Talk:Specifier
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Two comments: First, specifiers only precede heads in certain languages. A specifier is in "phrase-lead" position, but the phrase-lead may be after the head, or whatever. Second, the examples "the, no, some, every, John's and my mother's" are all what I would call heads of determiner phrases rather than specifiers to noun phrases. Maybe the model I'm operating off of is different from the author(s) of this article. Honestly, all I know about this is what I've learned in Dr. Alan Manning's Theoretical Syntax class, and I'm not quite sure how the theories he subscribes to relate to other theories out there.
Anyway, using the notation of <specifier> head (complement) {modifier} [sub-clause] t == head trace <o> == operator trace, here would be my example of a specifier:
Spec of an Inflection Phrase (IP-spec): <Those folks> have ( eaten (the food) {already} )
Spec of a Verb Phrase: <Those folks> have (<all> eaten (the food) {already} )
Spec of a Complementizer Phrase: <Why> did [ <you> t eat (the food) {already} <o> ] ?
Any comments on how this fits in with where the article currently stands? --RockRockOn 15:58, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
