the head preceding its dependent(s), although there are also head-final dependencies in the tree. For instance, the determiner-noun and adjective-noun dependencies are head-final as well as the subject-verb dependencies. Most other dependencies in English are, however, head-initial as the tree shows. The mixed nature of head-initial and head-final structures is common across languages. In fact purely head-initial or purely head-final languages probably do not exist, although there are some languages that approach purity in this respect, for instance Japanese. The following tree is of the same sentence from Kafka's story. The glossing conventions are those established by Lehmann. One can easily see the extent to which Japanese is head-final: A large majority of head-dependent orderings in Japanese are head-final. This fact is obvious in this tree, since structure is strongly ascending as speech and processing move from left to right. Thus the word order of Japanese is in a sense the opposite of English. Head-marking vs. dependent-marking It is also common to classify language morphology according to whether a phrase is head-marking or dependent-marking. A given dependency is head-marking, if something about the dependent influences the form of the head, and a given dependency is dependent-marking, if something about the head influences the form of the dependent. For instance, in the English possessive case, possessive marking (s) appears on the dependent (the possessor), whereas in Hungarian possessive marking appears on the head noun: Prosodic head In a prosodic unit, the head is the part that extends from the first stressed syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. A high head is the stressed syllable that begins the head and is high in pitch, usually higher than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. For example: The ↑bus was late. A low head is the syllable that begins the head and is low in pitch, usually lower than the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable. The ↓bus was late. See also Branching Constituent Dependency grammar Head-driven phrase structure grammar Head directionality parameter Head-marking language Phrase Phrase structure grammar Notes References Chomsky, N. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Corbett, G., N. Fraser, and S. McGlashan (eds). 1993. Heads in Grammatical Theory. Cambridge University Press. Hudson, R. A. 1987. Zwicky on heads. Journal of Linguistics 23, 109–132. Miller, J. 2011. A critical introduction to syntax. London: Continuum. Nichols, J. 1986. Head-marking