Suggested Answers for Check Questions

When the possessor is a lexical DP in a DP, the morpheme ’s is attached to it. This morpheme attaches to phrases rather than heads (e.g. John’s book, the man living next door’s dog). However, when the possessor is a pronoun, it is the pronoun itself that bears the possessive feature. Possessors and determiners seem to be in complementary distribution in English (e. g. *the his book/*his the book) which suggests that they both occupy the D head position. A possessor like the man living next door’s can be replaced by the possessive pronoun his. If possessive pronouns are in the D head position, then the man living next door’s should likewise occupy that position. However, this is a phrase to which the ’s morpheme is attached and phrases cannot occur in head positions. The phrase can be substituted by the possessive pronoun, hence the possessive pronouns should also have the status of a phrase. There is an available phrasal position, however: [Spec, DP]. Furthermore, there is a head position available for the ’s morpheme which does not behave like a phrase in any respect: D. Thus, DP possessors occupy the specifier position in a DP, while ’s the head position. Although as a bound morpheme it will always attach to the phrase in DP, it is this element that is in complementary distribution with other types of determiners.