parts, whereby the one or the other of the parts cannot be viewed as providing the bulk of the semantic content of the whole.
What is the relation between the members of an endocentric compound?
The relation between the members of an endocentric compound can be schematized as 'AB is (a) B'. One may also ask, what are compound words examples? Compound words are formed when two or more words are joined together to create a new word that has an entirely new meaning.
What is an exocentric compound?
In morphology, an exocentric compound is a compound construction that lacks a head word: That is, the construction as a whole is not grammatically and/or semantically equivalent to either of its parts. Also called a headless compound. Contrast with endocentric compound (a construction that fulfills the same linguistic function as one of its parts).
Is the whole an exocentric noun?
Since the whole is unlike either of its parts, it is exocentric. In other words, since the whole is neither a noun (N) like Hannibal nor a verb phrase (VP) like destroyed Rome but rather a sentence (S), it is exocentric.
What is an exocentric compound?
Exocentric compounds. Exocentric compounds are compounds in which either the morphosyntactic properties or the semantic category of the whole word do not correlate with one of its constituents. For instance, a dikbuik fat-belly fat person is not a type of belly, but a person with a fat belly.
What is an endocentric compound?
Endocentric compound is a type of compound in which one member functions as the head and the other as its modifier, attributing a property to the head. The relation between the members of an endocentric compound can be schematized as 'AB is (a) B'.
What is an endocentric compound examples?
The English compounds newspaper, textbook, classroom, handbag and bookstore are examples of endocentric compounds. The central meaning of each one is carried by the second word of the compound. For example, a newspaper is a kind of paper and a textbook is a kind of book. These compounds are hyponyms of their heads.
What are some examples of endocentric?
' The head word in the endocentric construction is 'board' as the colors merely modify the meaning of the head. Other examples of endocentric constructions in compounds include the 'saw' in 'hacksaw' and the 'brush' in 'hairbrush.
What is exocentric word group?
Exocentric definition ĕksō-sĕntrĭk. Of or relating to a group of syntactically related words, none of which is functionally equivalent to the function of the whole group. For example, none of the words in the phrase on the table is an adverb, yet they combine to form a phrase having adverbial function.
What is headed and headless compounds?
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.
What is egocentric and exocentric?
These models seem to imply that egocentric representations underlie motor behaviour, because pointing requires egocentric localization of a target, whereas exocentric representations support cognitive, reflective judgements, as indicated by the bold arrows in Figure 1.
Is Fisherman endocentric or exocentric?
endocentric compoundfisherman is an endocentric compound.
Is Egghead an exocentric compound?
Either way, when a compound includes the head it is called endocentric – the centre is internal. In exocentric compounds the head is missing or external: a bigmouth is not a type of mouth and an egghead is not a type of head – both refer to people.
What is an exocentric compound?
In morphology, an exocentric compound is a compound construction that lacks a head word: That is, the construction as a whole is not grammatically and/or semantically equivalent to either of its parts. Also called a headless compound. Contrast with endocentric compound (a construction that fulfills the same linguistic function as one of its parts).
What is the definition of exocentricity?
Linguist Valerie Adams illustrates exocentricity in this way: " The term exocentric describes expressions in which no part seems to be of the same kind as the whole or to be central to it. The noun change-over is exocentric, and so are ' verb-complement ' noun compounds like stop-gap, along with adjective + noun and noun + noun compounds like ...
What is the difference between endocentric and exocentric constructions?
In theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between endocentric and exocentric constructions. A grammatical construction (for instance, a phrase or compound) is said to be endocentric if it fulfils the same linguistic function as one of its parts, and exocentric if it does not. The distinction reaches back at least to Bloomfield 's work ...
What is an exocentric construction?
An exocentric construction consists of two or more parts, whereby the one or the other of the parts cannot be viewed as providing the bulk of the semantic content of the whole. Further, the syntactic distribution of the whole cannot be viewed as being determined by the one or the other of the parts.
What does it mean when a dependency tree is exocentric?
The one exocentric division disappears in the corresponding dependency tree: Dependency positions the finite verb as the root of the entire tree, which means the initial exocentric division is impossible. This tree is entirely endocentric.
Why are big houses endocentric?
They are endocentric because the one word in each case carries the bulk of the semantic content and determines the grammatical category to which the whole constituent will be assigned. The phrase big house is a noun phrase in line with its part house, which is a noun.
Which two trees show the same structures in a dependency-based grammar?
The first three trees show the distinction in a constituency-based grammar, and the second two tre es show the same structures in a dependency-based grammar: The upper two trees on the left are endocentric since each time, one of the parts, i.e. the head, projects its category status up to the mother node.
Is a coordinate structure endocentric or exocentric?
Coordinate structures like these do not lend themselves to an endocentric analysis in any clear way, nor to an exocentric analysis. One might argue that the coordinator is the head of the coordinate structure, which would make it endocentric.
Overview
In theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between endocentric and exocentric constructions. A grammatical construction (for instance, a phrase or compound) is said to be endocentric if it fulfils the same linguistic function as one of its parts, and exocentric if it does not. The distinction reaches back at least to Bloomfield's work of the 1930s, who based it on terms by Pāṇini and Patañjali in Sanskrit grammar. Such a distinction is possible only in phrase structure grammars (c…
Endocentric construction
An endocentric construction consists of an obligatory head and one or more dependents, whose presence serves to modify the meaning of the head. For example:
1. [NP [A big] [N house]]
2. [VP [V sing] [N songs]]
3. [AP [Adv very] [A long]]
Exocentric construction
An exocentric construction consists of two or more parts, whereby the one or the other of the parts cannot be viewed as providing the bulk of the semantic content of the whole. Further, the syntactic distribution of the whole cannot be viewed as being determined by the one or the other of the parts. The classic instance of an exocentric construction is the sentence (in a phrase structure grammar). The traditional binary division of the sentence (S) into a subject noun phrase (NP) …
The distinction in dependency grammars
The endo- vs. exocentric distinction is possible in phrase structure grammars (= constituency grammars), since they are constituency-based. The distinction is hardly present in dependency grammars, since they are dependency-based. In other words, dependency-based structures are necessarily endocentric, i.e. they are necessarily headed structures. Dependency grammars by definition were much less capable of acknowledging the types of divisions that constituency en…
Representing endo- and exocentric structures
Theories of syntax (and morphology) represent endocentric and exocentric structures using tree diagrams and specific labeling conventions. The distinction is illustrated here using the following trees. The first three trees show the distinction in a constituency-based grammar, and the second two trees show the same structures in a dependency-based grammar:
The upper two trees on the left are endocentric since each time, one of the parts, i.e. the head, pr…
In languages
The Chinese language is known for having rich compounds. Linguists often classify compound verbs in Chinese into five types: Subject-Predicate 主謂結構 (SP), Verb-Object 述賓結構 (VO), Verb-Complement 述補結構 (VC), Coordinative 並列結構 (VV), and Endocentric 偏正結構. The Coordinative, Verb-Complement, and Endocentric types are also known as Parallel, Verb-Resultative, and Modifi…
A note about coordinate structures
While exocentric structures have largely disappeared from most theoretical analyses of standard sentence structure, many theories of syntax still assume (something like) exocentric divisions for coordinate structures, e.g.
[Sam] and [Larry] arrived. She [laughed] and [cried]. [Should I] or [should I not] go to that conference?
Notes
1. ^ Matthews (1981:147) provides an insightful discussion of the endo- vs. exocentric distinction. See Falk (2001:43ff., 49ff.) as well.
2. ^ See Bloomfield (1933), 194–196 and 235–237.
3. ^ Wujastyk (1982).