A head-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads (or nuclei) of the phrase in question, rather than the modifiers or dependents. In a noun phrase, the head is the main noun and the dependents are the adjectives, the possessives, and the relative clauses. In a verb phrase the head is the verb and the dependents are its arguments (subject, object, etc.). An example of such a language is Nahuatl.
| Phrase type | Head | Dependents | Global distribution map (WALS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noun phrase | Main noun | adjectives, possessives, relative clause | Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases |
| Verb phrase | Verb | verb arguments | Marking in the Clause |
Head-marked possessive noun phrases are common in the Americas and Melanesia and infrequent elsewhere. Dependent-marked noun phrases have a complementary distribution: frequent in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and New Guinea, the only area where the two types overlap appreciably. Double-marked possession is rare but found around the Eurasian periphery (such as Finnish), in the Himalayas, and along the Pacific coast of North America. Zero-marked possession is also uncommon with instances mostly found near the equator, but does not form any true clusters.[1]
The head-marked clause is common in the Americas, Australia, and New Guinea and very rare elsewhere. The dependent-marked clause is common in Eurasia and northern Africa, sparse in South America, and rare in North America. In New Guinea it clusters in the Eastern Highlands, and in Australia in the south, east, and interior, with the very old Pama-Nyungan family. Double marking is moderately well attested in the Americas, Australia, and New Guinea, and the southern fringe of Eurasia (chiefly in the Caucasian and Himalayan mountain enclaves), and particularly favored in Australia and the westernmost Americas. The zero-marked object is, unsurprisingly, common in Southeast Asia and western Africa, two centers of morphological simplicity, but also very common in New Guinea and moderately common in eastern Africa and Central and South America, among languages of average or higher morphological complexity.[2]
The Pacific Rim distribution of head marking may reflect population movements beginning tens of thousands of years ago and founder effects. Traces in Himalayan or Caucasian enclaves may be remnants of typology preceding spreads of interior Eurasian language families. The dependent-marking type is found everywhere but rare in the Americas, possibly another result of founder effects. In the Americas, all four types are found along the Pacific coast but in the East only head-marking is common. Whether the diversity of types along the Pacific coast reflects great age or overlay of more recent Eurasian colonizations on an earlier American stratum remains to be seen.[3]