Editing Head-marking language (section)

{{Short description|Grammar where inflection "agrees" with primary components of phrases}}

A language is '''head-marking''' if the [[grammar|grammatical]] marks showing [[Agreement (linguistics)|agreement]] between different words of a [[phrase]] tend to be placed on the [[Head (linguistics)|heads]] (or nuclei) of phrases, rather than on the [[Modifier (grammar)|modifiers]] or [[Dependent (grammar)|dependents]]. Many languages employ both head-marking and [[dependent-marking language|dependent-marking]], and some languages double up and are thus [[Double-marking language|double-marking]]. The concept of head/dependent-marking was proposed by [[Johanna Nichols]] in 1986 and has come to be widely used as a basic category in [[linguistic typology]].<ref>See Nichols (1986).</ref>