Endocentric

Endocentric

In linguistics, an endocentric construction is a grammatical construction thatfulfills the same linguistic function as one of its constituents. An endocentric construction consists of an obligatory head and one or more optional, dependent words, whose presence serves to narrow the meaning of the head. For example, the phrase 'lion house' is an endocentric construction. In this case, 'house' is the head, because it carries the bulk of the semantic content and determines the grammatical category to which the whole constituent will be assigned. Likewise, 'lion' here is the dependent, specifying what sort of house is being referred to in the whole construction. In more formal terms, the distribution of an endocentric construction is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to one of its member constituents, which serves as the centre, or head, of the whole. An endocentric construction is also known as a headed construction, where the head is contained "inside" the construction.

ee also

* Exocentric
* Endocentric environment


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  • endocentric — ☆ endocentric [en΄dō sen′trik ] adj. Linguis. designating or of a construction which in its totality has the same syntactic function as one or more of its constituents (Ex.: the phrase ham and eggs has the same syntactic function as ham or eggs) …   English World dictionary

  • endocentric — /en doh sen trik/, adj. Gram. (of a construction or compound) having the same syntactic function in the sentence as one of its immediate constituents. Cold water is an endocentric construction, since it functions as would the noun water.… …   Universalium

  • endocentric — /ˌɛndoʊˈsɛntrɪk/ (say .endoh sentrik) adjective having the same function in a sentence as one of its immediate constituents. Cold water is an endocentric construction since it functions in the same way as the noun water. Compare exocentric …  

  • endocentric — adjective fulfilling the grammatical role of one of its constituents when three blind mice serves as a noun it is an endocentric construction • Ant: ↑exocentric • Topics: ↑grammar …   Useful english dictionary

  • Endocentric environment — In the field of user interfaces, an endocentric environment refers to a virtual reality or some other immersive environment which is introduced directly into the user s senses (for example by using VR goggles).Systems which display a virtual… …   Wikipedia

  • endocentric — adjective (of a phrase, or compound word) fulfilling the same grammatical role a one of its constituents e.g. the noun houseboat because boat is also a noun See Also: exocentric …   Wiktionary

  • endocentric — en·do·centric …   English syllables

  • endocentric — en•do•cen•tric [[t]ˌɛn doʊˈsɛn trɪk[/t]] adj. gram. (of a construction or compound) having the same syntactic function in a sentence as its chief constituent, as cold water, which functions as would the noun water Compare exocentric • Etymology:… …   From formal English to slang

  • English compound — A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme.English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word classes or the semantic relationship of their components.Compound nounsMost English compound nouns are noun phrases …   Wikipedia

  • Ogea language — Ogea Erima Spoken in Papua New Guinea Region Madang Province Ethnicity Ogea people Native speakers …   Wikipedia

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