Exocentric Construction
Definition:
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.
Examples:
(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.
See Also:
Source:
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.