Syntactic Theory
The Specifier
Properties of the specifier:
- not a complement
- for verbs: the subject
- for nouns: the determiner
- for adjectives, adverbs, prepositions: normally no specifier
- in English: The specifier is to the left of the head.
- There is at most one specifier.
- The head determines whether there is a specifier or not (proper names (no specifier) vs. count nouns (obligatory specifier in the singular); finite verbs (overt specifier) vs. infinite verbs (no overt specifier))
- The head determines the interpretation of the specifier (i.e. it can assign a semantic role to the specifier)
Related pages:
- main page on general grammatical functions
- other grammatical functions: head, complement, modifier
- in the clause: subject
Categories: Glossary