Relativized head

Definition
Relativized head is a notion proposed in DiSciullo &amp; Williams (1987) which replaces Williams' (1981a) notion of head. They define the notion 'relativized head' as in (i).

(i) The headF (= head with respect to the feature F) of a word is the rightmost element of the word marked for the feature F

The difference between the notions 'head' and 'relativized head' is far from trivial. The notion 'head' is an absolute notion, in the sense that one constituent of a complex word is marked as the head, and features marked on this constituent undergo Feature Percolation. The notion 'relativized head' entails that a constituent can be the head with respect to one particular feature, but a non-head with respect to another.

Example
If the rightmost constituent has the feature [+F] and [uG] (where [uG] means 'not marked for feature G'), and its lefthand sister constituent has the feature [+G], the righthand constituent is the relativized head with respect to the feature [F], whereas the lefthand constituent is the relativized head with respect to the feature [G]. As a consequence the Feature Percolation Conventions percolate up the feature [+F] from the righthand constituent and [+G] from the lefthand one.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics