Glossary of Linguistic Terms

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.

Glossary Hierarchy