X-bar Theory1.4 Specifiers
So far we have been concerned with heads and their complements. In this section we
turn to specifiers. As we said above the specifier position is a little more complex than
the complement for reasons which we will turn to in section 2.
In general we will find that specifiers are occupied by certain arguments of a
predicate or by elements with a certain specified property which relates to the head.
This second class of specifiers can only be discussed after a good deal more of the
grammar has been established, so we will put these to one side for the moment.
The argument specifiers tend to be subjects, though again this statement will need
much qualification as we proceed. One class of verb for which this is most
straightforward are those which have theme subjects:
(26) a a letter arrived
b the ship sank
c Garry is in the garden
Simplifying somewhat, we might claim that these arguments sit in the specifier of
the VP:
(27) VP VP VP
DP V' DP V' DP V'
a letter V the ship V Garry V PP
arrived sank is in the garden
These arguments are nearly always DPs and so, unlike the complement they do not
seem to be restricted differently by different heads in terms of their category. This is
reflected in the lexical entries of the relevant heads in the fact that subcategorised
elements are always complements and subjects are never subcategorised for. Of
course, there are restrictions placed on these specifier arguments from the predicate,
but of a more semantic nature. The verb assigns a -role to these arguments and so the
argument must be semantically compatible with the -role it has to bear. For example:
(28) the complete works of Shakespeare arrived
The most natural interpretation for this sentence would be to interpret the subject the
complete works of Shakespeare as a book or set of manuscripts, i.e. something
concrete rather than the artistic pieces of work themselves. Only if one was speaking
about arriving in a metaphorical sense could one claim that one of Shakespeare’s plays
had ‘arrived’ after he had written it.
This is different from the situation facing complements where there are both semantic
and categorial restrictions placed on them. For example consider the following difference:
(29) a Arthur asked what the time was
Arthur asked the time
b Wonder woman wondered what the time was
*Wonder woman wondered the time