Specifiers in Generative Grammar
David Adger, Bernadette Plunkett, George Tsoulas, Susan Pintzuk · 1999
Abstract Chomsky (1970), in developing X-bar theory, introduces the term specifier to refer to an element (or a number of elements) that combines with a bar-level projection of a particular category in the base component of the grammar: [Spec, N’] is then the determiner, [Spec, V’] is the auxiliary, and [Spec, A’] is the set of degree modifiers. Jackendoff (1977) made Chomsky’s proposal more explicit and paved the way for what became the standard view of specifier as an abbreviation over structural positions. This extended Chomsky’s insight that possessives in nominals and subjects in clauses had similar structural positions to specifiers, with the precise nature of the element in the specifier position determined by the lexical properties of the head element.