existential quantifier operator exocentric compound bahuvrihi exocentric construction [Grk éxō ‘outside’] (also non-headed construction)

Term introduced by Bloomfield (1933) indicating a syntactic construction which, in contrast to the more common endocentric construction, neither belongs to the same form class or category as any of its constituents, nor shows the same distribution. Thus the exocentric construction She sells fresh fish as a total construction is neither a noun phrase (she, fresh fish) nor a verb phrase (to sell fresh fish). Other exocentric constructions are prepositional phrases (at the marketplace), constructions with auxiliary and participle (has sold) or copula ( copular verb) and predicate noun (is a salesperson). The term ‘exocentric’ is regularly defined in contrast to endocentric, i.e. its literal translation (‘to have a center outside of itself) is misleading.