Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Why the Noun is not the Head of the DP

This same problem dogs the assumption that determiners are specifiers: the specifier
position is a phrasal one, but a determiner does not appear to be more than a word.
The assumption that the determiner is the head of the phrase, on the other hand,
captures its position perfectly: it precedes the noun because the noun heads its
complement and heads precede their complements in English. Comparing the two
options, then, it seems that the one in which the determiner is the head is the more
straightforward:

(15) a DP b

D' NP

D NP D? N'

the troublemaker the N

troublemaker

Another problem that arises if we assume that determiners are not heads of phrases
is that they do make a contribution to the whole phrase. In chapter 1 we spent some
time discussing properties of determiners (section 3.5.2), pointing out that a major
contribution determiners make to the phrases that contain them is the definiteness–
indefiniteness distinction:

(16) a a house
b the house

The phrase in (16a) is indefinite while that in (16b) is definite, obviously as a
consequence of the determiner. The noun is the same in both cases and therefore does
not seem to contribute to this distinction. But if the determiner is not the head of the
phrase, how does it project this property to it? Projection, we showed in the previous
chapter, is a property of heads, not adjuncts or specifiers so the fact that determiners do
project properties to the phrase is an argument in favour of treating them as heads.
Next, consider the status of the pronoun. If this is a determiner heading a DP, its
status is quite straightforward; it is simply a head which is the solitary element in the
phrase:

(17) DP

D'

D

her

This is nothing unusual and we find similar things elsewhere: