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Righthand Head Rule

MORPHOLOGY: a principle proposed in Williams (1981a) which says that the righthand member of a morphologically complex word is the head of that word. This entails that the rightmost constituent determines all the properties of the whole. The RHR explains, among other things, the fact that the righthand member of compounds as well as the suffix of derived words determine uniquely the lexical category. EXAMPLE: Compare the following examples:

(i)  off_P + white_A	->  off white_A
     dry_A + dock_N	->  dry dock_N
     bar_N + tend_V	->  bar tend_V
(ii) fever_N + ish_A	->  feverish_A
     instruct_V +ion_N	->  destruction_N
     standard_N + ize_V	->  standardize_V

LIT.

Di Sciullo, A. M. and E. Williams (1987)
Selkirk, E. O. (1982a)
Williams, E. (1981a)