Meanings
- not comparablehuman sciencesHaving the head (primary morpheme) at the end of a phrase.
1 more example
A fascinating generalization across languages is that if a language has head-initial verb-object word order, then its head-argument word order rules tend to be head-initial, as in English and in lots of other subject-verb-object (SVO) languages such as Mandarin, Spanish, French, or Swahili. But if a language has object-verb word order, then all of its head-argument word order rules tend to be head-final.
2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Length Minimization as a Constraint on Grammars” (chapter 5), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 140
Cite this entry
head-final. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/head-final
“head-final.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/head-final. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “head-final,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/head-final.
Source: head-final on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.