What is the relation between a specifier and a determiner? The term specifier denotes a set position in a fixed schema, the X-bar schema In contrast, the term determiner denotes a specific word category The next illustration is from Wikipedia (X-bar theory): The spec marks the specifier position Often, a determiner occupies the specifier position (in the event that one is dealing with a noun phrase)
Is there a language whose syntactic structure accepts a specifier of a PP? In his syntax textbook, Richard Larson (2010: 346-7) suggests that measure phrases in PPs, e g “three miles” in “three miles down the road”, occupy the specifier of PP If that’s correct, English is a language that can have constituents in Spec,PP - though it doesn’t always
syntax - Which nodes are meant by the specifier of a null active V . . . The only VP specifier in the tree is the DP he, since that one is a sister to V', of which a "null active V" is the head, and also the DP machtes the requirement of being an "external argument in actives", because that one is the subject and therefore the external argument of the active VP
Can the first auxiliary verb be the specifier of a VP in the X-Bar . . . According to Wikipedia, an adverbial is an adjunct, not a specifier; but then it says that the specifier of a verb phrase is a quantifier, such as 'each' or 'all', which is lunacy -- those are appositives of the subject
syntax - Identify heads, specifiers, complements and adjuncts in this . . . I think the consensus is that until one controls the concepts of head, specifier, complement, and adjunct-- and can identify examples readily -- getting advice from anyone but your teacher about how they work in this string is not likely to be of any assistance Many people use these terms differently, or not at all, and therefore I suggest you
Whats the difference between a modifier and a complement? It is important for you to notice that notions such as modifier, complement, specifier, head are relative concepts A phrase is not just a modifier, it is a modifier of something, namely a modifier of the phrase it modifies
syntax - How can we distinguish complements from specifiers . . . Of course, the same can be said in reverse, where Phrase A could be the complement of Phrase B, or Phrase B could be the specifier of phrase A, but those symmetrical alternate examples can be satisfied by answers to their symmetrical counterparts (1) (2)
AdvP Merged in Spec XP or Adjoined to XP Ever since Larson (1988) 'shell theory' of phrase structure (a two-layered X-bar theory, at the time) became popular, in Chomskian grammars (P PT and then 'minimalist' ones) there has been a growing tendency, which eventually became standard doctrine, to place both arguments and adjuncts in specifier positions