Board Thread:Linguistics/@comment-5178246-20130106163543/@comment-2040889-20130106185247

The "type" of a conlang determines its typology: whether it's isolating (like Mandarin Chinese), agglutinating (like Turkish) or synthetic (like Russian). It can have a few variants (olygosynthetic and polysynthetic, but these are a bit more complex).

The "head direction"  of a conlang determines how it branches when it comes to syntax. It's best shown with examples:

English (head-initial and SVXO): John laid the book on the table. German (head-initial but SVOX): Johannes hat das Buch auf den Tisch gelegt. (John has the book on the table laid) Japanese (head-final and SOVX): Jōn-wa tēburu-no ue-ni hon-o oite-ru. (John table of top book has-put). If that's confusing, do tell and I'll explain further.

Edit: The "X" token in those word orders above denotes the subordinate arguments (such as "I want to eat")