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left-branching

American

[left-bran-ching, -brahn-] / ˈlɛftˌbræn tʃɪŋ, -ˌbrɑn- /

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).

Etymology

Origin of left-branching

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

left-branching

But if the branch is bushy, or if one branch is packed inside another, a left-branching structure can give the reader a headache.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

The full English menu, though, offers them a few left-branching options.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023