Name : Syafiq Khairi

Class : TBI – 5/ 4th Semester

Students ID : 0304202139

Answer these following questions!

1. What is head, complements and modifiers?

2. What are the differences?
3. Give an example for each!

Answer :

1. Heads is the essence of sentence or the word that controls the meaning in a sentence
or phrase. Heads is also words that can stand alone and have meaning. In linguistics, the
head of a phrase is the word that determines the syntactic type of that phrase.

Modifiers are one or more words that are under the control of the head. A modifier is so
called because it is said to modify ( change meaning of ) another element in the structure,
on which it is dependent.

Complement is the mandatory part of sentence. If there is no complement, the meaning

will be strange. Because it is mandatory, the placement must be close to the predicate

2. The difference are :

 Head: A lexical or phrasal element that is essential in forming a phrase.
 Complement: A phrasal element that a head must combine with or a head select. These
include direct object, indirect object, predicative complement, and oblique complement.
 Modifier: A phrasal element not selected by the verb functions as a modifier to the head
phrase.

3. Head:
 Boiling a hot water
 Steal a handbag
Modifiers:
 This is the red ball
 Only the dog was saved

Complement:

 We bought a book yesterday in bookstore

 Devi sings opera majestically