In Section 4.2 we saw that in many languages, heads have the same fixed position relative to their complements across all phrases. For instance, in many languages, a VP, PP and CP would all be consistently either head-initial or head-final: Welsh is a good example of the former, and Japanese the latter. However, not all languages display consistent ordering, either within phrases of the same category (for instance, within VPs) or across phrases of different categories (for instance, VPs might have a different order to PPs).
Task: Study the three data sets in (1) to (3) and work out what the examples in each set show about head placement in the language illustrated. You will need to figure out for yourself the relevant phrase in each example: in most cases, it’s only a phrase within the clause that is relevant to this exercise, rather than the whole clause. State what phrase type the salient phrase is in each example (e.g. VP, PP, AP, CP etc.) and say what it shows relative to the other data in the set.
(1) Dutch
a. Kleiner dan mij zijn niet veel mensen.
smaller than me are not many people
‘Not many people are smaller than me.’
b. Ik heb de toekomst gezien.
I have the future seen
‘I have seen the future.’