VLC001 - Demo Course

The Complementizer Phrase (CP) is the highest constituent of a sentence. Its specifier (Spec) position is reserved for all those elements that occur sentence-initially, for example, wh-elements in wh-questions, or relative pronouns. The complementizer position (Comp) is reserved for complementizers and conjunctions.

In PDE, Spec and Comp cannot be filled at the same time. In other languages, such as Polish, or in earlier periods of English, however, this is no problem:

Middle English:
.... wol we us avyse [ whom that ] ... be our justise.

The rule system
1.	CP	⇨	Spec C'
2.	C'	⇨	Comp IP