node (n.)

A term used in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR to refer to any point in a TREE from which one or more BRANCHES emanate. A ‘family’ metaphor is often used in the discussion of nodes. A node which immediately DOMINATES another is called a ‘mother’ node; the dominated node is its ‘daughter’; if two nodes are directly dominated by the same node, they are ‘sister’ nodes. A node which is separated from its mother in a derivation is said to have been ‘orphaned’. The topmost node of the tree diagram is the ‘root’. Nodes which do not dominate other CATEGORIES (i.e. they are at the bottom of the tree) are terminal nodes or leaf nodes; nodes which do dominate other categories are non-terminal nodes.

The notion has achieved special status in various models of feature geometry.