Branching (linguistics)

In linguistics, branching refers to the shape of the parse trees that represent the structure of sentences.^[1] Assuming that the language is being written or transcribed from left to right, parse trees that grow down and to the right are right-branching, and parse trees that grow down and to the left are left-branching. The direction of branching reflects the position of heads in phrases, and in this regard, right-branching structures are head-initial, whereas left-branching structures are head-final.^[2] English has both right-branching (head-initial) and left-branching (head-final) structures, although it is more right-branching than left-branching.^[3] Some languages such as Japanese and Turkish are almost fully left-branching (head-final). Some languages are mostly right-branching (head-initial).