Re: Clitics

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Matt Pearson wrote:
> > Also, technically speaking, articles are not attached to the beginning
> > of the noun phrase.  They are *internal* to the noun phrase, albeit at
> > the left edge of the constituent.  Clitics like possessive -'s in English,
> > by contrast, are *external* to the noun phrase (at least on some
> > analyses).
>
> I really don't see how -'s is external to the noun phrase, while "the"
> isn't.
One of the theories about <'s> is that it really functions as a
determiner which has a specifier noun (the noun being possessed).
It just happens to be phonologically and morphologically closely
related to that word -- but syntactically isn't part of it.  It works
like this:

            NP
          /     \
        /        \
    Det        Nom
                    \
                     N

    the           man

According to this theory, the <'s> goes outside of this as a
determiner for the NP.