left-branching

[left-bran-ching, -brahn-]

adjective Linguistics.

(of a grammatical construction) characterized by greater structural complexity in the position preceding the head, as the phrase my brother's friend's house; having most of the constituents on the left in a tree diagram (opposed to right-branching).

Origin of left-branching

First recorded in 1960–65

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018