right-branching

American  

[rahyt-bran-ching, -brahn-] / ˈraɪtˌbræn tʃɪŋ, -ˌbrɑn- /

adjective

Linguistics.

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

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Etymology

Origin of right-branching

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

In a right-branching tree, the most complicated phrase inside a bigger phrase comes at the end of it, that is, hanging from the rightmost branch.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Even when the sentence structure gets more complicated, a reader can handle the tree, because its geometry is mostly right-branching.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

These front-loaded modifiers can be useful in qualifying a sentence, in tying it to information mentioned earlier, or simply in avoiding the monotony of having one right-branching sentence after another.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

The following twenty-five-word phrase is splayed along a diagonal axis, indicating that it is almost entirely right-branching: flattish trees, each composed of simpler phrases joined side by side.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker