How to determine if a pre-head dependent of a noun is a complement or a modifier


These examples are from CGEL*.



a linguistics student


a first-year student



CGEL says 'linguistics' is a complement of the noun 'student', whereas 'first-year' is a modifier of the noun 'student'.


How exactly do you determine the former is a complement and the latter is a modifier?


Also, in the following examples of my own choosing, are the words in bold complements or modifiers of the respective subsequent nouns? And how do you reach your conclusion?



a college student


a police station


a tax bill



*The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Pullum and Huddleston (p439)




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