The principle of dependency length minimization makes conditional predictions, which do not imply that placing heads at the center is optimal in general (Ferreri-Cancho, 2015) . In the context of just one head and at least one dependent, the principle predicts that the central placement of the head is optimal when there are at least two dependents but that placement is irrelevant if there is only one dependent. In the context of an initial verb followed by two arguments (e.g., subject and object), the principle predicts that the heads of the verbal arguments are placed first with respect to their dependents, e.g., articles or adjectives follow the head noun, whereas, for a final verb, the prediction is that the heads of the arguments are placed last with respect to their dependents, e.g. articles or adjectives precede the head noun<cite> (Ferrer-i-Cancho, 2015)</cite> .