Head
SYNTAX: °X-bar theory.
MORPHOLOGY: notion introduced in morphology by Williams (1981a) to
account for the fact that a complex word shares most, if not all, properties
with one of its constituents. The constituent that determines the properties
of the complex word as a whole is called the head of that word. The head of a
word is either the rightmost or the leftmost morpheme of a word.
This generalization lies at the heart of the so-called
°Righthand Head Rule.
EXAMPLE: the English word withstand is a strong verb just
like stand. Hence, stand is the head of the complex word
withstand. Also
°relativized head, and
°Relativized Righthand
Head Rule.
LIT.
Williams (1981a),
Di Sciullo & Williams (1987),
Spencer (1991).
Head Movement
SYNTAX: movement of a head, an X0, out of its projection to another
head-position.
EXAMPLE: in questions a finite verb may move to C0. In (i) the
auxiliary will (an I, see °INFL) is moved to C0,
leaving a °trace in I.
(i) [CP What [C willi] [IP John [I ti] buy]]?Head movement obeys the °Head Movement Constraint.
Head Movement Constraint (HMC)
SYNTAX: a constraint originally formulated in Travis (1984:131):
(i) An X0 may only move into the Y0 which properly governs itThe HMC basically places a limit on the distance over which a head may be moved (°head movement). In effect, the HMC prohibits skipping a governing head position, as in (ii): buy moves to COMP in disregard of its being properly governed only by the I0 will.
(ii) * [CP What [C buyi] [IP John [I will] [VP ti]]]?Recently, it has been argued that the HMC can be derived from more general principles, such as the °ECP.
Heavy-NP shift
SYNTAX: displacement of a so-called heavy NP (an NP which is
prosodically 'heavy', i.e. contains a large amount of phonological material)
to the right edge of the sentence:
(i) a They sent [that book that only got good reviews in the New York Times] to Mary
b They sent t to Mary [that book that only got good reviews in the New York Times]
Heavy-NP shift presumably is a so-called stylistic rule, i.e. a rule which does
not belong to °core grammar. It may be
related to °scrambling since it is not a
case of °A-movement.
High
PHONOLOGY: a feature which characterizes sounds that are produced by
raising the tongue body from its neutral position.
EXAMPLE: the vowels [i] and [u] differ from [a], in that the former
two are specified as [+high] and the latter as [-high].
LIT.
Chomsky & Halle (1968).
Homonymy
SEMANTICS: the phenomenon that one form has two or more meanings
and/or syntactic functions.
EXAMPLE: the Dutch word bank is homonymous, since it can
refer to (a) a couch, and (b) a bank.
Equivalent to °ambiguity.
Homorganic segment
PHONOLOGY: a segment which has the same place of articulation as a
neigbouring segment.
EXAMPLE: in the English word input, pronounced as [imput], the
°nasal /n/ has changed from
°dental to
°labial under the influence of the
following /p/; [m] and [p] are homorganic: they are both
°bilabial.
Host
MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX: a word or phrase to which morphemes or
°clitics are attached.
EXAMPLE: in the English noun phrase John's book the noun
John functions as the host for the possessive morpheme 's.
Hyperonymy
SEMANTICS: the semantic relation between a more general word and a
more specific word. Tree is a hyperonym of oak, because the
set of trees includes the set of oaks. Hyperonymy is the converse of
°hyponymy.
Hyponymy
SEMANTICS: the semantic relation between a more specific word and a
more general word. Dog is a hyponym of animal, because all
dogs are also animals, but not vice versa. Hyponymy is the converse of
°hyperonymy.