In linguistics, the head of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic category and core meaning of the entire phrase. Every phrase has one head, and other words in the phrase (called dependents or modifiers) serve to expand or specify the head.
Examples by Phrase Type
- Noun Phrase (NP): “the old book” → head = book
- Verb Phrase (VP): “quickly ran away” → head = ran
- Adjective Phrase (AdjP): “very happy” → head = happy
- Prepositional Phrase (PP): “in the garden” → head = in
Why It Matters
Identifying the head helps linguists analyze sentence structure, understand grammatical relationships, and build accurate syntactic trees. It’s a foundational concept in both theoretical and applied linguistics.
Further Reading
For more on phrase structure, consider exploring resources on phrase structure grammar or introductory syntax textbooks like Carnie’s Syntax: A Generative Introduction.