In linguistics, an endocentric construction is one that fulfills the same grammatical role as one of its constituents. For example, if a zoo has a "lion house", that phrase is endocentric since it functions as a noun, as are its two constituent words. Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... This article is about grammar from a linguistic perspective. ... A zoo. ... A phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes. ...
More formally, an endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to one of its constituents, which serves as the centre, or head, of the whole. Hence an endocentric construction is also known as a headed construction.
In linguistics, an endocentric construction is a grammatical construction that fulfills the same linguistic function as one of its constituents.
An endocentric construction consists of an obligatory head and one or more optional, dependent words, whose presence serve to narrow the meaning of the head.
In more formal terms, the distribution of an endocentric construction is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to one of its member constituents, which serves as the centre, or head, of the whole.