page_title: Head-directionality parameter
section_title: Japanese
hierarchical_section_title: Head-directionality parameter / Particular languages / Japanese
caption_attribution_description: English: head final np in japanese
context_page_description: In linguistics, head directionality is a proposed parameter that classifies languages according to whether they are head-initial or head-final. The head is the element that determines the category of a phrase: for example, in a verb phrase, the head is a verb.
  Some languages are consistently head-initial or head-final at all phrasal levels. English is considered to be strongly head-initial, while Japanese is an example of a language that is consistently head-final. In certain other languages, such as German and Gbe, examples of both types of head direction occur. Various theories have been proposed to explain such variation.
  Head directionality is connected with the type of branching that predominates in a language: head-initial structures are right-branching, while head-final structures are left-branching.
context_section_description: Japanese is an example of a strongly head-final language. This can be seen in verb phrases and tense phrases: the verb (tabe in the example) comes after its complement, while the tense marker (ru) comes after the whole verb phrase which is its complement.
  ringo-o   tabe-ru
  apple-ACC eat-NONPAST
  "eat an apple"
  [TP [VP [DP ringo-o] [V tabe]] [T ru]]
  Nouns also typically come after any complements, as in the following example where the PP New York-de-no may be regarded as a complement:
  John-no  kinoo-no      New York-de-no  koogi
  John-GEN yesterday-GEN New York-in-GEN lecture
  "John's lecture in New York yesterday"
  [NP [PP New York-de-no] [N koogi]]
  Adjectives also follow any complements they may have. In this example the complement of quantity, ni-juu-meetoru ("twenty meters"), precedes the head adjective takai ("tall"):
  Kono biru-wa      ni-juu-meetoru takai
  this building-TOPIC two-ten-meter  tall
  "This building is twenty meters taller."
  [AP [Q ni-juu-meetoru] [A takai]]
  Japanese uses postpositions rather than prepositions, so its adpositional phrases are again head-final:
  Boku-ga Takasu-mura-ni    sunde-iru
  I-NOM   Takasu-village-in live-PRES
  "I live in Takasu village."
  [PP [DP Takasu-mura] [P ni]]
  Determiner phrases are head-final as well:
  dare mo
  person any
  "anyone"
  [DP [NP dare] [D mo]]
  A complementizer (here to, equivalent to English "that") comes after its complement (here a tense phrase meaning "Mary did not swim"), thus Japanese complementizer phrases are head-final: 
  Mary-ga  oyog-ana-katta-to
  Mary-NOM swim-NEG-PAST-that
  "that Mary did not swim"
  [CP [TP Mary-ga oyog-ana-katta] [C to]]
caption: Japanese NP structure
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