Exocentric Construction
Exocentric Construction
An exocentric construction is a construction that does not contain any head element that is capable of being a syntactically adequate substitution for the whole construction.
(English)
Prepositional phrase
- Neither the component preposition nor the noun phrase may substitute for the whole prepositional phrase.
Clause
- No single element of the clause may substitute for the whole.
Page/s: 60
Source: Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985
Quirk, Randolph, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik. 1985.A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.
Page/s: 60
Source: Pei and Gaynor 1954
Pei, Mario A., and Frank Gaynor. 1954.A dictionary of linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library.
Page/s: 80
Source: Hartmann and Stork 1972
Hartmann, R.R.K., and F.C. Stork. 1972.Dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Applied Science.
Page/s: 114
Source: Crystal 1985
Crystal, David. 1985.A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 2nd edition. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Related terms
- RT⇆ Head
- RT⇆ Postpositional Phrase
- RT⇆ Prepositional Phrase
